
Monday, July 26, 2021
Issue 123

My first book, The Big Unlock, was about the vast opportunity in front of healthcare organizations to harness data to drive digital health experiences. When I published the book in 2017, healthcare was horribly siloed. While new data sources were emerging, healthcare organizations were struggling to harness their patient medical records; they were stuck trying to move data across their multiple information systems (never mind that the data was poor quality anyway). They were yet to figure out how to integrate newer data sources such as social determinants into the electronic health record. AI was in its infancy. One of my previous startups had built a platform for analyzing structured data using predictive models to risk-stratify patient populations for proactive interventions. We didn’t know it then but it would later come to be known as population health analytics. Ours was a stand alone system that had yet to figure out how to pull and push data from and into EHR systems.
Four years on, it appears that EHR platforms continue to be where they were. The challenge of aggregating and analyzing data from multiple sources for driving healthcare outcomes has fallen to big tech firms such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Using their market clout, their superior analytical capabilities, and unmatched cloud-based infrastructure, they are now the de facto choice for health systems desperate for insights to improve patient experiences, improve caregiver productivity, and improve healthcare outcomes.
Many newer companies have targeted the problem – Snowflake and Innovaccer among them – who are racing to capture market share and investing heavily in product development. Apple has democratized access to patient data by providing their customers with a single-click ability to access and share their health records from their providers. Traditional health IT firms are all trying to remain in the game, harnessing the data available to them to enhance their product offerings and become an integral part of the transformation under way.
The game is still in its first quarter. The ultimate winners are yet to emerge, but one thing is clear. Healthcare data is in play, finally. Healthcare leaders I speak with have had it with the resistance from the traditional custodians of health data. They are determined to unlock it and unleash its potential.
The Big Unlock is finally under way.
Last week, I commented on an insightful report published by McKinsey on the quarter-trillion-dollar opportunity ahead of us in the shift towards virtual care. In this week’s podcast episode, I interview the lead authors of the report, McKinsey Partners Oleg Bestsennyy and Jenny Rost. Take a listen.
Have a great week.
Paddy
Podcast of the Week
In this episode, McKinsey partners Oleg Bestsennyy and Jenny Rost discuss the findings of their recently published report – ‘Telehealth: A quarter-trillion-dollarpost-
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This Week in Digital Health Markets
We are selectively featuring guest posts in our newsletter from senior leaders in healthcare and technology. Reach out to us if you would like to contribute a blog to one of our upcoming newsletters.
Digital healthcare: All talk, (mostly) no action
While a majority of healthcare consumers say they prefer digital tools across all healthcare-related activities, the percentage of consumers who actually use digital tools remains low. McKinsey Featured Insights
Lawmakers Seek to Mandate Payer Coverage for Telehealth Services
Two Congressmen have re-introduced proposed legislation that would prompt payers to cover any telehealth service that’s already being offered in-person. mHealth Intelligence
Cigna+ Oscar Expands Convenient Access to Virtual Primary Care in Tennessee & Georgia
Cigna and Oscar Health announced that they are launching Oscar Virtual Primary Care on select Cigna + Oscar plans, beginning in 2022. Business Wire
Amazon rolls out AWS For Health cloud services for healthcare, genomics and biopharma
As part of AWS for Health, Amazon announced last week the general availability of Amazon HealthLake, a tool to make it easier for healthcare organizations to search and analyze data. Fierce Healthcare
Digital health dollars hit $15B high driven by telehealth investment in 2021
Global venture capital funding for digital health companies hit a $15 billion high in the first half of 2021, driven in large part by telehealth investment. Fierce Healthcare
House passes several new bipartisan cybersecurity bills
The legislation takes a variety of approaches to beefing up the nation’s digital defenses. Healthcare IT News
CMS proposes fining hospitals up to $2M annually for not following price transparency rule
CMS’ latest proposed rule, which includes stringent penalties for hospitals that are found to be flouting the price transparency rule, comes on the heels of an analysis showing that a vast majority of hospitals are not in compliance with the regulation that went into effect on Jan. 1. MedCity News
Google Cloud rolls out technology to map medical records data to FHIR standard
Large tech giants are jumping into a growing interoperability solutions market as new federal regulations spur the healthcare industry to open up and share medical records data. Fierce Healthcare
Note: Some of the articles linked in this newsletter may be behind paywalls that need a subscription.Chart of the Week
Source: McKinsey
Events
Enterprise Digital Transformation: The Geisinger Experience
Our CEO Paddy Padmanabhan and Geisinger EVP and CIO Karen Murphy to present best practices and learnings from how a large integrated health system is driving a multi-year digital transformation roadmap at HIMSS21 on August 10, 2021 | 1:00PM – 2:00 PM PST in Room Alliance 315, The Caesars.
Mark your calendar! EventWhat Did Pharma Learn From The COVID-19 Vaccine Development?
In this session at HIMSS21, Paddy Padmanabhan will discuss lessons learned by pharma during the pandemic and the role of digital health, interoperability, and real-world evidence will play in reshaping clinical trials and accelerating drug development. on August10, 2021 | 11:00 AM – 11:40 AM PST | Wynn, Mearsault.
Mark your calendar! Event
Damo Consulting Thought Leadership and Research
A booming digital health market, and an elusive trifecta
Health system CIOs are reducing their tech footprint and consolidating their IT systems for agility and efficiency. For digital health startups to succeed in this space, they must get three factors right: cost, scale and quality. Blog
The Digital Health Solution Selection Process
When health systems look for solution partners to execute their digital priorities, the decision process typically looks like this. Infographic
AI-enabled physicians: rethinking care delivery
While traditionally deeply skeptical of artificial intelligence in clinical settings, in today’s fast-changing care delivery landscape many physicians are thinking more proactively about how how AI can improve quality and patient experience. Blog