Healthcare innovation has taken remarkable strides in recent years. Breakthroughs in areas like structural heart, electrophysiology (EP), benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), and breast cancer have drawn investor attention; resulting in new therapies and improved clinical outcomes. But these successes didn’t happen by chance — they were the result of sustained focus, robust funding, and successful exits supported by both clinicians and capital.
Yet even as these fields continue to advance, many equally important areas remain underfunded and undervalued. These quieter corners of the life sciences sector carry immense potential, but struggle to attract the resources and recognition they need.
While headlines tend to spotlight the most visible innovations, it’s essential to focus attention on the less glamorous yet critical opportunities that can define the next frontier. Two sectors, in particular, warrant urgent attention.
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Elder care: Designing for dignity
In the U.S., where multigenerational households are rare, aging is often outsourced to institutions — making innovation in elder care not just important, but essential. Despite a rapidly aging population, progress continues to lag. By 2050, the number of Americans over 65 will more than double, and those over 85 will be the fastest-growing segment.
Elderly patients already represent a disproportionate share of hospitalizations, readmissions, and healthcare costs. Common conditions — cognitive decline, incontinence, frailty, and mobility loss — remain stigmatized and under-researched. The mismatch between needs and solutions is vast, and investment can play a pivotal role in closing the gap.
However, designing for this population requires thoughtful, human-centered innovation. Devices must account for age-related declines in hearing, vision, dexterity, and cognition. As caregiver shortages grow, so too does the demand for tech-enabled tools like fall detection, medication management, and remote monitoring — solutions that don’t just improve care, but preserve dignity and independence in the final years of life. Unfortunately, the misaligned incentives of the healthcare system results in less attention, and thus less capital, being deployed in these areas.
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Gynecological health & menopause: Breaking the taboo
Another long-overlooked area is gynecological health and menopause — a space affecting half the population, yet historically marginalized in both research and investment. A major reason: investor hesitancy driven by perceived lack of exit opportunities. But this concern perpetuates a cycle — limited funding leads to limited innovation, which in turn leads to fewer success stories to attract future capital.
The numbers are stark: female-only conditions account for just 4% of pharmaceutical pipelines. Yet experts estimate that meeting women’s health needs could unlock more than $1 trillion in global GDP. There is a clear need — and opportunity — for innovators and investors to realign their priorities, and to back companies that are reimagining how we care for women across all stages of life.
A call to action: Ending the innovation gap
We’ve seen how transformative innovation can be when supported by focused investment. But if we want to continue advancing healthcare in meaningful ways, we must expand our lens and invest in the spaces that have been left behind.
A key structural barrier remains: the “dead zone” between FDA approval and insurance coverage. Even after a device receives regulatory clearance, patients often face a prolonged wait for reimbursement pathways. During this limbo, adoption stalls, and companies struggle to commercialize their technology. The result? Innovators play it safe, opting to make minor tweaks to existing devices that already have billing codes — rather than taking bold bets on new ideas.
To escape this cycle, we need more robust mechanisms to bridge that gap and accelerate market access for novel technologies.
Ultimately, we face a choice: continue pouring capital into well-worn paths, or help build the breakthroughs of tomorrow. The future of healthcare demands both. With the right support, we can shape a system that not only treats illness — but also anticipates it, respects it, and reimagines the way we care for every stage of life.
Photo: CASEZY, Getty Images
Auriel August joined Santé Ventures investment team in 2021, with a focus on the medical device portfolio. Prior to joining Santé, Auriel was a Physician-in-Residence in IDEO’s Design for Health Studio where she worked with clients, both large and small, to design new medical devices, digital health technologies and patient care experiences. Auriel trained as a general surgeon at Stanford University Hospital, and is also a graduate of the Stanford Biodesign Innovation Fellowship. Auriel earned her MD from Dartmouth Medical School and BS in biomedical engineering from Duke University.
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