Digital Health AI: “Closing the Loop”
Postcards from your favorite Fractional CEO.
Often I find myself sitting in a San Francisco or New York VC office high rise waiting for young, brash, high on confidence and low on life experience Private Equity principals to start a client meeting. I steal moments to reflect. Within spacious office space not worried about revenue per square feet, staring out over Central Park or at the Bay Bridge in the distance, I think about my 30+ year operating career in healthcare and the various companies I have been fortunate enough to be a part of. How the heck did I get here? More importantly, why am I not on a golf course w a 58 degree in my hand from 70 yds out working on my short game?.. it remains a mystery.
There seems to be a trending convergence in the digital health AI sector. The signals from the consumer are clear, build AI products that actually “close the loop.” What do I mean by this? ..
I like to simplify product design focus across three customer verticals; Payors, Providers, & Consumers. For many years now, patient engagement has been key focus for payors. Building agentic tools that connect with patients and allow for care navigation, appointment scheduling, & benefit optimization are well in the works. The provider segment on the other hand is keenly focused on what else, the provider! Anything that will save them time…thus scribing a la some of the more financially formidable AI Health Tech companies presently available aka Abridge.
That leaves us with Direct to Consumer AI products in the digital health platform industry. DTC concepts which are much rarer these days because without a partner in either of the other two sectors it’s impossible to aggregate plus navigate. The traditional PHR’s of the past that came and went, and are now being replaced all have a stake in the ground w an enterprise strategic partner. The holy grail are the payors, but obviously they are all building solutions in house. So, you are always competing against their own internal teams. Not to say this is not fruitful, as large payor organizations are historically awful at disruptive consumer oriented technology. Read, attack that segment regardless of size. But, getting their attention is not for the faint of heart.
Thus, focus on closing the loop. When you look at the signals out in the consumer AI marketplace, lets takes a subspecialty like Longevity, what you find are consumers willing to pay with discretionary income for products that tend to use AI and agents alike that are actually closing the loop. What are some examples out there? Look at Hims/Hers or Ro.com as two distinct concepts. Virtual platforms no bricks and mortar, cash based businesses, utilizing AI going DTC. I mean purely DTC. With strong retention rates. Financially prudent business models where consumers are pulling products off the shelf that allow them to “solve their diagnostic problems”. These companies aren’t merely into the aesthetics of “health insights”. The myriad of longevity oriented business models today in the virtual space whether frankly bricks and mortar or purely virtual claim “health insights”.
Give us your medical record information. Allow us to use our LLM’s and dig into your blood biomarkers, genomics, whole body MRI imagery, CT scan imagery of your arteries, Dexa scans of your bone density, & V02 treadmill testing of your lung capacity and lets marry this data over time, longitudinally, to study such diseases such as metabolic syndrome, cancers of many types, cardiovascular disease, and neurodegenerative disease and provide you with the all important health insights. All for an annual fee. Let us enlighten you. Help you stay out ahead of it. Right?
But, here’s the catch. Where is the solution? If I’m pre diabetic, why can’t I use your website to order my GLP-1s?………If I’m having inflammation issues across my MSK joints, why am I not able to order my BP-157 online thru your patient portal without having to link to another company? Two small yet distinct examples. Close the Loop.
Red Light Therapy. Sauna. Peptides. Semaglutide. Stem Cells. Plasma Exchange. Hormone Replacement. Testosterone. You catch my drift right? You are building an AI company for Longevity? And you’re leading direct to consumer promising health insights for health optimization and life span maximization. If you truly want to be a differentiator, don’t just help the care coordinator in the family paying $7 a month for your App. to schedule their next appointment, or receive benefit support online, or automate the physicians dictation of a consult or follow up visit, or aggregate your PHR and spit back to you health insights like its time for your colonoscopy. But, go one step further. Close the Loop. Provide the solution. Online. and allow it to come to the consumers door.
Now? It’s time for me to go back to my short game.