Hacking Health: The Future of Humankind

Global Health Spending & Demographics

• Global health spending is projected to exceed $18 trillion by 2040 according to World Bank data.
• Asia's population of 4.5+ billion faces unique challenges including rapid aging and the spread of chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease.
• The sector is witnessing rapid growth in health tech, specifically CRISPR, genomics, proteomics, telemedicine, wearables, and mobile applications.
• Major recent medical breakthroughs include a cure for Hepatitis C, gene therapy for leukemia, and the 2017 Nobel Prize in Medicine for research on circadian rhythms.
• The business landscape features the collapse of Theranos, the potential CVS-Aetna merger, and the joint venture of Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JP Morgan to transform employee healthcare.

Asia-Specific Market Dynamics

• Digital health in Asia-Pacific is the second largest market globally by value, with H1 2018 funding reaching $3.3 billion, nearly matching the US market's $3.4 billion.
• China holds a significant share of growth momentum, while Southeast Asia and India are showing rapid innovation and funding expansion.
• A key differentiator in Asia is the shift toward patient self-payment and self-prioritization due to limited universal coverage, driving demand for value-based care.
• Regulatory environments vary widely; countries like Singapore and China have progressive prevention policies, whereas nations like Myanmar and Cambodia lack established regulations and standards.
• Investors are shifting focus toward "high tech, high touch" models that combine technological innovation with empathetic, community-based care delivery.

Strategic Focus by Organization

• Fitbit:
  • Mission focuses on driving user engagement and health through wearables, managing 150 billion hours of heart rate data.
  • Announced a global partnership with Google to aggregate health data into hospital EHRs and develop AI-driven health solutions.
  • Emphasizes that wearables support but do not replace physicians, aiming for a "hand-in-hand" integration of tech and human empathy.
  • Utilizes gamification (e.g., the "PET" app) to drive behavioral change, reporting a 50% increase in user activity.
• BGI (Beijing Genomic Institute):
  • Has transitioned from reading genomes to editing (CRISPR) and synthesizing genomes, addressing technical, policy, and ethical challenges.
  • Sequencing costs have dropped from $3 billion to under $1,000 per genome, enabling big data-driven discovery over hypothesis-driven medicine.
  • Seeks to establish country-specific genomic baselines rather than applying Chinese data to other populations to ensure diagnostic accuracy.
  • Aims to lower costs through affordable sequencing and partnerships with governments to integrate science with clinical reimbursement systems.
• Meraxis:
  • Specializes in microRNA detection for early-stage cancer screening, focusing on liquid biopsy technology.
  • Prioritizes accessibility by utilizing mature, low-cost qPCR technology available in most hospital labs.
  • Views every market entry as a "zero-to-one" process due to differences in reimbursement, affordability, and disease prevalence (e.g., gastric cancer rates).
  • Targets reducing healthcare costs by stratifying patients to minimize unnecessary expensive procedures like gastroendoscopies.
• Galens Growth Asia:
  • Identifies a tripartite opportunity among corporate investors, entrepreneurs, and digital health in the Asia-Pacific region.
  • Highlights that 90% of diabetics in India remain undiagnosed, representing a massive opportunity for digital intervention.
  • Observes that value is increasingly being driven by patient touchpoints where users self-pay, necessitating digital solutions that offer clear ROI.
  • Predicts a shift from "curative" to "preventative" business models, though monetizing prevention remains a current challenge.
• AID Group:
  • A Hong Kong-based health tech fund focusing on connecting new companies with real-life health challenges, particularly aging-related diseases.
  • Believes successful health tech must solve genuine, high-impact problems to achieve financial and clinical success.

Technological Trends & Challenges

• AI and Machine Learning:
  • AI is viewed as an enabler rather than a standalone solution; success depends on the quality and curation of longitudinal data rather than just data volume.
  • China is predicted to lead global AI healthcare development due to its massive dataset size (100 million vs. 1 million in Singapore/US).
  • BGI advocates for "Biological Intelligence" (combining multi-omics with wearable data) to identify incidental findings like cancer in prenatal tests.
• Precision Medicine:
  • Defined as a cost-saving measure that improves outcomes by preventing unnecessary treatments and enabling targeted therapies.
  • Requires integrating genomic, lifestyle, and digital health record data to correlate factors previously invisible in traditional medicine.
  • There is a strong push to make precision medicine affordable and accessible to the general population, not just the wealthy.
• Data & Infrastructure:
  • Current medical research suffers from low ROI and duplication; 80% of funding is wasted due to lack of coordination and reproducibility.
  • Real-world evidence is expected to replace or supplement costly traditional trials, allowing for more efficient product validation.
  • Blockchain and data aggregation are being explored to improve privacy and enable cross-platform data utility.

Behavioral Change & Prevention

• The primary pain point in prevention is convincing healthy individuals to pay for proactive screening despite the lower long-term cost compared to late-stage treatment.
• Consumer-centric solutions (wearables, apps) are more scalable and often yield better outcomes than legacy healthcare systems.
• Employers and insurers are increasingly leveraging health tech (e.g., Fitbit programs) to incentivize employee health ownership, recognizing that 240 days of life are spent at work.
• Public education on "back-to-basics" health (diet, activity, sleep) remains critical, especially as Asia adopts Westernized diets leading to rising obesity and diabetes.

Investment Criteria & Hiring Shifts

• Key Investment Metrics: Investors prioritize Intellectual Property (IP), but increasingly value speed of execution, team perseverance, and clear resolution of specific pain points.
• Hiring Trends: Organizations are shifting skillsets from pure biology/chemistry to data science, computer science, engineering, and statistical analysis.
• Cultural Integration: There is a growing need to blend technical disciplines with medical expertise and clinical understanding to drive translational success.
• Future Focus: The most anticipated transformation in the next decade involves early cancer detection via liquid biopsy (microRNA, cfDNA, ctDNA) to improve survival rates from 20% (late stage) to 66% (early stage).

Unaddressed & Forward-Looking Issues

• Ethics: The panel acknowledged a missed opportunity to discuss the "ethical revolution" surrounding genetic editing and data privacy, noting it requires further dialogue.
• Mental Health: Identified as underfunded and stigmatized, particularly in Asia; technology aims to provide low-barrier pathways for diagnosis and support.
• Global Coordination: There is a recognized need for international data sharing to reduce research waste and optimize the value of billions in healthcare investment.