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Innovation Curves, Walgreens Rumors, the New Face of the FTC
December 12, 2024
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Together with
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“The doctor and the nurse are critical to the system, but they aren’t the system. They’re the delivery vehicle.”
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1upHealth CEO Joe Gagnon
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Rock Health is wrapping up the year in style by updating its Innovation Maturity Curve with the hottest trends of 2024, and sharing its predictions for what lies ahead.
The curve uses three major data categories to plot digital health innovations:
- Research volume – gauges the potential of a topic through PubMed publications
- Venture funding – tracks investment as a leading indicator of commercial interest
- Partnership activity – uses industry partnerships as a proxy for commercial traction
Here’s how 2023’s biggest trends progressed over the course of the year:
AI in Healthcare (Maturity Score: Developing) – Digital Health Wire readers know the AI hype cycle is still in full swing, with AI-first digital health startups landing $3.3B in venture capital through the end of Q3. AI partnerships also surged (Rock Health counted 80+, an undercount if anything), but 2024’s plateau in research activity gave another sign that we’re transitioning to practical applications and commercialization.
- Keep an eye on: We’re entering a phase of AI consolidation, with cutthroat competition for major accounts in segments like ambient documentation. As Big Tech inks their own partnerships and juggernauts like Epic double down on new features, “AI enablement will become table stakes across solutions rather than a core differentiator.”
Digital Obesity Care (Maturity Score: Developing) – Moving up from “Nascent” on last year’s curve, the conversation around obesity care has been transformed by GLP-1s and contributed to a rise in digital platforms to help patients access treatment and support.
- Keep an eye on: Increased competition necessitates differentiation. With GLP-1 access still in flux, players need to build momentum with more than just prescribing (precision treatment planning, biometric tracking, support for co-occurring conditions like PCOS).
Food as Medicine (Maturity Score: Emerging) – FaM moved from a niche term to a buzzword (props to Rock Health for helping it happen), with category funding doubling on-year after big raises from players like Foodsmart ($200M). Payors, providers, and grocers contributed to over 30 new FaM partnerships this year.
- Keep an eye on: FaM innovation is closely tied to reimbursement models for food delivery and nutrition consultations, so continued success hinges on sustained policy support. Assuming that happens – seems likely given the Make America Healthy Again chatter – 2025 could be another huge year.
The Takeaway
With the digital health recalibration now (mostly) behind us, Rock Health expects 2025 to give innovators a chance to demonstrate a measurable impact on outcomes and continue their trek along the maturity curve. The whole report is well worth checking out for details on smaller up-and-coming categories like new wearable form factors, digital twins, and climate tech.
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Top Systems Scale Primary Care With K Health
Leading health systems are turning to K Health’s AI-driven primary care solution to give their patients access to high-quality care with wait times measured in hours, not months. Find out why K Health is the only clinical AI company partnering with top systems to scale fully integrated primary care experiences.
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Lift MA Plan Performance by Impacting SDoH
Social factors and non-medical issues strongly influence health outcomes, and addressing these contributing determinants of health can not only improve the lives of patients, but also enhance Medicare Advantage plan success. Learn how Clear Arch Health’s remote monitoring services are helping MA plans deliver cost-effective care while enabling more seniors to age independently.
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BPM Pro 2: Unparalleled Reliability
BPM Pro 2 increases data reliability with two new features that ensure patients are taking their reading properly and prompting them to rest and retake it if their first reading was abnormally high.
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- Walgreens Nears PE Acquisition: Walgreens is reportedly in talks to be acquired by private equity firm Sycamore Partners in a take-private transaction that could close as early as next year. The Wall Street Journal got the scoop from the usual “people familiar with the matter,” outlining Sycamore’s history of investing in dying retail companies like Hot Topic before following the PE-favorite playbook of saddling them with debt and pulling out billions of dollars. A struggling prescriptions segment and the recent $6B writedown to VillageMD made Walgreens a prime target.
- StretchDollar Bags $6M: Health benefits startup StretchDollar raised $6M in funding to support the 60% of small businesses with under 10 employees who don’t currently offer health benefits through its ICHRA-focused model. ICHRA allows small employers to give their employees pre-tax funds to purchase individual health plans, and StretchDollar’s platform streamlines the administration and budget distribution to make it easier to take advantage of the program.
