Look For Your Next Big Opportunity In Healthcare Technology

Nicholas Domnisch is the CEO & Partner of EE Solutions, an NYC-based software development agency empowering innovation in digital health.

Do you know how much the healthcare technology business is thriving? As a tech leader, you’d probably be interested. To help contextualize the industry, I have included sections below detailing why you, as a tech leader, should care and three potential opportunity areas.

Why should you care?

In the past, competition in the healthcare industry was deterred by high barriers to entry. New market entrants struggled to compete with powerful incumbents like Epic and Cerner. Those two companies together have over $9 billion in revenue, and Epic is growing around 15% per year.

New regulations, however, have leveled the playing field. In 2021, the government mandated that CMS-regulated healthcare organizations follow FHIR data standards. That data standardization has led to data availability and innovative competition.

You might be wondering whether there is an opportunity for your tech team to join this disruption. Let’s take a look at a few focus areas where a new market entrant could innovate and deliver additional value to healthcare stakeholders. I’ve broken down three opportunities below.

Opportunity 1: Digital-Enabled Care Delivery

It stands to reason that the main goal of healthcare technology should be to improve patient outcomes. Instead, the current healthcare industry seems like it is built for the providers, payers and other industry stakeholders. For example, the treatment a patient receives is not always decided by their diagnosing physician, but rather, by their insurance provider due to the coverage limitations of a patient’s plan.

Through technology, we can build a better healthcare ecosystem for all. Direct-to-consumer healthcare marketplaces and telehealth technologies have begun redistributing power back to patients and their providers. Companies such as Waymark ($45 million raised) are significantly improving accessibility and customizability of care by working to equip care teams with technology to collaboratively deliver community-based health services to Medicaid beneficiaries.

Some companies see additional opportunities in smaller niches. For example, Homeward ($20 million raised) is a technology-enabled provider improving rural America’s accessibility to quality healthcare. Another company, Legion Health ($2 million raised), is focused on delivering direct-to-consumer mental health services from licensed psychiatrists and therapists.

As you can see, the patient experience is being completely reimagined. Basic online portals no longer meet consumer expectations around UI/UX, interoperability and security. Smarter solutions with expedited patient intake, symptom checkers and integrated communication platforms are delivering improved patient outcomes alongside business benefits. As a technology leader, you and your team can further empower innovation of the patient experience.

For inspiration, think about the partnership opportunities. Twilio and Microsoft Teams both offer integrations that can speed telehealth development time. Further, turnkey digital health platforms from companies like Epic or Sprinter Health ($38 million raised) come fully equipped with scheduling, communication and healthcare delivery functionalities.

Opportunity 2: Data-Powered Enterprise Innovation

Increased data availability brings opportunities for data analytics implementations. To quantify the opportunity, a recent survey from Optum showed that out of 500 healthcare executives, 83% already have an AI strategy, and an additional 15% are in the early stages of creating one.

Data solutions can be implemented to improve healthcare operations. Companies like Source Health ($3 million raised) and Gesund ($2 million raised) are building novel operating systems and analytical tools to improve all aspects of healthcare delivery. Their APIs and analytics products can be used by anyone from technology development teams to care delivery organizations to coordinate care, deliver better patient outcomes and capture data.

Analytics can also be applied to population health, which, for example, can lead to improved outcomes for high-risk patients. Care coordinators, empowered by technology, are working with healthcare providers to use data insights to optimize care delivery and incentivize preventative care (i.e., health screenings) over higher-cost alternatives.

At this point, you may be thinking that Epic, as a strong incumbent, would be too powerful a competitor. The FHIR mandate, however, has leveled the playing field by making population health datasets available. So, technology teams now have the data resources necessary to compete.

Beyond patient outcomes, healthcare data is being utilized to improve core business operations like patient flow. Predictive analytics can remove bottlenecks and improve care efficiency in high-impact areas such as the emergency department, staffing and operating rooms. These improvements hit healthcare organizations’ bottom lines by shortening the average length of stay and increasing annual visits from patients.

Opportunity 3: Connected Healthcare Services

Potentially, one of the most impactful areas of innovation will be healthcare service delivery. With increased data availability comes improved interoperability between healthcare applications. Let me give you an example: A clinical management software today is likely designed to meet a single specific need. As you can imagine, designing an all-in-one solution would be very costly. But by taking a more modular approach, interoperable systems can act as standard building blocks, being plugged together, into a larger, more scalable solution.

A solution like this, integrating specialized software, can empower providers to deliver higher-quality services. Companies like HeyRenee ($8.2 million raised) are using this strategy to enable more community-based health services by coordinating communication and connecting all aspects of care.

Looking specifically at surgical services, which represent about 60% of revenue for any health system, operating rooms are managed by traditional software solutions. These leave a technology gap that must be filled. Innovations will leverage interoperability between digital health solutions to improve care quality, throughput and revenue generation in the operating room. For example, Veyond Metaverse ($3 million raised) is implementing extended reality technology to coordinate medical education, surgical planning, training, operations and various additional health services.

As you have seen throughout this article, the healthcare ecosystem is ripe for innovation. New regulations have made data available and lowered barriers to entry in the industry. There will still be competition, especially from incumbents in the space. Nonetheless, if you are a tech leader looking for a new and robust revenue stream, this might be your opportunity. Join the digital healthcare revolution and start building now.

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