Panel
Digital Health Technology and Solutions
Milken InstituteSteven Krein, Katie Agarwal, Matthew Stoudt, Sara Wajnberg, Joel White, Sarah Weinberg, John Birch, George Masregas, Lucia Savage, Hoyt Morgan, Paul Anthony, Lisa Fitzpatrick, Mike Goodman
- Global healthcare is projected to be reshaped by the convergence of business model shifts, aging costs, and digital sensors, driving exponential growth in health tech capital investment expected to exceed previous records.
- Funding distribution is anticipated to broaden beyond traditional hubs like Silicon Valley to cities globally, supporting the development of startups that previously lacked necessary capital or technology.
- StartUp Health aims to fulfill its 25-year mission to fund global entrepreneurs pursuing major health breakthroughs, while Oscar Insurance plans to launch a Medicare Advantage product in 2020 and expand its footprint to nine states and 14 cities by 2019.
- Oscar leveraged a $375 million investment from Alphabet to enhance technology capabilities and intends to evolve into a marketplace for member interaction with new health technologies.
- Insurance models are forecasted to shift toward individualization, with carriers gaining increased opportunities to collect data from evolving devices like EKGs to intervene in member care.
- Matthew Stout expects to launch a chronic pain application utilizing bio data later this year, secure two payer relationships within the next year, and receive clearance for an additional product.
- Payers are predicted to require an integrative approach to chronic disease rather than focusing on single indications, though widespread mass-scale adoption of value-based systems for such models is expected to take years.
- The adoption of VR therapy is projected to reach a tipping point when devices become doctor-prescribed and utilized at home, driven by the opioid epidemic and the need for scalable non-pharmacological interventions.
- Maven Clinic intends to expand services to diverse family structures including adoption and surrogacy, while developing remote monitoring capabilities for high-risk pregnancies using blood pressure cuffs and abdominal patches to distinguish preterm labor.
- Innovation in maternity management and the virtual clinic space is expected to accelerate through continued investment in user-centric care models and technologies like abdominal patches.
- The political environment is anticipated to remain difficult in 2019 and 2020, though a future administration may establish central themes to promote innovation and reduce regulatory burdens.
- Regulatory science improvements are expected to speed up approval cycles, though cycles may remain misaligned, and Joel White hopes the FDA will develop processes lasting three to six months for lower-risk technologies.
- An upcoming information blocking rule is expected to incentivize data sharing and discourage hoarding, potentially forcing states to change digital health behaviors if incentives flow through CMS.
- Challenges persist regarding the misalignment of laws like HIPAA with current cultural data-sharing norms and the difficulty of integrating point-of-care history information to prevent inappropriate prescribing.
- Continued advancements in wearables and devices are expected to make accessing basic pediatric care significantly less painful and more accessible for families.