At the beginning of the new year, now seems to be the best time to reflect on the exciting investments in digital health over the past 12 months and explore future developments in 2022. $ 21.3B Invest in the first quarter to the third quarter of 2021, higher than $ 14.6B Invest in 2020. Let’s start with two top investment areas that deserve special attention this year and beyond.
- Mental health of children and adolescents
In 2020, 16.0% (one-sixth) of 5-16 year-old children were determined to have a mental health disorder, up from 10.8% in 2017.Anxiety, depression and ADHD are most common Conditions, although all are undiagnosed. Shockingly, it is reported that as many as 10% of 15-16 year olds will self-harm.Driven by social media, physical deformation disorders now affect 2.4% Young people and surrounding 2.7% Adolescents between the ages of 13 and 18 now suffer from eating disorders, which has increased by 52% in the past year.
The investment opportunity lies in providing services to children and young people suspected of ADHD.The average waiting time for an ADHD assessment in the UK is 5.8 months But in the place where I practice, the waiting time may be as long as five years! There is a need to provide new emergency child and adolescent mental health services for those affected by self-harm and suicidal thoughts, people with eating disorders, and provide services for young people with physical deformity disorders. Investment should focus on providing affordable early intervention, expert support, psychological support, family support and community care services.
- Palliative care
Palliative care is to provide overall support and quality of life care for patients with advanced progress. Nursing meets both physical needs (such as pain control) and non-physical needs (such as emotional support for patients, caregivers, and family members).worldwide Palliative care market It is worth 11.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2020 and is expected to reach 25.3 billion U.S. dollars by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 8.4% from 2021 to 2030.
Paliti It is an early start-up company in the field of palliative care, providing patients and caregivers with education about their condition and prognosis, providing overall management options, and supporting patients in making advanced care planning decisions, such as the preferred location of care. Services can be provided at home, in a hospital, hospice or nursing home.
- Complex chronic disease management
This year, we have seen multiple investments in startups that provide last-mile care services. Axle health Is one such company that provides APIs for health systems and payers for health professionals to provide care at home. These professionals perform procedures such as blood sampling, wound care, and clinical examinations to support the infrastructure of the home hospital and the transition to the home as the preferred place of care.
The next step in the model is to enable multidisciplinary teams to jointly manage specific conditions, including high disease burden and high cost conditions, such as heart failure, chronic kidney disease, and dementia.The heart failure market alone was valued at USD 3.2 billion in 2015 and is expected to rise to $11.8 billion By 2025 (compound annual growth rate of 13.7%). These platforms will enable secondary care doctors, specialist nurses, primary care doctors, community nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and nursing staff to jointly provide care for patients with multiple comorbidities. Successful companies will reduce the number of hospitalizations, predict and prevent acute exacerbations, reduce payers’ costs, and improve patient quality of life and symptom control.
- cancer
At the beginning of the pandemic, both the British National Health Service and the American Cancer Society recommended postponing routine cancer screening. This is to transfer health system resources to Covid-19 patients and reduce the spread of the virus. March to April 2020, 80% to 90% According to reports, the number of people screened for breast cancer, colorectal cancer and cervical cancer has decreased compared with the previous year. As of June 2020, the screening program has resumed, but compared with 2019, the adoption rate has still dropped by 29% to 36%. IQVIA equates this to approximately 80,000 Missed cancer diagnosis for more than 3 months in the United States. In addition, for patients with known cancer diagnoses, one third Patients in the UK report that their treatment has been affected due to the pandemic.
The national cost of cancer-related medical services and prescription drugs in the U.S. is expected to increase from US$183 billion 2015 to USD 246 billion By 2030. Investment opportunities are to identify high-risk individuals, increase screening rates, review waiting lists, prioritize patients with the highest clinical needs, achieve early diagnosis, and provide patients affected by cancer with timely access to oncologists, surgeons, specialist nurses, and care coordination Opportunities and care navigator.
- Clinical artificial intelligence
The use cases for clinical AI are limitless. The Stanford Center for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine and Imaging (AIMI) recently published a paper demonstrating the fusion of EHR data and pixel data to improve the diagnostic accuracy of medical imaging.Last month, AIMI announced a cooperate Cooperate with Kheiron Medical, an artificial intelligence-based cancer imaging company, to improve the diagnostic accuracy of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Artificial intelligence in the healthcare market is expected to grow from $6.9B in 2021 to $67.4B in 2027 (compound annual growth rate of 46.2%).
There are many applications of artificial intelligence in healthcare-natural language processing (NLP)-based dialogue tools, robotic process automation (RPA) applications for appointment scheduling and clinical classification, billing and price transparency platforms, disease biomarker discovery Platform and personalized drug discovery platform.
- Primary health care
Primary care physicians have evolved to be the controllers of the patient’s health journey. They are now responsible for interpreting health data from multiple sources, providing complex care, managing overall patient care and experience, reducing overall healthcare costs, and supporting multiple new United Health professional roles in practice.Value-based primary care companies, such as Pearl health Optimize the appropriate use of care while maximizing the patient’s treatment effect, system flow and patient experience.
Firefly Health is the first implementation among many companies Value-based health plan In the employer-sponsored health insurance market. I wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon also came in. Through direct contracts with the Medicare and Medicaid Center, reimbursements for value-based primary care will continue to grow. The most successful primary care organizations will become part of a wider network, providing eligible families with fresh ingredients and meals, social care, housing, transportation support, and economic benefits.
- Women’s health
Digital health startups that focus on women’s health have received more than $ 1.3B Q1-Q3 investment in 2021. In the same year, Maven Clinic became the first female health unicorn Series D financing of 110 million U.S. dollarsHowever, there is still a lot of progress to be made, thus providing more opportunities for founders and investors.The global women’s health market is valued at $35B In 2019, it is expected to reach $41B By 2027 (compound annual growth rate of 3.2%).
Although the menopause and fertility sectors have recently received attention and investment, maternal health care is still underfunded.Among the 11 developed countries, the United States has Highest Maternal mortality and black women three Compared with white women, the likelihood of dying from pregnancy-related causes is several times higher. The opportunity lies in investing in perinatal health, including support for women during pregnancy termination, miscarriage and childbirth, breastfeeding, postpartum depression and pelvic health.
Editor’s note: The author is a doctor and investor, and has not invested in any of the companies mentioned in this article.
Photo: Hollygraphic, Getty Images
