Healthcare: an innovators dream or a graveyard for startups? Part 1

As innovators and patients (we have all likely touched an element of healthcare at some stage in our lives), many of us are wanting to solve something meaningful, mission driven and impactful. In doing so, the road often leads to healthcare.

Healthcare seemingly is the opportunity for startups. There is still no clear winner in healthcare, we lack the killer (excuse the pun) App, we don't yet have consumer empowerment, spend in healthcare continues to grow, it is seemingly recession proof, incumbents appear lethargic, and there are some great regulatory moats that prevent an all-in approach to innovation. An innovators delight! Right? Wrong?

It begs the question, why is it that healthcare is what it is? Is it the entrenched lobby groups, our own health illiteracy, laws preventing DTC marketing,?old school paternalism, expectations that healthcare should be free, the truly local nature of healthcare, governments dis-incentivised to support innovation and SMEs , complexity, a wicked problem -?or?is it that healthcare truly is different?

If one believes that healthcare is the opportunity (I do), the question is, where does one go hunting amidst the $220 billion in healthcare spend in Australia, the $4.2 trillion in the US market, or the $11.9 trillion global healthcare market?

Stay tuned... (feel free to comment below)