The Collision of Consumer Expectations and Clinical Care: Shaping a New Era of Digital Health

Mounting pressures on the U.S. healthcare system and evolving consumer expectations have fueled an increasing appetite for capital among internet healthcare startups, ushering in a new era of industrial innovation. Emerging business models and technological services are transforming the nature of social interaction; by reshaping consumer expectations, they ultimately improve health outcomes and bear witness to the profound disruption brought about by the digitalization of the healthcare industry.

Healthcare companies that integrate Social, Mobile, Analytics, Cloud, and Sensor technologies (SMACS) have raised billions of dollars in funding. The leading firms among them aim to connect products from one domain (such as “wearable devices”) with services from another (such as clinical consultation hotlines). According to a study by Accenture, the annual growth rate of funding for internet healthcare companies was 31% between 2008 and 2013, with total funding reaching $2.8 billion in 2013.

The following figure provides an intuitive overview of how the convergence of clinical and consumer expectations is ushering in a new era of internet healthcare solutions.

Compiled by Chen Xin; Edited by Mo Renying