The JP Morgan Healthcare Investor Conference in San Francisco each January sets the fundraising tone for the year - we preview happenings!
As we head into the new year and the great gathering of healthcare investors in San Francisco in January at and around the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, Adam and I offer a preview of the state of digital health fundraising. Will the barbell fundraising environment continue? What will be the favored investment themes? Are rollups picking up steam? When will the great shakeout arrive? What will happen to the Zombiecorns?
In this show we'll cover:
And we'll answer your questions.
Adam Kaufman is the publisher of BearingOn.Health, an advisor to health systems, pharma companies, and innovative digital health companies, and an adjunct professor of economics at USC. Follow him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adkaufman/.
Steven Wardell is the Managing Partner of Wardell Advisors, a consulting firm focused on growth, fundraising, and strategic alternatives for digital health companies. He is the host of DigitalHealth InvestorTalk and the author of The Future of Digital Health. Follow for digital health insights at X.com/StevenWardell.
Pharmacy was based on pills, and PBMs were based on margins. GenAI challenges both.
The practice and business of pharmacy is one of the most, if not the most, data intense medical professions and therefore is more susceptible to disruptive AI than any other healthcare profession.
In this show we'll cover:
And we'll answer your questions.
Harry Travis is the President of The Travis Group. He provides strategic consulting and executive coaching services to both US-based and international clients in the pharmacy, digital medicine, and medical technology markets. He is also the founder of TheRxRoundtable.com, which is a network of expert advisors to the pharmacy and pharmacy technology space. Prior to founding The Travis Group, he was Senior Vice President, Member Services Operations at CVS Caremark. Harry also held senior leadership positions with Baxter Healthcare, Cardinal Health, Accredo/Medco, and Aetna, where he served as the VP of Aetna’s Specialty and Home-Delivery Pharmacy business.
Steven Wardell is the Managing Partner of Wardell Advisors, a consulting firm focused on growth, fundraising, and strategic alternatives for digital health companies. He is the host of DigitalHealth InvestorTalk and the author of The Future of Digital Health. Follow for digital health insights at X.com/StevenWardell.
What's the line for being classified as a medical device? Is it worth it today to be a medical device? What is going on in medtech?
What's the line for being classified as a Medical Device? Is it worth it today to be a medical device? What is going on in medtech? The promise of Medical Devices used to be that it wasn't that hard to provide great clinical value for an unmet medical need with a new device and with an straightforward FDA process you could have a high-growth, high-margin product. But what is the real opportunity today?
In this show we'll cover:
And we'll answer your questions.
Joe Schwendt is the Founder and CEO of Runway Hero, a boutique consultancy that helps MedTech and Pharma teams build modern medical device software fast, compliant, and inspection-ready. With three decades in regulated digital products, he turns concepts into validated releases with clean documentation, disciplined engineering, and clear business outcomes.
Steven Wardell is the Managing Partner of Wardell Advisors, a consulting firm focused on growth, fundraising, and strategic alternatives for digital health companies. He is the host of DigitalHealth InvestorTalk and the author of The Future of Digital Health. Follow for digital health insights at X.com/StevenWardell.
From Crisis to Catalyst - the Silver Tsunami poses a resource crisis for society. But can tech help us meet the challenge?
The Silver Tsunami will strain the healthcare system and be taxing for workers. But could new tech help seniors remain active and productive while reducing the strain on the system?
In this show we'll cover:
- How to think about approaching seniors as a market with new solutions
- New enabling technologies
- Novel ways that tech keeps seniors active
- Ways tech can cut retirement costs
And we'll answer your questions.
Meredith Oppenheim is an expert on aging and the founder of the Vitality Society. You can follow her on LinkedIn. With over three decades serving seniors and asset managing multi-billion-dollar senior housing portfolios for leading owners and operators, Meredith Oppenheim is a nationally recognized thought leader whose work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and ABC News. She is a frequent guest speaker for universities, hospitals, and companies, helping to shape the future of aging with vitality.
