Health IT

Looking forward with Rock Health’s funding roundup. Watch telehealth and crowdfunding

Rock Health kicked off 2015 by releasing the 2014 digital health funding roundup we discussed earlier this week. Digital health continues to be one of the hottest spaces in venture capital. Rock’s tracking of deals $2 million and higher is most telling when looking at which sectors are getting the money. Review the year-to-year rankings. […]

By Chris Seper on January 01, 2015

Rock Health kicked off 2015 by releasing the 2014 digital health funding roundup we discussed earlier this week. Digital health continues to be one of the hottest spaces in venture capital. Rock’s tracking of deals $2 million and higher is most telling when looking at which sectors are getting the money. Review the year-to-year rankings. There are some pretty obvious trends about what’s going to spike in 2015.

Rock Health calls out personalized medicine for its arrival in the ranking’s top 6. But telemedicine, which in many ways is more of a purely health-tech space than personalized medicine, is also an obvious choice for bigger investment growth in 2015. Even though it was an up-and-down regulatory year for telehealth (and that will truly impact investment in that space), 2015 will be better. Rock Health, in its blog post on the latest report, seems to agree.

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As we look forward to 2015 and beyond, three categories experienced significant growth–and we’re optimistic about how these digital health companies can help improve care while reducing costs. Telemedicine and digital therapies are redefining what is considered care and how it gets delivered. By leveraging technologies, both healthcare professionals and care treatments can be more widely distributed and accessible to those in need. Moreover, as healthcare reform continues to change the reimbursement environment, payer administration tools will become key to helping stakeholders navigate the healthcare system (and get paid).

The report also brings up an interesting question: what is the future and effectiveness of crowdfunding in digital health? The number of campaigns grew and some of the larger crowdfunding outlets loosened rules to give more access to healthcare companies. But the success rates dropped – most notably on the healthcare-focused MedStartr.

Is that simply a further shakeout when it comes to crowdfunding? Will 2015 better define what crowdfunding can do for innovation in healthcare?