June Digital Health Newsletter

What’s in this month’s newsletter?

• Fueling Founders ??: Sword Health raises its latest round in a way that allowed 100s of employees? to cash out if they wished, setting a standard for health-tech companies.
• ? Healthie Highlights: New product feature: Automatic charging for late cancellations is up next!
• ?? Positive Results for MSK: Peterson Institute came out with a positive review of Virtual MSK Solutions, saying they deliver clinically-meaningful improvements in pain and function”; this in comparison to their previous report saying Virtual Diabetes programs do not.?
• Independent News Sources We ??: We want to show you two blogs - you may have never heard of -? that have been writing for 10+ years as stalwarts in the Digital Health industry (back when it was called Health IT!) and still remain relevant today
• ?? How your IPO Comps are performing ??: One of our favorite Twitter follows, Blake Madden, drops his latest Health Tech Index showing the poor performance of IPO-ed Health-Tech companies.?

?? Fueling Founders

Sword Health, a virtual MSK company, recently raised $130M in a round that valued the company around $3B. While this is a bright spot for funding news, the true takeaway is what Sword did for its early employees: it allowed them to sell their shares in the secondary market to investors. This rewarded folks who were vested but hadn’t seen liquidity from those shares.

Why this matters: Being an early employee means taking a huge bet. This is especially true in health-tech where the average exit takes 7-10 years, often more. Sword’s actions here show how companies can reward their employee’s loyalty and grow the company in a fiscally responsible manner at the same time. Granted, Sword was in a fortunate position with enough investors buying the growth story - not every company has this option. But it’s great to see especially for a healthcare company that helped pioneer a category.?

Tweet from Virgílio Bento explaining more context ??

? Healthie Highlights

A new Late Cancellation status is now available in appointment details. Use this status when a patient cancels outside the acceptable cancellation window. This feature is a precursor to upcoming functionality that will allow automatic charges for late cancellations and no-shows.

• Adjust Appointment Statuses & Cancellation Settings: [Watch tutorial video]
• Read More: [View the release doc]
• Stay Updated: Subscribe to this Portal card for real-time notifications on the upcoming billing automation.

You can review all May 2024 releases here, including core platform and API updates.?

Want to stay up-to-date on all product releases, partnerships, and upcoming roadmap items? Subscribe to our monthly Product Newsletter.?

? We are excited to welcome two new partners to the Healthie Harbor!

Morf Health: Sync patient data and automate workflows across your tools to support seamless patient signup + onboarding while eliminating tedious admin tasks.

Hopscotch Play: Engage young patients, through a robust library of clinician created games, interactive stories, mindfulness activities and more.

On a different note, it may seem pre-emptive but our team is already pumped (and planning) for a stellar fall conference season. Our team will be heading to HLTH in Las Vegas, and have some memorable events & collaborations in the works.?

We’re also thrilled to be sponsoring Behavioral Health Tech, the rising star of digital health conferences founded by Solome Tibebu – BHT is focused on enhancing access to mental health through technology & innovation. As an infrastructure platform for behavioral health companies, we’re excited to connect with partners, customers, and innovators in the space.?

?? Positive Results for MSK

In a previous newsletter, we highlighted a Peterson report that called into question whether virtual diabetes care solutions had a positive clinical impact. That same organization, the Peterson Health Technology Institute, now released a report about Virtual MSK solutions saying they “deliver clinically-meaningful improvements in pain and function”. This is a positive sign and also a nice milestone for an industry that serves 1 in 2 Americans experiencing MSK pain.

Why this matters: Whether you agree with the results of the study or not … the more important pieces here are that (1) the outcomes/results of these companies are being scrutinized and (2) that the industry is having a discussion on efficacy at all. Arguing about whether this study results are valid is good for Digital Health. It raises the bar for digital point solutions and provides references/comps for employers to consider when choosing such solutions. This shows a maturing of our digital corner of the broader industry, which is badly needed.?

Independent News Sources We ??

While we’re all used to reading popular large healthcare news sites like Stat News or Modern Healthcare, those gained prominence once our industry had reached a certain hype/maturity point. Before there was “Digital Health”, before HIPAA and HITECH were passed, there was just “Health IT”. It was a small, often shunned corner of the industry. Yet there were folks writing back then that continue to write today.?

Two such ones we’d like to highlight are:

1. The Healthcare Blog - Come here for the varied opinions and often hot takes of the writers. THCB was started by Matthew Holt, a self-proclaimed “healthcare curmudgeon”. Here’s an example of a popular post of his that calls into question whether Value-Based Care has made meaningful progress over the last twenty years or not.?
2. HIS Talk - More focused on “healthcare IT” / Digital Health, this anonymous blog has been writing since January 2003 - yet it remains as popular as ever. The anonymity of the author has allowed HISTalk to report on inside stories; additional they have a fantastic interview series of healthcare executives.

Why this matters: Independent journalism/blogs are what keep our industry thriving. We need these voices to provide contrary opinions and non-mainstream thinking so that we have diversity of thought. We have a new generation of Substackers and Beehivers that have been writing in digital health, which is wonderful - but likely most of those folks won’t be writing in another few years. These blogs have been doing this for 10, 20 years and it’s a labor of love that should be recognized.?

?? How your IPO comps are performing

Health-tech’s favorite analyst, Blake Madden, author of the “Hospitalogy” newsletter and scratch golfer just dropped his latest analysis showing the IPO performance of all public health-tech companies. As expected the performance is pretty poor across the board, with a few bright spots like HIMS and some acquisitions post-IPO like OSH.?

Why this matters: For Founders/Funders out there … if your company is similar to one of these on the list, then it’s going to draw a comparison during your funding rounds. It's critical to be able to articulate why your economics/performance will be different at scale, even if you never plan on going public. In an industry with a small track record (and poor public performance at that), it's also important for business leaders to learn from past mistakes. Public companies give us that rare window into healthcare operations and their financial impacts; use this to your advantage.??

Tweet from Blake Madden ??

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That's all for this month!

Team @ Healthie