Investment in digital health topped $1.35 billion in the first quarter of 2014, according to new report from StartUp Health.
Digital health funding has hit $7.4 billion with 1,393 deals since 2010, according to a presentation StartUp Health gave last week. And its more than doubled in the first quarter of this year since last year's first quarter. Most funding took place in Northern California and the Northeast.
Last year, big data dominated health IT deals--112 deals got $712 million investments. This year, StartUp Health predicts patient engagement and sensors to grow the most.
Median deal size has stayed flat at about $2 million per deal. Patient engagement is set to grow by 410 percent while sensors and vital signs monitoring will grow by 243 percent.
Total digital health funding in 2013 reached $1.92 billion, according to an end-of-year report from Rock Health, a digital health startup seed fund. That figure represents 35 percent growth since 2012, and more than 100 percent growth since 2011.
Overall, 195 digital health deals above $2 million took place in 2013, according to the report. Six themes emerged in 2013 which represented nearly 50 percent of last year's funding:
- EHR/clinical workflow
- Analytics/big data
- Digital medical devices (clinically-oriented products with specific disease/condition focus)
- Wearables/biosensing (consumer-oriented products with generalized biosensors)
- Population health management
- Healthcare consumer engagement (purchasing of health insurance, healthcare services and products, intended for B2B and B2C markets)
But is digital health all talk and no action, with a lot of duplication? One Forbes contributor fed up with one wearable technology invention after another said he thought so last fall.
To learn more:
- see the full presentation from StartUp Health
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