Five Key Insights on Digital Health from the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference

VCBeat previously introduced an overview of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference (for details, clickHere). At a recent panel discussion during a conference, CEOs of internet healthcare companies shared their perspectives on the healthcare industry. Below are five interesting insights on digital health presented by Stephanie Baum from MediCity.

If you control capital, you control data; and if you control data, you control products.

This may sound like a platitude, but it does not diminish the truthfulness of the statement. This is essentially the nature of the relationship between healthcare providers and internet healthcare companies. Internet healthcare companies leverage their technology to help providers deliver better medical services to patients. However, investors are able to influence the shaping of business models. As the industry shifts toward outcomes-based healthcare, data generated through internet healthcare tools will become increasingly critical to medical service delivery.

Do we need to discard the existing healthcare industry (or parts of it) to make it better?

A debate currently underway in the healthcare sector, particularly within the digital health industry, centers on whether it is better to tear down and rebuild the existing healthcare system or to improve upon its current foundation. Oscar, a health insurance startup founded last year, is striving to transform current healthcare delivery models through methods such as telemedicine. Joshua Kushner, the company’s co-founder and a former angel investor, stated that given the scale and scope of competitors, success is not guaranteed. However, the health insurance industry is indeed undergoing significant transformation, making the outcome of this competition highly anticipated. Correspondingly, Graham Gardner, co-founder and CEO of Kyruus, pointed out that although the healthcare industry is experiencing changes due to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the rise of digital health, the fact that physicians are the primary providers of medical services will not change in the short term. Therefore, entrepreneurs must include physicians in these discussions. He emphasized that his company is using web-based solutions to help physicians improve their work efficiency.

We already have sufficient medical big data; what we truly need is predictive analytics.

A compelling point was raised by Andrew Thompson, CEO of Proteus Digital Health. There is currently a reform underway among hospitals, insurance companies, and related healthcare organizations, aimed at leveraging analytical tools to better understand patient needs. However, how can such in-depth data analysis be conducted without sufficient data? Jeff Arnold, co-founder of ShareCare, stated that they are helping users build comprehensive patient profiles using their own information. They have provided a profiling model that takes into account the needs of both business-to-business and business-to-consumer interactions.

Data + Knowledge = Engagement

This may seem like another cliché, yet the healthcare industry is actively employing various strategies to substantiate its validity. Jeff Arnold points out that only by demonstrating to consumers how much they can save—both financially and in terms of health—by quitting smoking can we truly influence patient behavior.

This also applies to Proteus Digital Health, the company of another discussion participant, Andrew Thompson. The company’s digital health feedback system includes an ingestible sensor that transmits data, such as the drug’s effects on the patient, to a Bluetooth-enabled device. According to the company’s website, the sensor is made of edible materials, allowing patients to take it along with their medication. By gaining a better understanding of the body’s response to drugs and the underlying mechanisms, this approach is theoretically expected to enhance patient engagement, assist physicians in optimizing drug selection and dosing, and improve adherence.

In the Early Stages of a Startup, Profitability Can Be a Trap

Of course, while this is a general rule for most industries, it is particularly applicable to startups in the internet healthcare sector. Thompson points out that if internet healthcare startups obsess daily over how to achieve profitability, they will only harm themselves. What they truly need to focus on is attracting users and generating data to demonstrate that their technology is not only useful but also more effective than current solutions. Only after achieving these milestones will profitability become a straightforward matter.

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