Government Poised To Provide A Huge Boost To Healthtech Startups

Attribution:  All of this article is attributed to

Attribution:  All of this article is attributed to

Dave Chase is the CEO and Co-founder of Avado, a Patient Relationship Management platform that automates interactions between an individual and their healthcare providers greatly reducing the administrative burden for healthcare providers and improving the patient experience. 

Currently, the federal government is poised to level the playing field for healthtech startups. An unprecedented wave of innovative healthtech startups has been developing over the last few years. You can see them at conferences such as Health 2.0, TechCrunch Disrupt, TEDMED and demo day events that Blueprint Health, Healthbox, Rock Health and Startup Health host. Nonetheless, the health sector may be the single most challenging arena for startups.

Fortunately, there are scores of innovative startups who are start up health,well positioned to address the patient engagement requirement. Look no further than the companies in startup incubators/accelerators or the scores of companies demonstrating at Health 2.0 conferences. These software developers from Silicon Valley, Seattle, Boston, New York and elsewhere have the skillset to address this critical requirement. They can assist healthcare providers directly or via their vendor partners.

Unfortunately, with little awareness of innovative healthtech startups, providers and legacy vendors are pushing back against the requirements proposed by the ONC. There is a major risk that the proposed requirements will be watered down based upon this feedback. What could be the biggest ever jumpstart to the healthtech startup community could become a missed opportunity. More importantly, the opportunity to make a huge difference in the health of our population would also be missed.

Note: The image accompanying this article is from Regina Holliday. As described on her Wikipedia page, Regina paints images that encapsulate her view and others in the e-patient community

Having high expectations for Patient Engagement will cause healthcare providers to rise to the occasion to solve this huge issue. Consider that three-quarters of healthcare spend is on chronic disease and decisions that drive outcomes are made by individuals(aka “patients”). It’s long been said the most important member of the care team is the patient. It’s time to transform that from a catchphrase to reality.

2012 TEDMED. During the event, they had a “Great Challenges“ contest. Not surprisingly, “The Role of the Patient” was a leading vote getter. This despite the fact that it didn’t begin to hint at the role patients can play if they’re equipped with information.  And that’s a major point of why patient and family engagement are proposed in Stage 2 Meaningful Use.  As support built for the challenge, it’s critical that your voice is heard on the proposed Stage 2 Meaningful Use requirements.

Voting for the petition is great to raise visibility, but the most impactful thing you can do is to comment on the government site