Healthcare tech: the driving force behind value-based care?

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about the most unexpected and unprecedented challenges, stretching our finite healthcare resources to an extent where they have reached a breaking point. The pandemic forced healthcare systems and providers to become more agile, and the industry has adopted technologies at a rate like never before.

The numbers speak for themselves. During  the last 10 years, investments in the health-tech sector trended between $2 to $5 billion. In 2020 alone, this number rose to more than $14 billion.¹ So how has this rapid adoption of technology transformed the way care is delivered?

Fishawack Health talks to physician and AI informatics expert turned venture capitalist Sunny Kumar to learn how the healthcare technology landscape has changed because of COVID-19. He reveals how innovative technology drives us closer to value-based care and the trends he thinks are worth the hype.

What’s your role at GSR ventures?

SK: As a partner at GSR Ventures, I oversee healthcare technology investments. We structure our work in a full-stack manner. So, I am involved in everything from developing our investment thesis to finding visionary entrepreneurs to partner with and determining which companies are most likely to create transformative impact in a sector. Once we partner with a company, I support our founders as they scale up and, at the appropriate time, help elevate those companies to the next level.

Do you think the pandemic has been a catalyst for changes in the way care is delivered?

SK: Healthcare is becoming more consumerized. Patients are looking for options designed around them, as opposed to the more traditional one‑size‑fits‑all healthcare system. A meaningful set of patients prefer to get their care delivered through technology, for example, via text message. They want to be able to get everything they need at the click of a button—that really didn’t exist before in a scalable manner.

The historical constraints of having to receive your healthcare in a physical clinic are also becoming less limiting. We’ve partnered with several companies in this space, including Medable, which helps transform traditional clinical trials through technology.

Instead of requiring patients to visit big academic medical centers many times throughout the clinical trial, Medable moves the trial out of the hospital and into the patient’s home by using technologies to collect or report information and enable remote patient-provider interactions. Pharmaceutical companies and contract research organizations (CRO) are now adopting this platform technology at a lightning pace.

This rapid transformation is happening on the patient side as well. For example, we have partnered with Alpha Medical, a company that delivers asynchronous telemedicine focused on women’s health. They are using technology to ensure that women can access convenient and personalized care, no matter how far away they are from a medical facility. Imagine the impact of being able to receive the best care anywhere in the country at a fraction of the cost… That’s what Alpha Medical is delivering today.

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