Steven Wardell is the Managing Partner of Wardell Advisors, a consulting firm focused on growth, fundraising, and strategic alternatives for digital health companies. He is the host of DigitalHealth InvestorTalk and the author of The Future of Digital Health. Follow for digital health insights at X.com/StevenWardell.
Longevity care is making advances and growing more popular among consumers. What is a framework to start extending your healthspan?
Longevity isn’t just about adding years to life, it’s about adding life to those years. What steps can you take today to extend your healthspan and enhance your quality of life? What framework can help you identify major risks and set yourself up for long-term vitality?
In this show we'll cover:
- A practical framework for extending your healthspan
- The major health risks and how to prevent problems starting early
- The latest advances in longevity science
And we'll answer your questions.
Dr. Soheil Saadat is the founder and CEO of GenieMD, a San Francisco Bay Area–based telemedicine and digital health company that has treated millions of patients worldwide. GenieMD focuses on virtual care that promotes vitality and longevity, AI-driven chronic disease management, and advanced healthcare communication technologies. Elora Health, a part of GenieMD, is dedicated to longevity, prevention, and healthspan optimization.
Steven Wardell is the Managing Partner of Wardell Advisors, a consulting firm focused on growth, fundraising, and strategic alternatives for digital health companies. He is the host of DigitalHealth InvestorTalk and the author of The Future of Digital Health. Follow for digital health insights at X.com/StevenWardell.
Payers and Providers are looking for greater efficiency using GenAI. But what happens when they unleash the latest AI tools on each other?
There are many opportunities in the healthcare system for GenAI to make contributions in billing, coding, medical records, and administrative. But what happens when providers use the latest in AI to supercharge billing to payers and payers arm up to manage and mitigate and deny?
In this show we'll cover:
- The problems of inefficienty in administrative processes in healthcare
- Opportunities for GenAI at payers and providers in administrative and clinical
- The new arms race over billing between payers and providers
And we'll answer your questions.
Fawad Butt is the co-founder and CEO of Penguin Ai, a GenAI product company that is optimizing the healthcare back office for payers and providers. He is the former Chief Data Officer of Kaiser Permanente. Follow him on LinkedIn.
Steven Wardell is the Managing Partner of Wardell Advisors, a consulting firm focused on growth, fundraising, and strategic alternatives for digital health companies. He is the host of DigitalHealth InvestorTalk and the author of The Future of Digital Health. Follow for digital health insights at X.com/StevenWardell.
You need more than GenAI. Entrepreneurs need to keep the focus on solving the buyers' biggest pain points.
GenAI is the hottest buzzword in healthcare, and it seems almost necessary to be a "GenAI Native" company in order to win VC funding today.
As founders debate whether to have a proprietary LLM and where how to have a moat in the age of GenAI, it's important not to lose sight of the most basic ingredient for an innovative product: to solve a major pain point for the buyer using whichever technology approach you use.
In this show we'll cover:
- While GenAI is all the rage, you need more than just AI
- How to know you're solving the buyer's biggest problems and how to build a moat
- Are services companies dead? Where do medical devices and disgnostics fit in?
- What to do when clinical buyers don't even want GenAI
And we'll answer your questions.
Lisa Suennen is a partner at AHA Ventures, the fund of the American Heart Association, and she's the Venture Valkyrie. Follow her at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisasuennen/
Steven Wardell is the Managing Partner of Wardell Advisors, a consulting firm focused on growth, fundraising, and strategic alternatives for digital health companies. He is the host of DigitalHealth InvestorTalk and the author of The Future of Digital Health. Follow for digital health insights at X.com/StevenWardell.
As digital health retrenches and AI explodes, what are creative ways for entrepreneurs to raise money?
Digital health fundraising is tough as business uncertainty grows and VCs retrench. But buoyed by positive regulatory shifts and new technologies, crowdfunding and competitions are emerging as a new way for innovators to win visibility, validation, and funding for their companies.
