Over the past 15 years, many industries have experienced tech breakthroughs that transformed their businesses. While new apps have emerged that enable us to perform tasks better and faster, healthcare has often lagged. Fortunately, that's no longer the case.
Various recent healthcare developments, such as a nursing shortage stemming from the global pandemic, the aging population and an increase in people with healthcare issues have forced the industry to evaluate the ability of their healthcare systems to meet their communities' needs. Additionally, with people reprioritizing their health in the face of these challenges, demand for healthcare options has dramatically increased.
This has led to a surge of innovations in healthcare and health technology – to enable healthcare providers to reach more people with different services and solutions catered to their specific needs. In a report by Statista, there were almost 500 digital health startup deals were funded in the United States in 2023. And according to Crunchbase, the first half of 2024 biotech and health companies have pulled in around $5.6 billion across 110 Series A rounds, accounting for 53% of all the funding at Series A stage. All of these are positive signs that the industry is innovating and growing to meet the population’s needs.
However, even with these positive signs, more must be done to ensure that 1) the industry is creating solutions that solve real-world problems, 2) the solutions help create equity across all types of patients, and 3) good innovations survive the chasm between early adopters and growth.
For this to happen more effectively, we need more collaboration across all of the stakeholders – healthcare providers, insurance, innovators, community, regulators, government, academia, researchers and investors. A whole ecosystem approach will lead to more effective solutions for the equitable delivery of healthcare where people need it most. The result? Better outcomes for people and a healthier overall population.
An example of this type of collaboration is the work that LG NOVA, LG Electronics North America Innovation Center, has undertaken with its new business venture Primefocus Health. Stemming from a strategic initiative with the State of West Virginia, LG NOVA and its startup ventures are exploring new healthcare solutions for the communities in West Virginia and the Appalachian Region. With some of the unique challenges, the initiative's goal is to bring innovative technologies to the region to customize, pilot and provide opportunities for technology solutions from startup companies to reach more people. Primefocus Health is creating a better healthcare experience by developing solutions that enable providers to offer their patience access to the latest digital health technologies and advance care therapies to enable people to live healthier lives.
Better and More Accessible Healthcare for Everyone
One of the great advantages of technology health solutions is that it has the potential to make healthcare much more accessible, both in terms of availability and affordability for patients. However, the advantage also extends to the medical professionals who are helping meet patient medical needs.
From the patient point of view, healthtech can provide virtual access to a number of services, including remote care, which can be a game changer for patients with reduced mobility or those lacking support to attend appointments, such as those who suffer from rare diseases and are unable to attend check-ups due to travel cost, and for providers to save time and increase the level of personalized services to their patients.
With artificial intelligence (AI) now entering the picture, personalized healthcare treatment is closer to becoming a reality. Medical professionals will be able to eliminate tedious tasks throughout their everyday workloads and focus on caregiving. AI will enable greater use of healthcare records to be able to identify health issues and increase the ability to provide preventative care.
In addition, with the adoption of new technologies in healthcare from other market sectors, such as solutions like XRHealth – a VR healthcare therapy platform where licensed therapists work remotely with users through a headset that allows for personalized treatment according to the data the device gathers, options for healthcare at home will continue to grow.
In the future, we expect to see an increase in the growth of technology solutions for the preventive care sector, as it has become a main focus of many governments and world health organizations. We’re definitely living in an exciting time where innovation for the digital healthcare space is advancing, and we can’t wait to see what’s coming up next that will positively impact the lives of all.
Interested in learning more about LG NOVA and its work in HealthTech: Contact us
