I’m in the digital health space (CEO of Omada Health).
Agree completely on the IT & product integration barriers highlighted in the article. This (& more) make health care a nuanced place to build a business.
There are simply more stakeholders to manage:
- Employers (Google, etc; those w/ >500 emps usually carry financial health care risk)
- Plans (United, etc; both carry risk and administer employer plans)
- Providers (Sutter, etc; deliver care, can carry some risk, contract with plans, and sometimes contract directly w/ employers)
- Benefits Consultants (Mercer, etc; guide employers, more)
- Societies (AMA, etc; build guidelines, unify provider voices, more)
- Patients (you; remain frustrated w/ system complexity)
- Consolidators (McKesson (Rx logistics & channel), Express-scripts (pharmacy benefit manager); add leverage and efficiency)
- Regulators (HHS (HIPAA), FTC, FDA, etc; define ground rules for all these players)
- Suppliers (Pharma, device, digital health; sell value into this space)
This # of important stakeholders makes it difficult to “trace a dollar” and figure how who is your buyer. It's important to understand the basics of the financial, contractual, and regulatory relationships between all of these.
But it’s also very, very fascinating. And once you suffer through some of the learning curves can get quite fun. There are enormous financial and impact opportunities to be had. The wall can be a little high.
I'm always still learning, but if you need help on your idea and how it'd fit in, email me at [email protected].
I'm the Co-Founder & CEO of Omada Health (http://omadahealth.com), and any engineers who are keen to help make a dent in the diabetes and obesity crisis should please reach out. Our company has built a web-version of a landmark clinical study called the diabetes prevention program (http://goo.gl/shiaw) to help the 78 million people with prediabetes from progressing to full-blown type 2 diabetes. Diabetes prevention is absolutely possible, and there are technology and design solutions that can help.
Thx! We launched last summer and are picking up a little momentum... Moving a copy every other / every day & landed a few good Corp site licenses. Not banking on it being a million dollar business obviously but hoping it'll let me feel like less of a student. If you've got any ideas on how to spread the word, I'm all ears! Sean
Agree completely on the IT & product integration barriers highlighted in the article. This (& more) make health care a nuanced place to build a business.
There are simply more stakeholders to manage:
This # of important stakeholders makes it difficult to “trace a dollar” and figure how who is your buyer. It's important to understand the basics of the financial, contractual, and regulatory relationships between all of these.
But it’s also very, very fascinating. And once you suffer through some of the learning curves can get quite fun. There are enormous financial and impact opportunities to be had. The wall can be a little high.
I'm always still learning, but if you need help on your idea and how it'd fit in, email me at [email protected].