In this show we'll cover:
1. What's the state of the fundraising environment for young digital health companies
2. How has the environment for crowdfunding and competitions evolved?
3. What are some differences and benefits of crowdfunding
And we'll answer your questions.
Alex Fair is the Managing Partner of MedStartr Ventures
Steven Wardell is the Managing Partner of Wardell Advisors, a consulting firm focused on growth, fundraising, and strategic alternatives for digital health companies. He is the host of DigitalHealth InvestorTalk and the author of The Future of Digital Health. Follow for digital health insights at X.com/StevenWardell.
New capabilites in the consumertech we buy is bringing to our fingertips new sensors, new data, better data, and new forms of care
Therapeutic videogames for kids with ADHD, giving voice to people who have lost the ability to speak, preventing nightmares, predicting heart attacks. . .
Modern consumertech has new sensors and capabilities giving us better data, analysis, prediction, diagnosis, monitoring, and therapeutic options.
In this show we'll cover:
And we'll answer your questions.
Maheen Adamson is a clinical professor at Stanford Neurosurgery and the CEO of Soof Solutions, a neurosolution provider that restores voice to the speechless.
Steven Wardell is the Managing Director of Wardell Advisors, a digital health business development consulting firm and the author of The Future of Digital Health.
New therapies are shaking up the super-category of obssity and diabetes care but it's not enough to just take a drug
GenAI business models in healthcare look different than the digital health revolution of 2009, which was about SaaS and workflow automation.
GenAI business models are about intelligently converting free data into structured fields, making decisions, and taking action, which puts them ahead of older digital health models of simple workflow automation powered by software licensing and SaaS business models. Will that be enough to create winner GenAI companies where the last generation failed?
In this show we'll cover:
And we'll answer your questions.
Marco Smit is the head of business development at Gesund.ai, which helps AI teams become ready for the FDA. You can follow him on LinkedIn.
Steven Wardell is the Managing Director of Wardell Advisors, a digital health business development consulting firm and the author of The Future of Digital Health. You can follow him at X.com/StevenWardell
Looking at the business models and trends in digital health, few have led to successful exits. We look in to what it means for the future.
Electronic medical records, revenue cycle management, telehealth, digital care management, virtual clinics, clinical decision support tools, employer health benefits, clinical trial automation software, drug discovery software. There have been few successful exits in digital health. We look at why.
In this show we'll cover:
And we'll answer your questions.
Steve Rubis is Chief of Staff at Access TeleCare, a telehealth company, and he was formerly a digital health equity research analyst on Wall Street . You can follow him on LinkedIn.
Steven Wardell is the Managing Director of Wardell Advisors, a digital health business development consulting firm and the author of The Future of Digital Health. You can follow him at X.com/StevenWardell
The Digital Health sector is driving into new opportunities along with technology and economic shocks. We take a look at what's working.
The digital health sector is uncovering new opportunities for technology in healthcare and new business models while being roiled by technological and economic shocks. Meanwhile there is a cloud over the industry - why so few big tech winners and successful exits?
In this show we'll cover:
And we'll answer your questions.
Amrit Panjabi is the Digital Health analyst at CB Insights and a venture capital fellow at Alumni Ventures. You can follow him on LinkedIn.
Steven Wardell is the Managing Director of Wardell Advisors, a digital health business development consulting firm and the author of The Future of Digital Health. You can follow him at X.com/StevenWardell
Healthcare incumbents are bigger than ever. To matter to them and to sell to them, digital health companies need to scale up.
The competitive marketplace is changing and healthcare incumbents -- like providers, payers, and pharma -- are bigger than ever. In order to be relevant and sell into the incumbents, digital health vendors need to solve bigger problems than ever before. And many will need to scale up through acquisitions.
In this show we'll cover:
- The changing marketplace for healthcare solutions . . . and the supersized incumbents and solution buyers
- How digital-health software companies need to respond
- What it will take for digital health companies to scale up to meet the challenge
And we'll answer your questions.
Chrissy Farr is a founder of Scrub Capital, an early-stage venture fund, and the CEO of Second Opinion Media.
