Tag: health innovation

Innovators: Avoid Health Care

Jun 18, 2024

By KIM BELLARD

NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang has become quite the media darling lately, due to NVIDIA’s skyrocketing market value the past two years ($3.3 trillion now, thank you very much. A year ago it first hit $1 trillion). His company is now the world’s third largest company by market capitalization. Last week he gave the commencement speech at Caltech, and offered those graduates some interesting insights.

Which, of course, I’ll try to apply to healthcare.

Mr. Jensen founded NVIDIA in 1993, and took the company public in 1999, but for much of its existence it struggled to find its niche. Mr. Huang figured NVIDIA needed to go to a market where there were no customers yet – “because where there are no customers, there are no competitors.” He likes to call this “zero billion dollar markets” (a phrase I gather he did not invent).

About a decade ago the company bet on deep learning and A.I. “No one knew how far deep learning could scale, and if we didn’t build it, we’d never know,” Mr. Huang told the graduates. “Our logic is: If we don’t build it, they can’t come.”

NVIDIA did build it, and, boy, they did come.

He believes we all should try to do things that haven’t been done before, things that “are insanely hard to do,” because if you succeed you can make a real contribution to the world. Going into zero billion dollar markets allows a company to be a “market maker, not a market-taker.” He’s not interested in market share; he’s interested in developing new markets.

Accordingly, he told the Caltech graduates:

I hope you believe in something. Something unconventional, something unexplored. But let it be informed, and let it be reasoned, and dedicate yourself to making that happen. You may find your GPU. You may find your CUDA. You may find your generative AI. You may find your NVIDIA.

And in that group, some may very well.

He didn’t promise it would be easy, citing his company’s own experience, and stressing the need for resilience. “One setback after another, we shook it off and skated to the next opportunity. Each time, we gain skills and strengthen our character,” Mr. Huang said. “No setback that comes our way doesn’t look like an opportunity these days… The world can be unfair and deal you with tough cards. Swiftly shake it off. There’s another opportunity out there — or create one.”

He was quite pleased with the Taylor Swift reference; the crowd seemed somewhat less impressed.

Has “Disruption” Reached Its Sell-by Date?

Oct 5, 2022• 2

BY JEFF GOLDSMITH

If you read the business press, as I do every day, It is impossible to escape the “disruption” meme. Clayton Christiansen’s 1997 Innovator’s Dilemma explored how established businesses are blindsided by lower cost competitors that undermine their core products, and eventually destroy their businesses. Classic examples were the displacement of film-based cameras by digital cameras and then cell phones, the destruction of retail shopping by Amazon and of video rental by streaming video services.

A Civic Religion

Perhaps because Christiansen’s analysis arrived at the peak of the first Internet boom, it generated a high level of anxiety in the corporate world. It did not seem to matter that Christiansen’s analysis was riddled with flaws, meticulously detailed in Harvard colleague Jill Lepore’s takedown in the New Yorker in 2014.

By then, the disruption thesis had become a cornerstone of a kind of civic religion, an article of faith and an indispensable staple of fundraising pitches in the venture and private equity worlds. No one seemed to be asking how great a trade for the society was, say, tiny Craigslist taking down the newspaper business by drying up its classified ad revenues.

Disrupting a $4 Trillion Health System

I believe that, twenty five years on, the notion of disruptive innovation has reached its “sell-by” date. At least in healthcare, the field of commerce I follow most closely, it is now doing more harm than good. The healthcare version of the disruption thesis was found in Christiansen’s “Innovator’s Prescription”, written with health industry maverick Dr. Jerome Grossman in 2009. Christiansen and Grossman forecast that innovations such as point-of-care testing, retail clinics, and special purpose surgical hospitals threatened to take down healthcare incumbents.

A swarm of breathless (and reckless) healthcare disruption forecasts shortly followed.

After the Crash

Feb 3, 2022• 4

By JEFF GOLDSMITH

These are grim days for innovative healthcare companies. The health tech and care innovation firms mature enough to make it to public markets have been eviscerated in the ongoing market correction. As of January 29, 2022, high fliers like One Medical (down 83% from peak), Oscar (down 83%), Bright Healthcare (down 85%), Teladoc (down 77% but still selling at 6X revenues!), and AmWell (down 90%) are the tip of a much larger melting iceberg. The dozens of digital health unicorns (e.g. pre-public companies valued at more than $1 billion) and their less mythical brethren, into which investors poured more than $45 billion during 2020-2021, are sheltering in the comparative safety of VC/Private Equity balance sheets. They are protected from investor wrath until those firms’ limited partners force a revaluation of their portfolios based on the market value of their publicly traded comparables.

