As venture capitalists pump more money into healthcare tech and innovation, and companies make more valuable contributions to the field, the industry is entering Health Market 2.0, according to a report by global consulting firm Oliver Wyman.
"The tech entrepreneur developing a new app may not realize it, but he is helping to create the infrastructure of a new, more powerful way of delivering healthcare," write the authors of the report, Tom Main and Adrian Slywotzky, both partners at Oliver Wyman.
The change from Health Market 1.0 to Health Market 2.0 will show in the convenient, 24/7 nature of healthcare and health IT, with prediction and prevention making us much less reliant on cures, according to the report.
Some investments that show a shift in healthcare, according to the report, include Google's foray into developing a "smart" contact that measures blood glucose as well as IBM's recent partnership with Watson.
Healthcare IT has also seen a spike in venture capital funding and mergers and acquisitions, with both showing record numbers in the second quarter of 2014.
Main and Slywotzky also see three distinct movements that will propel a new market for health IT. These movements include:
- Quantified self movement: This movement will help to increase consumers' understanding of their health in real time, especially with the help of wearable sensors and social media platforms. "It will also create context, rewards, and relevance for how consumers shop, help shift social/cultural values, and give care teams the tools to take personalization to the next level," the authors write.
- Transparent consumer markets: These will move competition from reputation and referrals to price, value and outcomes, according to the report. Amazon-style public and private exchanges, and online shopping tools will improve consumer choice for healthcare providers.
- Smart care teams: A new model for delivering healthcare, these teams will focus on helping consumers stay healthy while avoiding costly hospitalizations.This movement will include the use of data, predictive modeling, personalized evidence-based medicine, and real-time biometric and clinical feedback.
To learn more:
- read the report (.pdf)