2018 was a pivotal year for digital health technologies with major headlines of industry disruption dominating the news agenda.
As we enter 2019, we’ve asked the leaders and innovators of the industry to look forward, and share their new year’s resolutions for 2019. They reveal the technologies they’re most excited about, the biggest challenges currently facing health tech, and those they see having the biggest impact on the industry.
Intro
Today we hear from Whitney Cole of The Mission Maven. Whitney is responsible for helping drive digital health and health tech companies beyond the noise to mass adoption. The Mission Maven process works for B2B and B2C digital health and health tech companies, covering areas such as medical software, digital care management solutions, digital therapeutics, emergency medicine tech, mHealth and more.
Here’s what Whitney Cole had to say…
Don’t be scared to have real conversations with real people
“Health tech companies need to understand both their buyers and the end users of their products. The market is complex and fragmented, so having real conversations with real people about the problems they face will be what drives truly innovative solutions.”
“Because of the fragmentation, it’s really easy to lose track of the humans that make up healthcare – the patients, the doctors, the nurses, the caregivers, the support staff. Asking questions and truly listening will help health tech companies make sure they’re not creating solutions in a vacuum.
Involving patients in their own care has yet to reach tipping point
“There’s been a shift in the right direction to involving patients in their own care. While this shift has been happening for a few years, we haven’t reached the tipping point yet. 2018 brought us a lot closer to that point, however, with some cool pieces of tech.”
“People have more tools than ever to get educated about their health and engaged in their care, tools like personalized nutrition plans thanks to genetic testing and apps that connect them with communities and health coaches that can support them either through a disease or just getting to a healthier lifestyle.”
We must commit to fixing the fragmentation
“The complexity and fragmentation of the healthcare industry makes it really easy for health tech companies to say “sure, I’ll build a solution for X” to every potential big client that comes to them with a fat check book and a big ask. This can often be the case, even if X is a one-eighty degree turn from other projects.”
“The problem with that is instead of fixing the fragmentation, they’re only going to make it worse. Instead of a piecemeal strategy, health tech companies need to look at the market shifts that are happening both in healthcare and outside of it to build for the future.”
Some of the technologies I’m seeing have the biggest impact on the health tech industry this year?
“I have a congenital heart condition, and I’m loving how much easier it is for doctors to be in a position to gather and use data from a patient’s daily life to help them live healthier and have better outcomes.”
“I haven’t jumped on the Apple Watch bandwagon (late adopter over here, I know), but the ECG feature might have me convinced it’s something I want. While it’s not perfect and we need to hold tech companies accountable for privacy and the accuracy of these types of tools, the ability to collect and share data with my doctor about my heart and my overall health is pretty cool.”