by Tomy Han, Principal at Volition Capital
JPM Healthcare 2020
I had the opportunity to attend the 38th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference to kick-off 2020. Volition Capital has been a regular attendee of the event over the years, and the growing number of participants, events, and traffic around the city all served as a testament to the innovation and change that the industry is undergoing.
For quite some time, our team has been incredibly interested in the healthcare ecosystem. The latest in-depth breakdown of the healthcare revenue cycle management written by Volition analyst, Zac Goldman, gives a peek into our views on the role technology can play in helping improve the ecosystem. Being based in Boston also gives us a front-row seat to a lot of the latest innovations in healthcare, further increasing our enthusiasm.
JPM Healthcare 2020: Making Sense of Data
Big data was an over-used buzzword across all industries 4-5 years ago. However, in the case of healthcare, it’s becoming a reality that’s maturing at a rapid pace.
Healthcare data and analytics are fundamentally difficult topics. Healthcare is a highly regulated sector, data is distributed in silos, the amount of data generated continues to increase, and the potential sources of data that can be integrated has also increased. Further, the ongoing consolidation in the provider space has made the existence of multiple EHR/EMR vendors within a system common, making it even more difficult to make sense of all the data.
The continuous movement towards value-based payments (which has been moving slower than the technology world would have ideally liked) has guided hospital systems and startups towards a journey of finding ways to improve patient outcomes, maximize operational efficiency, and increase margins, sparking a wave of innovation with data analytics at its core. This is a powerful trend in helping improve our healthcare system and we believe opportunities are ripe for vendors in the space.
Key Observations
- Productization of analytics – Analytics offerings with defined use cases continue to grow and thrive, bringing measurable ROI to providers, payors, and ultimately the patients.
- A focus on data quality – Across the board, more energy and effort are being put toward increasing the quality of the data itself. Whether it’s the interoperability of EHR data or making sense of claims data, trying to eliminate the potential effects of ‘garbage-in-garbage-out’ with bad data has become a priority.
- Continued focus on patient engagement and interaction – We continue to see the consumerization of healthcare, from direct-to-consumer, new-generation vendors (telehealth, physician reviews sites, etc.), to providers trying to make their experiences friendlier to consumers in the digital era by adopting a suite of software solutions in the front-and-back end.
Takeaway: Technology Continuing to Drive Change in Healthcare
We are in a time where healthcare is undergoing enormous change and modernization and technology vendors are playing a key role in helping drive this movement. We believe software and technology-enabled services vendors are staring at an opportunity to not only grow rapidly as a business but to make a lasting, positive impact in the healthcare system. We look forward to partnering with entrepreneurs on this journey.
Connect with Tomy
| TOMY HAN
Principal |
