Health Tech?—?are we there yet?
In 2011/12 I was part of a small startp-up working with a mental health service (BigWhiteWall) to offer patients ‘virtual’ consultations over video. It was a difficult road translating a sensitive and highly regulated service like mental health care to the web. We had to work through red tape, flakey video conferencing technology, NHS bureaucracy and a significant change in user behaviour. But it did work, and we gained a huge amount of experience. A year or so later, we developed a GP telehealth service (Doctor Care Anywhere), again navigating complex technological and regulatory obstacles to deliver a functional and secure service. Although this was difficult, we felt confident things would only get easier and were sure these type of health services would be ubiquitous in the coming years.
Fast-forward 5–6 years and althouth ‘health tech’ is hot, it doesn’t feel like we’re ‘there’ yet. Health tech and telehealth services haven’t quite hit the mainstream in the way we’d hoped back in 2011. No doubth the issues we faced back in 2011/12 (red tape, NHS bureaucracy etc) are still present, but it could also be an issue with health tech services themselves.
Very logically the first wave of health tech and telehealth services (including the ones we worked on) were aimed at the largest markets and lowest hanging fruits, GP services and general health. But while some of the larger services such as Babylon Health have 100s of thousands of users worldwide, the NHS deals with a million patients every 36hrs.
This highlights the gap that health tech needs to close over time. Obviously quality, trust, security and realiablity are critical ingredients for any health tech service to achieve widespread use, but deeper specialistation could be the real key to unlocking heath tech’s potential.
This ties in with reports that show over 20% of british adults user search engines to self diagnose, rather than visiting a GP. These people are searching for specific health issues, not generic health services. So deeper, not wider, services might be better placed to win and catapult health tech into the mainstream. In fact we’re seeing the space move in that direction already, pocket-sized heart monitors, connected kegel excercise trackers and ostomy pouches. With many more examples out there showing potential, particularly where tech can add real value, not just fluff.
In fact it’s this hypothesis that’s drawn me back into health tech, where I currently head a new venture focusing on men’s health. Helping men deal with some of the issues they are more reluctant to visit their GP about. The success of our approach remains to be seen, but I hope to see a rising health tech tide lift all ships and offer a wider range of choices for people to get and stay healthy.