institute for continuous
health transformation
Joaquim Cardoso MSc
Senior Advisor for Continuous Health Transformation
and Digital Health
January 10, 2023
This is an excerpt of the publication “2022 year-end digital health funding: Lessons at the end of a funding cycle”, published by Rock Health. The title above was given by the editor of this site.
Executive Summary
Adopting a more conservative mindset, Q4 2022 saw Big Tech players recenter digital health strategies within their tried-and-true operational fields.
- Amazon leveraged its experience creating and scaling two-sided marketplaces to launch Amazon Clinic, a virtual health storefront offering access to third-party telehealth providers.
- Google returned to its roots and unveiled several medical search initiatives for clinicians and consumers.
- Meta applied its artificial intelligence chops to protein folding, and
- Apple invested in proving out the clinical fidelity of its wearable devices.
Infographic
DEEP DIVE
Big Tech reorients healthcare initiatives
Rock Health
Kyle Bryant, Madelyn Knowles, Adriana Krasniansky,
With help from: Sean Day, Bill Evans, Mihir Somaiya, Uday Suresh
January 9, 2023
Health systems weren’t the only ones facing uphill battles in 2022.
Volatile active user numbers and declining profitability due to weakened advertising revenue deeply depressed Big Tech stock prices, and we expect that these pressures will further push the MAMAA crowd toward new revenue opportunities outside of tried-and-true social media advertising.
Last year’s efforts to diversify revenue streams saw Big Tech players building up businesses in data infrastructure, analytics, and finance, not to mention taking on the challenge of healthcare innovation in earnest.
Last year’s efforts to diversify revenue streams saw Big Tech players building up businesses in data infrastructure, analytics, and finance, not to mention taking on the challenge of healthcare innovation in earnest.
At the beginning of 2022 when Big Tech companies were awash in cash reserves, MAMAA players propped up internal healthcare experiments and waded into new territory with partnerships and acquisitions.
But as the year unfolded and cash grew costly, several of these health experiments were scrutinized, discontinued, or divested.
Adopting a more conservative mindset, Q4 2022 saw Big Tech players recenter digital health strategies within their tried-and-true operational fields.
- Amazon leveraged its experience creating and scaling two-sided marketplaces to launch Amazon Clinic, a virtual health storefront offering access to third-party telehealth providers.
- Google returned to its roots and unveiled several medical search initiatives for clinicians and consumers.
- Meta applied its artificial intelligence chops to protein folding, and
- Apple invested in proving out the clinical fidelity of its wearable devices.
What’s 2022’s takeaways for MAMAA, other Big Tech players (e.g., Netflix, Nvidia, Samsung), and middle children?
The best healthcare entry points exist where teams already hold expertise (fertile ground remains in these familiar pastures).
Rather than aiming to “disrupt” the entire healthcare system, focus is best placed on applying practiced skill sets to top healthcare and research problems.
Finally, it’s important to draw boundaries between conflicting business units-probably best to steer clear of mixing healthcare and consumer marketing, and focus instead on cloud hosting and patient data interoperability.
Rather than aiming to “disrupt” the entire healthcare system, focus is best placed on applying practiced skill sets to top healthcare and research problems.
Finally, it’s important to draw boundaries between conflicting business units-probably best to steer clear of mixing healthcare and consumer marketing, and focus instead on cloudhosting and patient datainteroperability.
