Written by Built In Staff | BuiltIn.com | December 23, 2019
Developers across every industry are encouraged to be innovative in their approach to work. In healthcare, however, experimentation can feel a bit more high stakes when a company’s mission is tethered to improving the lives of thousands of patients.
This patient-first mentality drives developers from the following tech companies to experiment with technology like AI, genomic technologies and data science. From improving the navigation of the complex healthcare system to researching cures for cancer, the following companies’ missions are having a major impact on the healthcare space. Here’s what the future of the industry looks like:
VILLAGEMD
VillageMD offers physicians analytics and care management tools they can leverage to provide better care to their patients.
CTO Mike Roberts said machine learning will play an increasingly large role in connecting physicians to patients in the future — no matter the location of either party — and the company is looking forward to using that technology in their own work.
What does the future of healthcare technology look like, and what technologies are helping to drive the industry’s evolution?
The future of healthtech will look far more like the consumer technologies that we use every day. From a patient’s perspective, the technology will be intuitive, personalized and facilitate an experience that reduces friction with how, when and where to utilize the healthcare system.
Along with this, advancements in data processing, machine learning and timely insight delivery will continue to bring physicians and patients closer together regardless of location.
…some of the latest tech we’re excited about includes simpler machine learning tools.”
How do you ensure your company stays on the cutting-edge of healthtech? What new technologies or products are you incorporating into your work?
We’ll stay on the cutting-edge in three ways. First, we’ll listen to our customers to ensure we’re solving for real problems. Second, we’ll continue to engage our employees and facilitate connectedness to our mission, our users and one another. Lastly, we will always use data to guide our decision-making process, including when we test new technologies.
In terms of new capabilities that we’re incorporating into our work, we’re constantly prototyping, and some of the latest tech we’re excited about includes simpler machine learning tools, new mobile framework and context-aware bots.
HIGI
Jeff Bennett, CEO of higi, is working to keep connections strong between the health-tracking, data-focused kiosks they provide and their users. Bennett said user feedback influences whether the company chooses to adopt a new technology.
What does the future of healthcare technology look like, and what technologies are helping to drive the industry’s evolution?
Consumer demand for affordable, accessible care at current or improved levels of quality is the driving force in the evolution of healthcare and the technologies behind it.
To win, companies have to think of the consumer first and foremost, and build infrastructure to exceed their expectations across every facet of their experience. They should ultimately connect consumers to the healthcare resources and partners they care about in a way that feels seamless and modern.
“Companies have to think of the consumer first and foremost…”
How do you ensure your company stays on the cutting-edge of healthtech? What new technologies or products are you incorporating into your work?
Everything we do starts by establishing how we are working in service of the millions of consumers who engage with our tech each month, and how that experience makes it easier for our users to engage with trusted healthcare organizations. Whether we partner with a new technology or develop our own, we prioritize how that new feature or functionality will better enable our users to engage with us, and in turn, with their health and healthcare partners.
OUTCOME HEALTH
Outcome Health provides patients and physicians with educational content on interactive devices for the point of care space. With their offerings coming at such a critical time within the healthcare journey, CEO Matt McNally said it’s important that patients and caregivers feel the technology they’re engaging with suits their situational needs.
To that end, the company is investing in technologies requested by their end-users: think more mobile integrations for patients and voice activation capabilities for physicians.
What does the future of healthcare technology look like, and what technologies are helping to drive the industry’s evolution?
The future of healthcare technology, and more specifically the point-of-care space, must align with the needs of patients and physicians. We recently conducted extensive research to understand these needs. We discovered that patients, nurses and physicians all want more personalization and to feel like the technology they’re engaging with is empathetic to their unique experience. We’re using this research to guide our point-of-care content offering and the devices used to deliver information so that we can create an improved experience for the audience.
“We are committed to building tech that complements, not distracts.”
How do you ensure your company stays on the cutting-edge of healthtech? What new technologies or products are you incorporating into your work?
Everything that we do is in service to patients. We’re not trying to keep up with the latest trends in tech, we’d rather keep up with what patients need.
Regarding new technologies, we are looking at voice activation in certain categories. We’ve received feedback from our physician partners that, oftentimes, they don’t want to leave the side of their patients when delivering certain news, but they do want to pull up models on products like our Exam Room Wallboard, which may be on an opposite wall. With voice activation, they can still be next to their patients and use our devices to support the conversation.
