‘The future of digital health is changing rapidly. The advent of the connected system has fueled a new generation of companies trying to turn healthcare into a system where information can flow more easily to drive more efficient and effective care. The excitement around the possibilities has driven billions of dollars of investment over the last few years. But based on what we are seeing, what does the future really hold?’
In his keynote address at HIMSS 14 Venture+Forum, Lucian Iancovici, MD Investment Fund Manager at Qualcomm Ventures shares the Qualcomm perspective on how companies evolve in digital health, specifically outside of the provider space. He breaks down this evolution pattern into four key stages:
- Mobilize – companies have connected their health device/apps
- Organize – companies that help organize this information and transform it into a more usable format
- Analyze – enough data has been developed for companies to create some insights from it
- Catalyze – companies taking advantage of these insights to spur behavioral/systemic change
Evidence is Key to Successful Digital Health
Probably the most important point Iancovici made during his keynote was around validating the benefits of digital health through evidence e.g. clinical trails.
“At the end of the day, the people that pay for this are the insurance companies and the people that employ it are hospital systems and if they don’t have the evidence that they are used to. They are not going to employ this technology. So, you really have to start building out studies the way that the system understands. If you want to get reimbursed and want to be apart of the system. As much as you don’t want to do it, you have to do it,”said Iancovici.
Iancovici noted these studies are very early in this space and still have a long way to go. The full keynote address is available below:
HIMSS14 VenturePlusForum intro and keynote update from HealthInnovation Media on Vimeo.
About Lucian Iancovici, MD
Lucian is an Investment Manager at Qualcomm Ventures, who makes investments through Qualcomm’s Life Fund. His background and experience in medicine lead him to believe that this is a transformative period in the healthcare space, especially given the renewed interest in performance and cost metrics prevalent today. In this context, Lucian is focused on wireless healthcare opportunities. Iancovici has led the QLF investment in Practice Fusion, Co-led the investment in Fitbit and works closely with Telcare and ClearCare.
Previously, Lucian worked at McKinsey & Company, where he spent most of his time in the North American healthcare practice advising on clinical and business model transformation for large hospital systems. Prior to McKinsey, Lucian was a board certified internal medicine doctor practicing in New York.
Lucian trained in internal medicine at Columbia University Medical Center in New York and completed both medical school and his undergraduate studies at Tufts University.
