Massachusetts looks to secure its place in the healthcare industry as a digital innovation hub through a public-private partnership that aims to lure tech innovators to the state, according to an announcement from Gov. Charlie Baker.
This plan is being compared to a previous initiative to expand the biotech and life sciences industries in Massachusetts, according to a Boston Globe story, though the state committed $1 billion to that effort. The "big money" for this new effort, Baker said, according to the Globe, will come from the private sector.
A slideshow from the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership (MACP), an economic development group, lays out five functions of the effort: funding; accelerator space; academic initiatives; sponsorship/mentorship; and legislative engagement.
It also provides details on the establishment of a digital health innovation hub, sponsored by the City of Boston, Massachusetts eHealth Institute and MACP. The state will pitch in $250,000 in seed money for the facility, with programming to be managed by the startup accelerator MassChallenge.
MACP also facilitated the development of standardized software, technology and sponsored research agreements that can be costly and time-consuming for small startups to develop from scratch. It says the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard, Northeastern, the University of Massachusetts system and Partners HealthCare have agreed to use the agreements.
MACP cites a Goldman Sachs estimate of an approximately $32 billion market opportunity in digital health over the next decade.
StartUp Health reported that funding last year hit $5.8 billion. While that's lower than the $7 billion raised the year before, StartUp called 2015 the year the industry hit its stride.
In an interview with FierceMobileHealthcare, Morgan Reed, executive director of ACT | The App Association, predicted consumer fitness wearables gaining more traction and greater focus on developing sensors into a product that meets the needs of care providers.
To learn more:
- read the governor's announcement
- here's the Globe story
- check out the MACP paper (.pdf)