We are committed to building tech that complements, not distracts. With the rise of telemedicine, we’re starting to think about how to innovate beyond patient rooms so that Outcome Health can be with patients on their mobile devices when they’re outside of their doctor’s office.
BLINK HEALTH
As a population, we’ve mastered digital living. We get our groceries delivered straight to our front doors, order clothes from the comfort of our phones and bank directly from our laptops. So why are so many of us still picking up prescriptions at pharmacies?
Blink Health is all about bringing medication distribution into the 21st century. Eytan Seidman, EVP of product, told us how they do so using mobile.
What does the future of healthcare technology look like? What technologies specifically are driving the industry’s evolution?
In the digital pharmacy space, the future of healthcare revolves around reducing medication costs and improving the overall pharmacy experience. At Blink Health, that means developing innovative and intuitive digital tools that increase transparency and ensure patients can access doctors’ prescriptions when they need them.
Today, one of our specific focuses is improving our mobile experience. Mobile represents a major portion of how customers interact with Blink Health, but the healthcare industry has not yet fully realized the capabilities of smartphones. Harnessing the power of that supercomputer in every person’s pocket will continue to be a major driver in the near future.
“One of our specific focuses is improving our mobile experience.’’
How do you ensure your company stays on the cutting-edge of healthtech? What new technologies or products are you incorporating into your work?
Blink Health is addressing a huge problem at scale: ensuring that everyone, whether they are insured, underinsured or uninsured, has access to affordable medications. So to us, staying on the cutting-edge of healthtech means being intimately aware of the needs of our customers and being able to adapt to a constantly shifting marketplace.
In order to provide all of our customers with the best experience possible, we’ve developed intuitive products that everyone can use. Our modern stack includes iOS and Android apps and leverages the power of AWS, which allows us to move fast and serve our customers as efficiently as possible.
PAGER
With patented Pager technology, CEO Walter Jin wants every customer to feel like there’s a doctor in the family. Whether it’s a potentially twisted ankle or yet another migraine, expert advice is often exactly what peace of mind calls for.
The AI-first, mobile platform allows patients to voice or video chat with clinicians, schedule follow ups, accept referrals and more.
What does the future of healthcare technology look like? What technologies specifically are driving the industry’s evolution?
Artificial intelligence and machine learning will drive the next wave of meaningful innovation in healthcare. Machine learning coupled with data science will synthesize enormous and disparate data sources from electronic health records, wearables and social determinants of health (SDOH) into tangible, actionable insights. AI will help automate costly and inefficient administrative labor into a digital workforce that is inexpensive, fast and scalable.
“Artificial intelligence and machine learning will drive the next wave of meaningful innovation in healthcare.’’
How do you ensure your company stays on the cutting-edge of healthtech? What new technologies or products are you incorporating into your work?
Pager is making significant investments in artificial intelligence to augment the patient-clinician experience, which we believe should remain the fundamental interaction in the delivery of care. Pager’s technology platform enables clinicians with superpowers to provide their patients with better access through virtual care, after-care follow-up and a personalized care experience; just like having a doctor in the family.
ZIPARI
Advances in machine learning and healthcare have come a long way. But according to David Levy, SVP of product engineering at Zipari, this is just the beginning.
Zipari simplifies the health insurance relationship between carriers and customers and offers a CRM Salesforce integration.
What does the future of healthcare technology look like? What technologies specifically are driving the industry’s evolution?
It’s well accepted that the future of healthcare technology is in machine learning. What’s most interesting is where the data will come from. Wearables and smart devices are becoming ubiquitous, creating a wealth of new and powerful health insights.
The Internet of Things has already made a recognized impact on the cost and longevity of industrial equipment across sectors. By leveraging low-cost, low-power, interconnected sensors and continuous monitoring to understand normal and anomalous operation, it’s possible to detect and address problems much earlier; avoiding costly or even dangerous situations.
It’s just a matter of time before we see a flashpoint in healthcare where these devices become the norm, people become more engaged in the impact of their lifestyle on their bodies and minds, and new healthcare standards emerge.