Yet it is the next moves that these innovative firms and their equity holders make that will determine whether these firms realize their full transformative potential or fade into insignificance. The Gartner Group, which tracks the technology industry generally, popularized the notion of the Hype Cycle- a seemingly universal trajectory that tech innovations and the firms that produce them follow (see below).

The Gartner Hype Cycle

Everyone seems to focus on the colorful first phase of this cycle- the inflating and deflating part- where an innovation rises on a wave of the adulatory press (and breathless futurist punditry), then crashes ignominiously into the Slough of Despond. A classic example was the Apple iPhone’s ill-starred great uncle, the Apple Newton, which launched in 1993 and crashed shortly thereafter.

For founders and investors, as well as customers, however, it is the less visible succeeding phases that determine if the innovation survives and the firms that produce them become ubiquitous and indispensable parts of our lives. The rising initial phase of Gartner’s Hype Cycle is driven by the question “Is it cool”?, mediated by hyperactive media and Internet buzz. The inevitable crash, on the other hand, is almost always driven by the troublesome real-world question, “Does the product actually work as advertised?” Analysts, writers, and, most importantly, customers press uncomfortable questions about not only functionality, but also reliability, affordability, stickiness, and “value for money”.

How do firms survive the crash and climb Gartner’s “Slope of Enlightenment”? This is the unglamorous “pick and shovel” part. If the sticky “product integrity” issues (does the product actually work?) are resolved, then a host of important questions challenge the firm, its founders, and owners, which answers the crucial question: whether it is a real business:

Metaverse and Health Care – A View From 50,000 Feet

Sep 13, 2021

by MIKE MAGEE

dystopian
[disˈtōpēən]
ADJECTIVE
1. relating to or denoting an imagined state or society where there is great suffering or injustice.
NOUN
1. a person who imagines or foresees a state or society where there is great suffering or injustice.

There are certain words that keep popping up in 2021 whose meanings are uncertain and which deserve both recognition and definition. And so, the offering above – the word “dystopian.” Dystopian as in the sentence “The term was coined by writer Neal Stephenson in the 1992 dystopian novel Snow Crash.”

One word leads to another. For example, the above-mentioned noun, referred to as dystopian by science fiction writer Stephenson three decades ago, was “Metaverse”. He attached this invented word (the prefix “meta” meaning beyond and “universe”) to a vision of how “a virtual reality-based Internet might evolve in the near future.”

“Metaverse” is all the rage today, referenced by the leaders of Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple, but also by many other inhabitors of virtual worlds and augmented reality. The land of imaginary 3D spaces has grown at breakneck speed, and that was before the self-imposed isolation of a worldwide pandemic.

But most agree that the metaverse remains a future-facing concept that has not yet approached its full potential. As noted, it was born out of science fiction in 1992, then adopted by gamers and academics, simultaneously focusing on studying, applying, and profiting from the creation of alternate realities. But it is gaining ground fast, and igniting a cultural tug of war.

A Timex Healthcare System

May 12, 2021• 1

By KIM BELLARD

Those of us of a certain age remember the Timex slogan that bragged about its watches’ durability: “It takes a licking and keeps on ticking.” A recent article about our military, of all things, made me wish we had a healthcare system that prized that kind of durability.

I can never resist analogies between the U.S. healthcare system and the U.S. military system. They’re both huge, they’re both wildly expensive, they both rely on a combination of high tech and front-line people, and they both protect us from threats. In some ways, both are the best in the world, and, in other ways, both have weaknesses that are embarrassing. And, as I wrote last year, both are often still fighting the wrong wars.

The article is by national security expert JC Herz on the Atlantic Council’s website: A plea to the Pentagon: Don’t sacrifice resilience on the altar of innovation. Boy, that sure applies to healthcare too.

Ms. Herz notes how Americans love innovation, but:

This mythos informs a narrative that what is valuable is The New—the upgrade to something bigger, badder, and sexier…What the United States needs to reinvigorate its defense base, compete with China, and win the global economy must be more innovation.

Except the United States does not suffer from a lack of innovation; it suffers from a lack of resilience.

