Most digital startups promise to decrease healthcare costs and improve care, luring in billions and breaking records in the first three months of 2021, according to a May 26 article by Bloomberg.
Four things to know:
- Hospitals are risk-averse and are slower than other industries to adopt new technologies, but social distancing requirements forced hospitals to adopt new technology at a rapid pace.
- Investors poured a record $6.7 billion into digital health startups in the first quarter of 2021, venture and research firm Rock Health found. For comparison, there was just $1.1 billion invested in digital health in 2011, Rock Health reported.
- In 2018, three digital health companies raised multiple rounds in a year. In 2019, that number soared to 15. In 2020, that number nearly tripled to 43 companies in one year.
- An aging population and high rates of chronic conditions increase demand for new ways to help patients manage their health. People are increasingly expecting to get their healthcare the way they get everything else: through screens on computers and phones.