The digital health sector is a hotbed of innovation and investment. But on a digital health panel discussion on Google hangout, entrepreneurs’ insights focused on some of the biggest challenges facing wider adoption of these technologies. Reimbursement, design and specifically design that fits in with patients’ lifestyles attracted some of the most stimulating exchanges.
You can check out the full discussion here.
When Investment Rhymes with Canada
Canada has a proud history of achievement in the areas of science and technology, and the field of biomanufacturing and life sciences is no exception.
The question of the best way to get traction with payers led to a helpful discussion on the benefits of working with insurers compared compared with entrepreneurs taking a different route to market.
@medcitynews @chrisseper We have relationships with the medical directors, CMIO’s, and CIO’s of many payers. #mcnhangout
— Toffleresque (@Toffleresque) March 26, 2014
@medcitynews @chrisseper The mistake I see #mhealth companies making is they assume a national market. Adoption is led at the state level.
— Toffleresque (@Toffleresque) March 26, 2014
Juliet Oberding, an entrepreneur and attorney who founded Predictably Well, talked about the merits of focusing on a local market rather than shooting for the national one right away. Some state and regional grants want recipients to work with local hospitals such as the California Health Foundation. It is also a useful way to show that you have traction with them. Apart from that, it’s also better to fail locally than on a national scale.
Ryan Beckland, the co-founder and CEO of Validic, made a quip about the reimbursement issue. “There’s a very big gulph between app makers and the insurers paying for them.”
TJ Parker, CEO and co-founder of PillPack, explained that it took the decision to open a pharmacy rather than simply build tools for pharmacists. “You need to be a provider to enable change…That is one angle to getting these technologies into the market in a more efficient way.” He also used Oscar Health as an example of a startup that tried to overcome the problem of reimbursement for many applications of telemedicine by becoming insurers themselves.
Making design meaningful
Oberding pointed out that app developers need to look beyond whether they can provide direct consumer access. They also need to consider what will make it meaningful for patients.
“What I am suggesting is [developers] need to consider the patients that are using the product not only in how they develop the product but consider how they’re going to get them interested in using [it]…. We have seen this with every type of app or pill…There is a part of the patient that really has to step up and advocate for themselves or be responsible for themselves.”
Clinical validation vs. consumer use
Parker also contrasted the clinical validation process of bringing new technology to healthcare with what end users actually need. Although developers need to prove clinical validation to get traction in healthcare, it may very well lack features that make it simple and easy for customers to use. “You can pull things out of consumer products and bring them into healthcare and over time you will see that they gain acceptance in mainstream healthcare.”
Photo from Flickr
