In healthcare, a battle is raging on building trust and influence with patients and consumers. The theme highlighted many of the thousands of Zoom meetings between investors and industry insiders this week around JPMorgan’s 40th annual healthcare conference. Like last year, the conference is virtual, but the investments to move healthcare forward are very tangible.
Continuing trends in consumerism and the use of healthcare technology are the backdrop for this competition. Patients have more choices in healthcare, more access to health information, and more options for managing cost-related risks than ever before. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that all patients are healthier, more knowledgeable, or better served. It’s a conundrum that pushes everyone in healthcare to improve the way they interact with patients — ideally, to be the first to do so effectively.
Providers—physicians—want to increase patient engagement to improve outcomes without increasing the technical and administrative burden. Payers – insurers – want better patient engagement, which helps control costs while improving quality and member retention. Also in the competition are life sciences companies that are critical to developing new treatments and therapies that require robust and ongoing engagement with patients, providers and payers alike, whether in the clinic During the test, it is still to ensure the use and sale of its products.
To enable this engagement, the three healthcare industries need to parse large amounts of information quickly, accurately, and cost-effectively, while protecting patient privacy. Investors are increasingly realizing that data-driven decision-making insights from AI analytics are the best way to do this, in order to provide leaders with the intelligence they need to act in changing conditions.
Additionally, as an aging population drives the growth of Medicare advantages and the need for better, more coordinated care, AI-powered solutions can help companies execute. Data-driven AI solutions can also help providers and payers control costs by increasing the transparency of pricing and outcomes across the care pathway. Finally, artificial intelligence and data technologies promise to revolutionize the life sciences drug discovery and treatment process, especially through clinical trials, which now provide access to larger patient pools for research.
execute growth
As JPMorgan’s (virtual) attendees and other investors know, a slew of innovative new public companies reaching huge valuations in early 2021 promise to capitalize on steady growth in Medicare Advantage plan enrollment and greater coordination and technology The value of supportive care.But many emerging companies are in the field of next-generation providers and payers – such as Privacy Health, a doctor, clover and Oscar – Show growing pains on the road to realizing their much-hyped vision. Many are now trading at a fraction of their previous highs and below the IPO opening price. At the same time, the entry of these new competitors and growing consumer demand have also challenged the established leaders in these healthcare markets.
Of course, healthcare is a difficult field, especially for new entrants. The complexity and depth of healthcare data and regulations associated with their use suggest that both new entrants and established players need stronger and more resilient technologies, processes and systems to achieve the highest goals they have set for themselves. However, creating these advanced tools on your own is nearly impossible. They need configurable solutions that integrate quickly into their workflows with minimal friction and training, provide incremental solutions to today’s growth-impeding problems, and most importantly, over time, from their experience learning to identify new solutions to potential problems they may not yet be aware of.
hope for the future
A few years ago, these solutions, and the data needed to power them, were very hard to find. Today, however, there have been significant advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning, along with advances in data interoperability and security. We expect massive adoption of out-of-the-box solutions that generate the analysis and insights that not so long ago required teams of data scientists.
There is significant room for growth in the use of AI by providers, payers and life sciences companies, and investors participating in JPMorgan will continue to focus on companies that recognize this and take action. The software leaders developing these solutions will experience hyper-growth over the next few years, and healthcare industry leaders embracing such technologies will outperform their competitors by delivering better outcomes for patients and members.
Photo: DrAfter123, Getty Images
