Moving Beyond the Low Hanging Fruit in Digital Health

The record pace of investment in healthcare over the past couple of years spurred a lot of innovation, but it’s now time to move beyond the “low hanging fruit” of digital health, says Chris Bischoff, Managing Director, General Catalyst.

“We're hoping healthcare becomes more distributed. That we see doctors treating patients where they are, using virtual and in home care, and care becoming more decentralized. And indeed, not just patient-centric, but physician-centric,” Bischoff tells Oliver Wyman’s Sam Glick in the most recent episode of the Oliver Wyman Health Podcast.

Bischoff’s work with General Catalyst has stretched across the entire healthcare ecosystem, including such firms as Livongo, which is now part of Teladoc; Cityblock; Devoted Health; and Sword Health. He and Glick examine not only the reach that private capital has in today’s healthcare system, but what may be on the horizon for investors.

Show highlights:
“Have companies been overfunded? We think long term, this is a $10 trillion ecosystem in healthcare. It's highly efficient. There may be some indigestion, but we're very optimistic that great companies have been built, and over time, there will be significant outcomes from those companies.”

“Clearly, digital health, in its first wave, may have created a plethora of balkanized point solutions, and they need to become unified in some sort of platform.”

“We just don't believe in breaking the old and starting afresh. Healthcare's too important, it's too large, it's too complex to not co-opt incumbents.”

“I'm excited about the move of digital health from some of these more episodic or less acute conditions to really tackling the hard problems in healthcare.”