Healthcare is fragmentedâŚ
Platforms make connections and facilitate interactionsâŚ
Platforms are more than just technology.
Advising on
Healthcare strategy & business models for platforms, ecosystems & AI
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The Healthcare Platform Blog formerly e-CareManagement Blog
Strategy & Business Models ⢠Chronic Care ⢠Technology ⢠Policy
Your Company Has A Technology PlatformâŚBut Do You Have A Platform Business Model and Strategy?
Today in healthcare, platforms are understood mostly as technology. Thatâs not wrong, but itâs limiting and it misses a huge opportunity to adopt a platform business model.
In most other industries platforms are also understood as a business model and strategy. Outside of healthcare, there are 45+ books focusing on this topic.
This post is written for:
- 9,000+ early-stage digital health companies, most of which have a software and/or hardware technology platform as a centerpiece of their offering
- Healthcare incumbents â health systems, health plans, pharma, medical devices, etc. â that provide a digital platform as part of their external offering. For example, health systems that have an EHR platform, a patient portal, and/or a population health platform.
What Do Platforms Do?
A 30-Year Framework for Platforming Healthcare
Healthcare has a reputation as being one of the most complex and fragmented industries. I’ll bet you’ve spent time pondering how we get ourselves out of this mess. This post is first in a series that takes a long-view perspective on platform adoption and evolution in healthcare. I’ll start by sharing Version 1.0 of “A 30-Year Framework for Platforming Healthcare” â see the graphic above.
A few weeks ago I was interviewed by Ruta Gabalina and Aiym Sarmanova of PPMI, a leading European research and policy analysis center. They are working on a study exploring the evolution of platforms in healthcare.
I shared my framework with them verbally, and now I say âthanksâ for their creating a v1.0 graphic. It’s rough…gotta start somewhere đ. I’ll greatly appreciate your reactions and suggestions for v2 and beyond.
Let’s take a look at the time frames listed in the graphic. The phases are not discrete â think of them as overlapping
Before 2008: (Mostly) Paper
“The Point Solution Paradox” in Healthcare’s Adoption of AI
AI adoption in healthcare is facing âThe Point Solution Paradoxâ. This paradox highlights the intricate balance between the necessity of point solutions in the evolution of AI in healthcare and the challenges they pose in an already fragmented industry.
Here’s a roadmap to this post:
- Investment and innovation has been dynamic, but adoption lags
- A 3-phase framework for AI adoption
- The Point Solution Paradox
- Care providers prefer integrated solutions
- A case study of The Point Solution Paradox: medical imaging
- How will The Point Solution Paradox play out in healthcare?
This blog post is the first in an occasional series examining the synergies between AI and platforms.
Investment and Innovation has Been Dynamic, But Adoption Lags
The digital health landscape has been dynamic. A 2023 report by FINN Partners and Galen Growth documented that there are over 9,000 digital health ventures worldwide. An analysis by Tracxn estimated that there are over 3,147 AI startups in healthcare in the United States alone.
However, the adoption of AI in healthcare has lagged for varied reasons. For example, an August 2023 report by Bain and Company found that only 6% of health systems have a generative AI strategy.
Thus, a pivotal question arises: How will future AI adoption unfold in healthcare?
EXPERTISE IN PLATFORM STRATEGY & BUSINESS MODELS
Vince Kuraitis JD, MBA
Vince brings 30+ yearsâ healthcare executive and consulting experience across more than 150 organizations. Clients have included tech companies, hospitals, physician groups, IT, medical devices, pharma, health plans, disease management home health, and others. Vince received his graduate degrees at UCLA.
More than 12 years ago, Intel started a long journey to help build a consumer health ecosystem that would enable true patient empowerment and responsibility, care to the home and community, and personalized treatment using mobile devices and next generation diagnostics. With our many projects over the years, Vince has been far more than a just another consultant. He has become a confidant and collaboratorâalmost part of the Intel familyâin helping to shape the wide range of investments we have made. From launching our early research on apps/wearables for independent living and chronic disease managementâŚto initiating new conferences, standards organizations, and public policy initiatives to make way for personal healthâŚto internal product and business plans we have developed, Vince has brought a careful, quiet, detailed wisdom that has helped us avoid the hype cycles of consumer health and to stay the course towards building an open, innovative ecosystem that is becoming more and more real by the day.
Eric Dishman, General Manager, Intel Health Strategy & Solutions Group