“It’s well accepted that the future of healthcare technology is in machine learning.’’
How do you ensure your company stays on the cutting-edge of healthtech? What new technologies or products are you incorporating into your work?
Zipari stays on the cutting edge of healthtech because we love technology. For me, unending research is just a part of my life, whether through conferences, online publications or even better, getting my hands on something new (like a 3D printer to demonstrate prosthetics applications for fun).
In such a highly regulated field, we often have technology solutions well before we can leverage them for health consumers. A good example is cloud services. While we await regulatory advances, we stay on top of emerging standards and demand by networking with colleagues and customers.
AMPLICARE
People like monogrammed mugs and pillows for a reason: personalization makes us feel important. The same is true for healthcare. Although, of course, a bit more is at stake.
CFO and Co-Founder Nathan Shanor recently told us how Amplicare, a decision-automation platform, personalizes their offerings so that pharmacies and patients alike see better results.
What does the future of healthcare technology look like? What technologies specifically are driving the industry’s evolution?
Convenience and personalization will continue to drive the development of technologies that change the industry. Consumers want to be able to access their health information on demand. On top of this, only 12 percent of adults have proficient health literacy, so information must be digestible. We’re already seeing an increase in patients leveraging virtual assistant technologies, such as Alexa and Siri, for healthcare needs; be it finding a clinic or scheduling a physical doctor’s appointment or a digital visit via telemedicine.
On the pharmacy front, eCare (a documentation and communication process) will likely become more commonplace. It provides practitioners with a more robust picture of a patient’s health. Having access to this data will further improve the personalization of care.
“Convenience and personalization will continue to drive the development of technologies that change the industry.’’
How do you ensure your company stays on the cutting edge of healthtech? What new technologies or products are you incorporating into your work?
We constantly receive feedback from our customers and keep a close eye on industry trends. Our flagship product Amplicare Match (formerly iMedicare) has evolved from being a reactive product that pharmacists would use when patients came in asking for Medicare Part D comparisons to a proactive one.
We now run millions of plan comparisons and identify patients most in need so pharmacies can target them for consultations. This saves their staff time and ensures maximum prescription drug savings for patients. We also created a patient-facing site to help users access this information from the convenience of their homes.
In the past few years, we have added more capabilities to our platform to address other aspects of care, such as nutrient depletion, immunizations, prescription adherence and patient communications. We partner with companies doing incredible work to provide pharmacies and patients an all-encompassing perspective of patient care. As we look toward the future, we will continue to enhance our solutions to be as convenient and personalized as possible.
EDEN HEALTH
Joey Leingang, vice president of engineering at Eden Health, is thinking big picture when it comes to tech-related advancements in the healthcare field. And we understand why: the platform offers employers primary and mental health care as a direct employee benefit.
When your coworker doesn’t consistently seem to be coughing up a lung, your whole team (and company) wins.
What does the future of healthcare technology look like? What technologies specifically are driving the industry’s evolution?
It’s uncontroversial to suggest that advancements like machine learning or increasingly personalized biotechnology will dramatically alter the future of healthcare. Technology should allow us to shrink the gap between population-level health measures and individual outcomes. For example, we’ll see more use of artificial intelligence in assisting physicians in managing chronic conditions. Or exciting developments in the behavior health space will increase access to a necessary type of care for more people than ever.
“The most important thing is to build a culture that strives for continuous improvement.’’
How do you ensure your company stays on the cutting-edge of healthtech? What new technologies or products are you incorporating into your work?
The most important thing is to build a culture that strives for continuous improvement. We try to measure ourselves qualitatively and quantitatively so that we can answer the hard questions around intent as well as expected outcomes. Doing this each sprint with every research spike and with every release allows us to learn new things and adjust all the time.
HEALTHGRADES
Scheduling a doctor’s appointment under your insurance can be confusing. Healthgrades helps customers make medical appointments easily and efficiently with advanced analytical solutions, connecting over 1,500 health clinics to new patients every day.
Senior Vice President of Product Management Ben Bonetti said the future of healthtech is transparent and relentlessly patient-first, and will help people make smarter, more informed decisions about their care.
What does the future of healthcare technology look like? What technologies specifically are driving the industry’s evolution?