There Will Be Consequences

Apr 14, 2020• 1

By KIM BELLARD

Crises — like our current COVID-19 pandemic — force people to come up with new solutions. They slash red tape, they improvise, they innovate, they collaborate, they cut corners. Some of these will prove inspired, others will only be temporary, and a few will turn out to be misguided. We may not know which is which except in hindsight.

I covered some of these in a previous article, but let me highlight a few:

Hospitals: We’re building new hospitals, such as in convention centers, to address the expected shortage of beds. Hospitals are also coordinating where to send which types of patients.
Testing: We’re creating drive-through testing centers in parking lots and elsewhere.
Telehealth: We’ve loosened the restrictions on telehealth, improving reimbursement and rules about when it can be used.
Coverage: We’re trying to ensure that deductibles/copayments do not pose barriers to people getting tests and treatment, even for those without insurance.
Clinicians: We’re looking for clinicians everywhere we can — allowing licensed ones from other states to practice, letting people who were health care professionals in other countries practice here, calling retired ones back into service even if their license had expired, even letting almost-graduated medical professionals start practicing.
FDA approvals: The FDA is using its “emergency use guidance” authorization to start allowing use of drugs and other treatments much quicker, and with much less evidence, such as for hydroxychloroquine, diagnostic testing, and ventilators.

Pandemics Are the Mother of Invention

Mar 31, 2020

By KIM BELLARD

If, as they say, necessity is the mother of invention, then you’d have to say that the COVID-19 pandemic is proving to be the mother of invention and innovation. And, like Isaac Hayes sang about Shaft, it is a “bad mother…(shut your mouth).”

Many believe that the Allies won WWII in large part because of how industry in the U.S. geared up to produce fantastic amounts of weapons and other war materials. It took some time for businesses to retool and get production lines flowing, during which the Axis powers made frightening advances, but once they did it was only a matter of time until the Allies would prevail.

Similarly, COVID-19 is making scary inroads around the world, while businesses are still gearing up to produce the number of ventilators, personal protective equipment (PPE), tests, and other badly needed supplies. COVID-19 is currently outnumbering these efforts, but eventually we’ll get the necessary equipment in the needed amounts.

Eventually.

Taking Healthcare Innovation Beyond the “Peloton Crowd” | Andy Slavitt, Town Hall Ventures

Feb 13, 2020

By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH

Andy Slavitt, former Acting Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and founder and partner at Town Hall Ventures, talks about how venture capitalists and health tech startups can help make healthcare more affordable and accessible for the 130 million Americans beyond the “Peloton crowd.” We ask Andy if he thinks “social determinants of health” is more than just an industry buzzword, get his advice for startups motivated to make a difference, and hear his predictions for what will change healthcare in this new decade.

Filmed at J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, January 2020.

The EU-Backed Community of Health Innovators Transforming Health | Katharina Ladewing, EIT Health

Feb 5, 2020

By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH

Financially backed by the EU, EIT Health is a pan-European network of health innovators and 150+ corporate and academic partners across the continent who pool their assets to support widespread health innovation across Europe. We caught up with Katharina Ladewing, Managing Director for EIT Health Germany, about the group’s priorities, how they enable early and late stage startups to find funding and business partners, and how digital health has been evolving (rapidly) in the EU over the past few years. Wondering what the differences are between the health tech startup ecosystems in Europe versus the US? Katharina shares some of the insights she’s gained after four years watching this space mature.

Filmed at Frontiers Health in Berlin, Germany, November 2019.

Hospital Innovation in Madrid: Harder than in U.S.? | Julio Mayol, CMO, Hospital Clinico San Carlos

Jan 13, 2020

BY JESSICA DAMASSA, WTF HEALTH

Is healthcare innovation more challenging in a public healthcare system? We sat down with the Chief Medical Officer & Director of Innovation for the Hospital Clinico San Carlos, Dr. Julio Mayol, to find out! A large, academic research hospital in Madrid, Hospital Clinico San Carlos is an 800-bed facility that has served Madrid since 1717. The hospital counts the entire population of the city (all 6.5M of them) as their patient base and, as such, takes a different approach to integrating new health technology and innovations. Dr. Mayol unpacks the way he leads population health initiatives in his institution, talking through his approach for engaging physicians, external partners, and patients alike to improve the quality of care. Is it different than the way it works in the U.S.? Tune in to find out!

Filmed at Barcelona Health Hub Summit in Barcelona, Spain, October 2019.