3 Reasons Why You Should Invest In Health Tech Startups Next Year

Choosing any overarching theme or common denominator surrounding companies to invest in can be incredibly difficult. 

However, if there’s one category of startups that deserve the attention that they receive, it’s the health-technology companies that are taking the investment world by storm. There’s never been a more exciting time to be in the healthcare business and we’ve got technology to solely thank for that. 

With huge leaps of progress made in artificial intelligence, virtual reality, augmented reality and blockchain, it’s safe to say that the health-tech companies have more than enough on their plate. 

Naturally, this draws plenty of investment opportunities with huge potential from a number of interesting startups all promising to revolutionize the way we see healthcare. The scary part is that, for a good number of those making the promises, they’re going to be right. 

Considering taking a leap on faith and investing in health-tech startups? Here’s 3 reasons why you should invest in the coming year. 

Blockchain in healthcare

One of the most interesting areas of development in the health-tech industry is the work surrounding blockchain in healthcare (here’s a great guide on this topic). 

Although blockchain is most often associated with cryptocurrency, coming into the public eye following the soaring of the value of bitcoin in 2017, the potential uses expand far greater than the digital currency. As blockchain allows for a secure public ledger, it is the perfect candidate for moving into the healthcare industry and with more companies seeing the benefit of the systems, it’s as good a time as any to begin investment.  

If you’re not already familiar, blockchain is defined as a decentralized list of digital records that are linked together by cryptography. The system was originally developed to ensure a secure open ledger able to record digital transactions, all while being managed by a peer-to-peer network. In the healthcare industry, it is concerned with the “removal of the middleman”. 

In 2018, HIPAA reported at least a single data breach of private healthcare records every day. Additionally, between the years 2009 and 2018, over a staggering 59% of the US population is documented to have had their healthcare records compromised from data breaches.

By utilizing blockchain within the industry, the security surrounding a variety of transactional activities is heavily increased, eliminating bureaucracy and manual inefficiencies all while focusing on the improvement in the quality of care and democratizing patient data.

Big data in healthcare

Conversely, the collection of big data in healthcare is another highly lucrative area within the healthcare-technology industry, although this isn’t concerned with the health records themselves. 

Healthcare big data refers to the collection, analysis and leveraging of the consumer, patient, physical, and clinical data that is too vast and/or complex for traditional data processing. This is where machine learning and data science comes in to play, identifying patterns and salient information throughout the data. 

But big data comes packed with associated benefits for the healthcare industry leading to the improvement in the consistency of care (allowing different professionals easily view records and treatment plans) and personalized medicine. 

That’s not all, and with the abilities of machine learning, there’s the benefits of increased efficiency, awareness and overall population health with data models more than capable of creating holistic views of patients and populations groups. 

It’s hardly a surprise that information and data are highly valuable and the benefits of big data stretch much further than healthcare applications. We’re expecting some highly successful startups coming out of the woodwork in the coming year’s thanks to big data and big data alone 

If you’re interested in learning more about some of the most innovative healthcare startups out there, check out this article covering the top companies to look out for in the coming year. 

Software as a Medical Device (SaMD)

Another huge area of an exciting development that’ll prick the ears of keen investors is Software as a Medical Device (SaMD). 

If you’re unaware of the tech, according to the FDA, SaMD is defined as a class of software designed to undertake one (or more) medical functions. SaMD can come in a variety of forms including traditional computer software or mobile apps focusing on telemedicine and patient treatment. 

The defining feature is simple - the complete lack of hardware required. As of current, SaMD is used alongside non-medical computing platforms (which could be virtual network connected), traditional simple medical devices or alternative general hardware. 

So what are the actual benefits that surround SaMD? Well, this can be split into two main categories:

1. Improvement in healthcare outcomes: As SaMD allows for quick and easy high-quality data collection, the tech can amplify the effectiveness of existing medical devices, treatment plans and ultimately healthcare outcomes.

2. Improved innovation speed: SaMD focused on the optimization of existing medical device functionality by allowing the innovation of software solutions that often prove to be faster and cheaper to update and improve than the hardware itself. Due to software reliance, SaMD can adopt the latest technologies to both integrate and share health data across a variety of platforms, sharing as much information as possible. 

SaMD is all about streamlining the process and with huge data collection at incredible speeds, it can build feedback loops, again driving innovation. With a number of companies, not just those in the healthcare sector, using fast innovation as a vital component of their business, it proves a highly lucrative business for startups focusing in this area. 

The verdict

Put simply, if there’s one industry that deserves your investment, and more importantly, your time, it’s the healthcare-technology industry and the startups that come with it.

With huge developments in AI, VR, AR, and blockchain, there’s no argument to be made that this is one of the most exciting times in recent history for investment opportunities. With plenty of companies out there with huge potential, it truly is the perfect time for action. 

It’s not just the healthcare industry that has an interest in the tech - but plenty of others that will benefit massively.