The future of healthcare will be patient-focused and driven by technologies that increase transparency and accessibility for patients. Just as with other industries, consumers are now realizing that not all healthcare is equal.
The doctor’s experience, the quality of the hospital and the cost of the procedure are all important factors when choosing care. When combined with advancements in artificial intelligence and electronic medical records, healthcare will evolve to provide even more transparency into those factors that are important to patients when making health care decisions.
“We leverage AI and machine learning in order to improve our customer experience.”
How do you ensure your company stays on the cutting-edge of health tech? What new technologies or products are you incorporating into your work?
We put the consumer first. In addition, our core values encourage employees to move fast and be curious, so that our teams stay on the cutting-edge of health tech. We leverage AI and machine learning in order to improve our customer experience. We work with leading tech companies such as Spark, AWS and Snowflake to store, process and improve our data. We’re also continuing to lead the way with online appointment scheduling and are constantly making improvements to our website to make it easier for patients to connect with providers.
Additionally, we pride ourselves in supporting a culture of innovation throughout the entire company. We host regular “HG Create” hackathons where teams from around the business can come together to work on self-driven innovation projects. We also invite leaders from within the company to present their latest project or new and improved features to different product offerings during “lunch and learns” to showcase our progress to other members of the company. We also support and encourage team members to attend relevant industry conferences and provide tuition reimbursement so that individuals can continue to learn and stay up to date with the latest technologies.
ARCHERDX
ArcherDX uses next-generation sequencing technology to detect molecular variants associated with cancer. They offer a personal dashboard where patients can access companion diagnostics, clinical services and certified service providers.
CEO Jason Myers told us that creating a culture that is passionate about patient care motivates everyone to work on genomic technologies and further DNA research.
What does the future of healthcare technology look like?
In the U.S., we need faster, better and cheaper. In relation to other countries, the U.S. spends the most on healthcare but is ranked No.37 in the world when it comes to quality of care. Innovation will drive higher quality and more affordable care.
“…leveraging our understanding of the human genome will unlock better diagnosis and treatments.”
What technologies specifically are driving the industry’s evolution?
Genomic technologies are driving the industry’s evolution right now. To treat many diseases, including cancer, leveraging our understanding of the human genome will unlock better diagnosis and treatments. In addition, focusing on preventative care through the lens of DNA will help. We need to understand the nature of the DNA we inherited from our parents and how it impacts human health.
How do you ensure your company stays on the cutting-edge of healthtech? What new technologies or products are you incorporating into your work?
We focus on innovation. We have created a culture that is passionate about patients, which motivates us to develop new products that provide hope and peace of mind. We set our standards high and focus on continuous improvement. We focus on the process, not the outcome, so we can scale and continue to innovate.
We have created a blood test that can quantify cancer in individual patients. This allows us to monitor therapy and adjust as needed with a simple noninvasive test.
GHX
GHX allows for healthcare manufacturers and suppliers can easily connect via a cloud-based platform in order to better deliver patient care.
Senior Vice President of Global Product Management Chris Luoma explained how AI and data-driven technology is creating convenience and transparency for patients.
What does the future of healthcare technology look like? What technologies specifically are driving the industry’s evolution?
Healthcare organizations (i.e. payors, providers, manufacturers and distributors) are experiencing a change in the industry at a pace never before seen. Every sector has an eye toward better patient outcomes at a better cost-to-value ratio. As these entities work to navigate this new business of healthcare, they are looking for technology infrastructures that support two overarching themes.
The first theme is supporting the consumerization of healthcare. Technology needs to drive convenience and transparency for patients.
The second theme is driving the insights necessary to power data-driven decisions. As organizations evolve, expand and adapt, healthcare leaders need to know what’s working and what’s not across the continuum of care. Technology platforms must support the capture and analysis of data, plus the coordination and execution of changes in the business of healthcare. To support these needs, we are seeing organizations focus on mobile applications, seek faster insights from artificial intelligence and work to gain efficiency from machine learning and robotic process automation.
“We are exploring blockchain as a foundational technology…”
How do you ensure your company stays on the cutting-edge of healthtech? What new technologies or products are you incorporating into your work?
At GHX we are incorporating data science, machine learning and AI into our solutions to create scale, efficiency and drive the insights our customers need to operate in the new business of healthcare. We are exploring blockchain as a foundational technology that can support the demands facing our customers today and tomorrow.
