Monday, December 14, 2020
The light at the end of the tunnel is visible as the year comes to a close. With the FDA’s approval of the Pfizer vaccine, we will soon start climbing out of the pandemic crisis and may have put it behind us by this time next year. We include a fascinating story on how Pfizer pulled off this scientific and engineering feat.
2020 has been a story about telehealth more than anything else. As health systems get past their frantic effort in the past several months to stand up and scale their telehealth programs, the next challenge will be to design programs for specific population segments and care needs. I discuss why telehealth will need to go beyond a one-size-fits-all approach in my latest piece in Healthcare IT News.
My favorite read this past week was an exploration of the strategic questions behind Salesforce’s acquisition of Slack in HBR. The authors ask the question how long a company can thrive by doing just one thing. While this may be counterintuitive to the perceived merits of focus, the authors argue that Slack had to choose between being a best-in-class stand-alone company trying to beat Microsoft and being a part of a larger firm such as Salesforce with a greater chance of long-term success. The question may well be one that digital health startups may need to ask themselves. Health systems leaders make choices between native digital capabilities in EHR platforms vs looking outside at best-in-class standalone platforms. They often choose to go with native features, mostly due to the convenience seamless integration. The hope for digital health startups is that as the barriers to interoperability and access to patient data break down, it may be the EHR platform companies who need to be worried.
Holiday special: I am pleased to offer a holiday season discount of 10% for my new book! Use code HDT BOOK 10 when you claim your offer (limited number of copies).
Stay safe. Wear a mask.
Podcast of the week
In this episode, Daniel Nigrin discusses how digital at Boston Children’s Hospital is about transforming healthcare by improving the care experience for consumers, patients, families, and clinicians and their interaction with the health system.
This Week in Digital Health Markets
We are selectively featuring guest posts in our newsletter from senior leaders in healthcare and technology. Reach outto us if you would like to contribute a blog to one of our upcoming newsletters.
With telehealth, one size won’t fit all
Mature health systems recognize the importance of context and design virtual care programs accordingly. Telehealth looks different for millennials and retirees, rural and urban patients and population groups with fundamentally different healthcare needs. Healthcare IT News
Telehealth, vaccines will be big cybersecurity challenges in 2021, experts predict
The new security industry forecast from Experian predicts that cybercriminals will use strategies honed in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis to wreak havoc in 2021. Healthcare IT News
Private equity investment in healthcare was strong through Q3 but may fade in Q4
Health IT and telehealth continue to be strong investment areas for VC/PE firms. Modern Healthcare
Amazon Web Services to launch HIPAA-eligible data management service
AWS’s new HealthLake service allows organizations to store, tag, index, standardize, query and apply machine learning to analyze data in the cloud, as well as automatically structuring information into HL7’s FHIR standard. Healthcare IT News
How Pfizer Delivered a Covid Vaccine in Record Time: Crazy Deadlines, a Pushy CEO
Fascinating story of how Pfizer’s vaccine came about. Science, technology, manufacturing and human endeavor all rolled into one. Wall Street Journal
HHS proposes changing HIPAA privacy rules
HHS proposed changes to HIPAA rules that aim to improve care coordination and give patients more access to their health information. Modern Healthcare
How Long Can a Company Thrive Doing Just One Thing?
Outstanding piece on product-market strategy that goes beyond just an understanding of Salesforce’s acquisition of Slack. The debate about bundled vs best-in-class tools has never been more relevant in the context of digital health and digital transformation. Harvard Business Review
New CMS interoperability rule would streamline prior authorization processes
The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a proposed rule aimed at improving the electronic exchange of healthcare data among payers, providers, and patients. Healthcare IT News
Chart of the Week
Health record exchanges through Care Everywhere dipped in March and April as routine and elective care was postponed. As operations resumed and COVID-19 cases surged, exchanges have increased to over 221 million in a month.
Events
Our CEO Paddy Padmanabhan on Health Tech Spotlight podcast talks about the new era of virtual care, telehealth, his podcast 'The Big Unlock,' and how he helped his community through music. Listen here.
Our CEO Paddy Padmanabhan on MarketScale’s I Don’t Care podcast with host Kevin Stevenson discusses the sudden upscaling of virtual care capacity, the mainstreaming of telehealth, the mounting momentum of healthcare digital transformation, and the cybersecurity risks that are sure to accelerate concurrently. Listen here.
Damo Consulting Thought Leadership and Research
Top digital health tools to enhance patient experience and access
One of the most important aspects of care delivery is to enhance patient experience and access to care. This article talks about digital tools that can help with major digital health areas and how digital front doors help improve processes and enhance physician and patient experience.
A mid-year review of the financial and market performance of global technology consulting firms in healthcare.
The WITCH Monthly Monitor - Our monthly update on major global IT consulting and services firms in healthcare provides the latest financial and market performance updates on WITCH companies along with other global IT consulting firms. *WITCH Monthly Monitor is now available as a free 1-year subscription with every purchase of The WITCH Report.
