2018 started of with some newly formed relationships, engagements and marriages in the Healthcare space. We witnessed the creation of power couples, inspiring engagements, but also long awaited relationships being formalized. Let’s celebrate the love today between tech & health, and wish all the best for the future to come!

There is no question about it, digital health is helping shape the future of healthcare. Patients are becoming proactive and are now weighing their options when it comes to finding the most cost effective and high quality healthcare solution on the market. On the other end of the spectrum, health insurance companies, providers and health tech product companies are all competing to deliver cutting edge tech solutions to solve a variety of industry wide  problems.

Every new healthcare app or fledgling technology is like a sunny window into the future: Could virtual reality replace opioids for pain relief, as proposed by startup DeepStream VR? Might smart contact lenses, under development by Verily (aka Google) and Novartis, soon measure blood sugar levels in tears, eliminating painful finger pricks for people with diabetes?

Developers and coders are a hot commodity and the boom in start-ups around digital health combined with increased health IT spending is making qualified developers harder to find. It’s a classic example of supply not keeping pace with demand. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately 1.4 million computer science jobs are expected by 2020, but only 400,000 new computer science graduates to meet the demand.

With the increase in mobile device applications and further implementation of electronic health records, privacy and security is a growing concern. Naturally, patients expect healthcare organizations to take the necessary steps to safeguard their personal information. 

Today’s healthcare leaders are faced with challenges in managing the financial health of their organizations; especially in response to the expansion of quality reporting, meaningful use and other penalties.  They are looking for ways to improve the health of their patients, and condition-specific populations, at a reasonable cost.  Increasingly they hear about the importance of patient-centeredness and the most effective of these leaders are recognizing the connection to digital health tools.

As an industry, health insurers have been relatively slow to add their mobile apps to the crowded lists of options on members’ smartphones. A 2015 analysis showed that 70 percent of health insurance companies around the globe had published just one or two apps each.

As of March 2015, 779 health IT vendors supplied certified EHR products to 490,575 health care professionals participating in the CMS EHR Incentive Programs and/or ONC REC Program. 30 of them are big players, primary, and 749 supply secondary EHRs to participating health care professionals. Surprisingly, market share hasn’t changed much in 10 years - so what does that mean to the EHR systems? Are we at the tipping point of disruption?