SIMPLEPRACTICE
SimplePractice provides health and wellness professionals with a platform that allows them to manage their patient networks more effectively.
CEO and Co-founder Howard Spector discussed the importance of patients having seamless access to care, and said that implementing new mobile video communication is an increasingly viable way to do that.
What does the future of healthcare technology look like? What technologies specifically are driving the industry’s evolution?
I think the easier we can make access to information for professionals and their patients, the better. This can mean things like moving away from manual data-sharing between providers and moving toward patient access via a secure client portal and mobile apps.
Another important way technology is allowing better access is through telehealth. Using secure video technology allows people who live in rural areas to get help. It also provides continuity of care when circumstances arise that make it hard for individuals to see a professional.
“We never settle.”
How do you ensure your company stays on the cutting-edge of healthtech? What new technologies or products are you incorporating into your work?
There is always more we can do to make our platform and services better for our customers. We never settle, and we work intentionally to have productive communication with our engaged community of customers to keep us on the right path. So while ‘new’ is important, it’s just as important to make certain that even the ‘old’ features are doing what they need to do to best serve our customers.
WELL HEALTH
Well Health’s platform lets patients and their healthcare organizations communicate through text, phone, email and live-chat.
The service makes tasks like confirming insurance and viewing lab results more efficient, and CEO Guillaume de Zwirek said the company and the industry as a whole are doubling down to produce even more patient-focused efforts. Well Health’s teams tapped into a huge pool of data to evolve the platform’s appointment scheduling tool for patients.
What does the future of healthcare technology look like? What technologies specifically are driving the industry’s evolution?
Healthcare is following the lead of many other industries in moving toward providing concierge-like experiences. Concierge service used to be reserved for the elite but the rise of mobile, AI, the internet of things and many other technological advances has started to level the playing field.
For example, anyone can order a “personal driver” by calling an Uber or Lyft or benefit from a “travel planner” by texting a TripActions agent when a flight gets delayed. In healthcare, we’ll soon see things like personal device and smart-speaker data feeding back to physicians to predict disease. We’ll see prescriptions being delivered within the hour and in real-time, as well as asynchronous communication with medical teams available around the clock.
“Healthcare is following the lead of many other industries in moving toward providing concierge-like experiences.”
How do you ensure your company stays on the cutting-edge of healthtech? What new technologies or products are you incorporating into your work?
We look to our patients. Our platform processes over 150 million communications per year. This data gives us clear signals on what we should prioritize to best improve the patient experience. In a recent example, we analyzed millions of patient interactions and developed an automated self-rescheduling workflow that surfaces alternate appointment times when a patient requests to cancel or reschedule their appointment.
RENEW HEALTH
CTO Leevar Williams said he’s working to help Renew Health’s engineers remain as efficient as possible as the company and industry evolve.
The leader at the prescription drug management platform said as his development team moves toward a containerized service architecture, they’re free to explore the use of new tech tools they believe will benefit their daily operations.
What does the future of healthcare technology look like? What technologies specifically are driving the industry’s evolution?
This is an industry where data is often fragmented and siloed within disparate systems. A lot of the transformation we’re seeing is due to companies leveraging cloud-compute and storage platforms to integrate data. They’re applying machine learning and other advanced analytics capabilities, at scale, to improve the patient experience.
I think the integration of real-time data streams, the broader adoption of communication standards for information exchange and automated interpretation of complex datasets will continue to drive the industry’s ability to provide better health outcomes for people.
“We have been evaluating orchestration platforms like Rancher to simplify and automate our engineers’ day-to-day.”
How do you ensure your company stays on the cutting-edge of healthtech? What new technologies or products are you incorporating into your work?
We have been able to build a talented engineering team with a range of different backgrounds, skills and experiences. This diversity creates an environment that fosters constant learning and knowledge-sharing. As engineers encounter challenges or identify opportunities to extend our technology stack, they are also encouraged to evaluate new platforms and tools that have the potential to increase efficiency, reduce costs or otherwise improve our ability to serve our customers.
We are moving toward a fully containerized service architecture. We have been evaluating orchestration platforms like Rancher to simplify and automate our engineers’ day-to-day workflow.