Although many digital health startups and growth stage companies have responded to the call for technology to improve a litany of healthcare challenges, it’s tough for healthcare facilities to sift through all of these businesses to identify the best options for their own institutions. So Healthbox has launched a subscription service that will produce quarterly reports on different aspects of digital health and shortlist the best solutions in that category — Horizon Scan.
Neil Patel, Healthbox president, highlighted some of the data for those companies that would be included in the 20-25 page reports in a phone interview with MedCity News. For each company included in the report there will be a product roadmap, financials, implementation considerations, and how they differentiate themselves in the market. Horizon Scan will evaluate companies based on their ability to prove cost savings and improved outcomes, management team experience, and traction. The reports will include more than 100 companies each year. The reports will also highlight various subsectors of health IT these companies fit into.
“We’re bridging the education gap,” Patel said. He described the reports as an extension of the Healthbox Catalyst program.
Patel noted that one question Healthbox gets asked about a lot is startup failure rates. He acknowledged that even for the companies it highlights in the reports, there’s always a risk when working with young companies that they’ll fail.
“There remains a need for longer-term solutions. We’re trying to derisk as much as we can.”
Transparency will inform Healthbox’s approach, Patel said. Although Healthbox portfolio companies will be among the shortlisted companies highlighted in the reports, the business will disclose that information whenever relevant. The reports will also include plenty of other companies that have not participated in Healthbox programs but which Healthbox has identified as worthy of inclusion. They can include growth stage and late stage businesses, too. But Healthbox will approach each of these companies for permission to include them.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Although Healthbox portfolio companies will be among the shortlisted companies highlighted in the reports, the business will disclose that information whenever relevant. The reports will also include plenty of other companies that have not participated in Healthbox programs but which Healthbox has identified as worthy of inclusion. They can include growth stage and late stage businesses, too.
Healthbox plans to charge health systems and payers from $25,000 to $75,000 per year for the service, depending on their revenue. Currently, the service is not available to investors although companies with an investment arm can subscribe, Patel said. The roll out of each report will be supported by a webcast to subscribers.
Patel also noted that Horizon Scan also includes a shorter version of the reports focused on companies at earlier stages of development.
The move by Healthbox is interesting since several groups that have cultivated a network of startups have also added research tools such as Rock Health and StartUp Health. Asked if he had any insights on how accelerators were evolving, he pointed to shared workspaces that host programs, provide talks from experts with different perspectives on the healthcare and life sciences industry and provide a variety of services such as MATTER and 1871 in Chicago as well as 1776, which provides a virtual incubator as well as brick and mortar spaces in Washington, D.C., New York City and Dubai.
Photo: Pixtum, Getty Images
