BearingOn.Health Original Contribution

April 2024

Experts in digital health weigh-in on the dramatic shift we're seeing throughout the industry with acquisition, liquidations, and big changes in leadership:

“We’ve seen an explosion in point solutions directed at various health conditions or meant to address some piece of the healthcare pie. At the same time, CMS has been pushing, through CMMI, for providers to take on more financial risk for the patients they serve. The thing is, in order to perform well at risk-based care, you can’t outsource each of the required elements to any number of digital companies. If you do that, aside from splitting the dollars up so much that your initial hole is too deep to even start to extricate yourself, you lose the coordinated and integrated care that is essential to succeed in value-based arrangements. Having too many participants in care delivery puts you right back in the disjointed world reminiscent of fee-for-service. I think digital health service providers need to consider how their products can integrate into a brick-and-mortar healthcare system. Those that do will survive and thrive. They also need to take the time to understand how best to approach the multiple structures currently in place in value-based care. The conversations, fee structures, data, and outcomes are different for each one. I think this has also contributed to some companies with great potential failing to achieve what could have been within reach had they understood the nuances and approached things differently."

Adam Solomon, Consultant

“When we’re talking about digital health products and services, it should consider measurements beyond test results and cost. We should also ask, ‘Are these apps and services improving the patient experience journey? Are they improving the experience of living with that disease so it’s not so traumatic?’ We all have a story where our experience as a patient could’ve been significantly better. Yes, we want to see metric-based improvements in blood work or another objective measure, but even if all we did was improve the patient’s quality of life, that is valuable. We’re looking through the lens of value-based care, but what does that really mean? It means curing disease, improving quality of life, and alleviating pain or suffering. That’s what medicine was originally intended to do. But you have to look at three groups: the individual, the overall population, and the healthcare professionals. Our doctors and nurses need a quality of life to sustain their work. The burden and the economics of being a physician isn’t what it used to be. Quality of life needs to be a measure of success. It’s amazing how people in the healthcare business don’t talk about quality of life until they become patients themselves.”

Eric Marton, WaveMaker360