- No Country For Old Men: Despite nearly all U.S. seniors being enrolled in Medicare, they’re still the most likely to struggle with healthcare costs compared to those living in other wealthy nations. A Commonwealth Fund survey of seniors across 10 countries found the highest out-of-pocket spending in the United States, with one 1 in 4 American seniors reporting at least $2,000 of out-of-pocket expenses last year, compared to less than 5% of French and Dutch seniors.
- A Jolly-Good Fello: Fello secured $10.4M to help expand its peer support platform for people struggling with loneliness. The platform uses an app to connect users to “Fellos,” people who have lived experience with challenges like alcohol use, drug use, parenting, or relationships. When users download the app, they fill out a profile that details their needs before matching with a Fello to schedule 15-60 minute video sessions (runs about $40 for per 30-minute session).
- Ranking Nurse AI Potential: McKinsey surveyed over 5k nurses to rank the eight AI use cases with the most potential to improve patient care or nursing workloads. Nurse felt AI would be “very helpful” for (1) enhancing medication management: 74%, (2) eliminating tasks to increase job satisfaction: 73%, (3) improving productivity: 72%, (4) patient education: 71%, (5) clinical education: 70%, (6) streamlining administrative tasks: 70%, (7) synthesizing progress notes and medical records: 68%, and (8) improving diagnosis accuracy and clinical decision support: 66%.
- Bad News for Retail Pharmacies: One in three retail pharmacies in the U.S. have closed their doors since 2010, shutting down at higher rates in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods, as well as communities with more residents lacking health coverage. A Health Affairs study showed that new pharmacy openings outpaced shutdowns for most of the 2010s, but closures accelerated from 2018 to 2021 as 5% of independent pharmacies shut down – most likely due to PBMs beginning to steer more patients toward their own pharmacy networks.
- Sanford Comes Home: South Dakota-based Sanford Health launched one of the first hospital-at-home programs purpose-built for rural patients. Sanford plans to start with about five patients per day and expand to 12 to 16 in the near future. The program aims to serve those within a 30 mile radius by sending registered nurses and community paramedics to provide twice-daily home visits. On the tech side, Sanford will partner with TytoCare and use Epic’s MyChart Bedside mobile app to manage patient care.
- Nudge Texts Don’t Deliver: According to the Nudge trial, text message reminders to patients who delayed refilling their cardiovascular medications did not improve adherence compared with usual care. The trial randomly assigned 9.5k patients who delayed refilling their CV meds to receive either usual care or one of three interventions: (1) a text message reminder; (2) a text reminder that used “behavioral nudges”; or (3) a behavioral nudge text plus a chatbot. None of these methods led to statistically significant increases in medication refills.
- MultiCare Pilots Xsolis GenAI: Washington-based MultiCare Health System will be the first health system to pilot Xsolis’ just-launched GenAI solution, which empowers clinicians to streamline documentation and expedite the submission of appeal letters. MultiCare has reportedly saved over $8M since Xsolis first began helping them meet health plan filing deadlines to receive appropriate reimbursements back in 2017.
- PE Hospices Underperform: Surprising basically nobody, hospice caregivers reported more negative experiences at facilities owned by PE firms and publicly traded companies than at nonprofit facilities. A survey in JAMA Network Open saw hospice caregivers score privately-owned hospices lower across all metrics, including communication, timely care, respect for patients, help with symptoms, and training. The authors call for “greater transparency and accountability” as PE firms continue rolling up hospice facilities with limited regulatory oversight.
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Healthcare’s Financial Future: VC and PE in Focus
Medallion sat down with General Atlantic, Transformation Capital, and Flare Capital Partners to unpack how inefficiencies in provider operations could be quietly draining your revenue – and fast. Tune in to the Elevate session for their secret sauce to address the issue: targeted fixes instead of a total overhaul.
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Join the Nabla Team!
Nabla is scaling up, and it’s looking for a Head of Marketing to lead its next phase of growth. This role will help broaden Nabla’s footprint and showcase the proven impact of ambient AI with a company dedicated to bringing joy back to the practice of medicine. Learn more and apply here.
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A First Principles Approach to Responsible AI
Playback Health has over 15 years of experience breaking down complicated technology problems into basic elements then reassembling new solutions from the ground up, and just published a short-and-sweet guide to help others take a “first principles approach” to responsible AI.
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