It’s one of those questions I love to ask — and answer: if you could have any three famous (living) people over for dinner, who would they be?
My answer: Bobby Flay, Peyton Manning and Mark Cuban.
The first two are easy. I’d seek cooking tips from Bobby Flay and ask Peyton Manning to teach me to throw a spiral. But Cuban? I’d want to pick his brain. He may be a bit eccentric, be he’s a brilliant business person. He’s charismatic, honest, and seems to have his finger on the pulse. There’s a reason my husband and I are loyal viewers of Shark Tank. Cuban only has to hear the first few words of a pitch before determining whether it has legs, and therefore, might be worth an investment. I love to watch him and his counterparts as they rapidly evaluate entrepreneurs, their wheels spinning a mile a minute.
So when I saw that Cuban was hosting “Impact Pediatric,” a pitch competition for digital startups that was being held at SXSW, I was intrigued. The concept was simple: the children’s health market represents a significant portion of healthcare spending (more than 31 percent, according to the Health Care Cost Institute), and yet, “healthcare entrepreneurs have largely overlooked the specific needs of children.” So instead of trying to seek out startups focused on improving pediatric care, four leading children’s hospitals decided to bring the mountain to Muhammad and provide small companies with a chance to sell their product to the big guys.
The winner was CareAline, which makes a cloth sleeve and wrap made of cotton and spandex that keeps children from picking at and dislodging central lines that deliver medication for conditions such as cancer. Other companies that peaked Cuban’s interest included Owlet Baby Care, which implanted a pulse oxymeter sensor in a sock, and Nuvo Group, which uses a wearable embedded with sensors to support pregnant mothers. He was also impressed with 23andMe and Theranos, products designed to help patients get blood tests and learn about their health without visiting a hospital or physician’s office.
The common denominator? Sensors, which “are the next big opportunity,” he said in an interview with MedCity News. “Data [analytics] is taking us to new levels of healthcare, but we need to be interested in investing to accumulate that data,” Cuban noted.
Of course we all know it’s not quite that simple. But here’s the thing — Cuban knows how to sniff out a good investment. This is the guy who sold CompuServe for $6 million and unloaded Broadcast.com for a whopping $6 billion.
He’s onto something here as well. When I saw the patient engagement survey by Nuance that’s been making headlines, what caught my eye wasn’t just the fact that 40 percent of patients said they feel rushed during physician appointments (although that is certainly noteworthy). It’s the fact that 20 percent are already bringing personal health data from outside monitors to their visits.
And it’s a number that appears poised for significant growth. According to a report from Makovsky Health and Kelton, 79 percent of respondents said they would be willing to use a wearable to track their health, and 88 percent said they’d share their data to help improve care and treatment options (MobiHealthNews).
Wearables are for real. Don’t believe me? Take a look around the next time you’re in a store or restaurant, and count how many people are using health-related apps or wearing those FitBit bracelets. The data everyone is trying to leverage? It’s right in front of our eyes.
And although there are a handful of hospitals that are experimenting with HealthKit pilots, for the most part, the technology that’s taken the public by storm hasn’t yet forced its way into the doors of most health systems.
It doesn’t exactly take a shark to see that there’s an opportunity here being missed.
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