Health IT

Healthcare deals I’d like to see in 2017: IBM buys Medidata, Comcast buys Doctor on Demand

Am I crazy or am I a futurist in the making? You decide!

IN SAPCE - UNDATED: This handout image of the giant, active galaxy NGC 1275, obtained August 21, 2008 was taken using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope?s Advanced Camera for Surveys in July and August 2006. It provides amazing detail and resolution of fragile filamentary structures, which show up as a reddish lacy structure surrounding the central bright galaxy. These filaments are cool despite being surrounded by gas that is around 55 million ?C. They are suspended in a magnetic field which maintains their structure and demonstrates how energy from the supermassive black hole hosted at the centre of the galaxy is transferred to the surrounding gas. (Photo by NASA/ESA via Getty Images)

As we approach the waning days of 2016, it’s clear to me that my prognosticating skills leave much to be desired. I was 0/10 for my 2016 digital health predictions, barring any last-minute announcements. 

My biggest blunder with those, albeit tongue-in-cheek, predictions? I miscalculated the amount of interest strategic investors have in becoming outright owners of technology companies. Still, I am keen to make some predictions for the year ahead after I dissect some 2016 deals.

Most of the digital health deals this year did not involve transactions across sectors so much as diversifying product offerings within digital health subsectors to target a wider customer base. And yet, I can take comfort from the fact that at least one company on my list did figure into an M&A deal.

Glooko was not snapped up by Medtronic but did some dealmaking of its own. The diabetes management business purchased Diasend as part of an international strategy. In fact, international expansion strategies were a trend among a handful of digital health companies.

Diasend is headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, and Glooko is based in Mountain View, California. They now share offices in Chicago and London as well.

Earlier this year, mySugr and Roche reached an agreement in which Roche will sync its Bluetooth-enabled Accu-Chek Connect meter with mySugr’s app on a country by country basis.

So without further delay, here are my varied predictions for 2017. I say varied because I have ranked them from 1 — off-the-wall to 10 — the most realistic. I have no insider information, just my own humble opinions from 5+ years working as a healthcare business reporter. Feel free to share your own comments below.

Roche acquires mySugr, GlaxoSmithKline acquires Propeller Health
Looking ahead to 2017, I think Roche is more likely to snap up mySugr than Medtronic was to acquire Glooko. I predict next year, big pharma will descend on digital health companies and acquire ones that can add value. Pharma companies will migrate towards companies that can quantify their drugs’ effectiveness. For that reason, companies such as Propeller Health could be valuable assets. Propeller Health has worked closely with GlaxoSmithKline and Boehringer Ingelheim. It’s a toss up, but I favor GSK as the buyer.

Prediction rank: 8

IBM acquires Medidata Solutions
IBM will continue to deepen its interest in applying health IT to clinical trials — an itch it scratched with the acquisition of Merge Healthcare in 2015 (the business has clinical trial management products such as eClinicalOS) . The business was integrated into IBM Watson Health. Acquiring Medidata would give the business more cloud-based solutions and data analytics supporting clinical research, and make the business more attractive to IBM’s pharma, medical device and healthcare customers.

Prediction rank: 10

Fitbit hires medical device serial entrepreneur Steven Arless
I confess, the Medtronic- Fitbit collaboration took me by surprise. But it underscores a push by the wearables company in 2016 to build on its healthcare street cred, from its corporate wellness division to the poaching of Adam Pellegrini from Walgreens where he was vice president of digital health. I think Fitbit will continue to add more healthcare muscle. Who better than Steven Arless, a serial entrepreneur in medtech?  He could advise Fitbit on developing a clinical wearable that could uphold the kind of best practice guidelines groups like Xcertia are championing.

Prediction rank: 5

Athenahealth buys cybersecurity business ID Experts
Hospitals have had a terrible year on the cybersecurity front — breaches in 2016 have rivaled those of 2015. In an unexpected move, electronic health record providers will begin to buy cybersecurity companies in a bid to make it easier for hospitals to contend with breaches. Athenahealth will initiate the trend with the purchase of ID Experts

Prediction rank: 5

Francis Collins launches anti-aging moonshot
I don’t fancy the odds of Francis Collins’ tenure as the director of the National Institutes of Health continuing under the administration of president-elect Donald Trump, although he has said he would stay on if asked. He has worked on several projects from the Precision Medicine Initiative to the Cancer Moonshot. I think for his next project he will lead an anti-aging moonshot with the AARP.

Prediction rank: 2

Comcast buys Doctor on Demand
In a bid to make a bigger telemedicine play, telecommunications giant Comcast decides to move from merely being a Doctor on Demand customer to buy the business. It will offer telemedicine as a premium cable service so that customers can communicate with healthcare professionals in their homes, with chronic conditions and mental health being of particular interest. Will other cable companies follow suit?

Prediction rank: 4

Medication adherence startup PillDrill adds voice alerts from actors to remind people to take their meds
In a bid to improve adherence, PillDrill will add a new feature to its medication adherence device by enlisting actors such as Christopher Walken to Patrick Stewart to lend their commanding voices to motivate customers to take their meds.

Prediction rank: 1

And finally….
Last year, I miserably predicted that the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team would invest in wearables to improve their performance — even my colleagues thought it was far fetched (more so than a Theranos acquisition, from their standpoint).

Sadly, the team didn’t follow through and so far this season, they’re dead last in the NBA Eastern conference. Again. Why didn’t you listen, Josh Harris?

But wearables and basketball are back in the news. For real! An NBA wearables committee will be formed by basketball league officials and players’ union representatives to manage and regulate wearables with the possibility of allowing them during games. That will give these fitness trackers a higher profile and perhaps show struggling teams like the 76ers the value of investing in these businesses.

So as for a prediction, I still think there’s a deal in the wings for the 76ers, but it will probably be along the lines of a partnership with a virtual reality headset developer so these players can see themselves winning!

Prediction rank: 1

Photo: NASA/ESA, Getty Images

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