Alyssa Jaffee is a partner at 7wire Ventures, serving in board roles at NOCD, Summer Health, Zerigo Health, Jasper Health, MedArrive, and Brightline.
Steven Wardell is the Managing Director of Wardell Advisors, a digital health business development consulting firm and the author of The Future of Digital Health.
The last decade has seen unprecedented innovation in digital health and agetech but software companies still have trouble selling and there have been few compelling exits. Innovators are now turning to tech-enabled services (TES).
In this show we'll cover:
- What's going on in the innovation economy?
- Why are TES companies attracting attention, winning in the product marketplace, and winning with investors?
- Will AI speed up the move of innovators into TES?
And we'll answer your questions.
James Hueston is an investor at Primetime Partners and a founder of AgeTech NYC. You can follow him on LinkedIn.
Steven Wardell is the Managing Director of Wardell Advisors, a digital health business development consulting firm and the host of the DigitalHealth InvestorTalk Podcast. YOu can follow him on X.com/StevenWardell.
AI is reshaping digital health investment and creating winners and losers
In this show we'll cover:
And we'll answer your questions.
Barbara Kohler is a Partner at Fletcher Spaght, growth strategy consultants in life science and digital health.
Steven Wardell is the Managing Director of Wardell Advisors, a digital health business development consulting firm and the author of The Future of Digital Health.
Where are the new pain points in the healthcare sector, and what are the new themes that investors are betting on?
In the show we’ll dive into:
- What has the "regime change" of higher interest rates meant for the healthcare system and the innovators who sell into it?
- What are the pain points and themes in healthcare that innovators can address?
- What are the favored technologies and products for the new era?
And we'll answer your questions
Amir Dan Rubin is the founding partner of Healthier Capital, a venture fund. He is the former CEO of One Medical.
Steven Wardell is the Managing Partner of Wardell Advisors, a consulting firm focused on growth, fundraising, and strategic alternatives for digital health companies. He is the host of DigitalHealth InvestorTalk and the author of The Future of Digital Health. Follow for digital health insights at X.com/StevenWardell.
Follow on Eventbrite to hear about new events and live shows: StevenWardell.EventBrite.com.
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Americans face a mental health crisis made worse by COVID stress and lockdowns. Will tech ride to the rescue of employers?
The mental health crisis has never been greater with growing demand, strained care resources, and a growing problem of junk care -- and employers are looking for answers.
In this show we'll cover:
And we'll answer your questions.
Jarred Bressner, MD, is a principal at Activate Venture Partners.
Pierce Crowley is an associate at Activate Venture Partners.
Steven Wardell is the Managing Director of Wardell Advisors, a digital health business development consulting firm and the author of The Future of Digital Health.
What are the new capabilities of modern AI and where can they be best used in healthcare to solve problems?
There's been a flurry of healthcare AI startups since the arrivel of ChatGPT, and the sector is white hot with investors. What are the problem areas in healthcare that are amenible to the capabilities of generative AI?
In this show we'll cover:
- The capabilities of generative AI
- The problem areas where AI can help and where startups are buidling products
- The obstacles like keeping personal healthcare data private
And we'll answer your questions.
Chad Pytel is the founder and CEO of thoughtbot, which helps companies with strategy, design, product management, and development.
Steven Wardell is the Managing Director of Wardell Advisors, a digital health business development consulting firm, and the author of The Future of Digital Health. Follow him on X.com/StevenWardell.
Tech can help the Silver Tsunami age in place. Here's a framework for what is needed at each level of care.
Aging is the biggest demographic trend in the US and the world. There isn't enough skilled care available so tech will fill the gap.
Seniors want to age in place, and there is a greater opportunity than ever to meet the needs of aging seniors in-home with technology.
In this show we'll cover:
- What are the needs of seniors as they age
- What are the different levels of care that seniors need and go through
- Where can tech play a role in helping seniors age in place
And we'll answer your questions.
Neal Shah is the CEO of CareYaya and America's Chief Elder Officer. You can follow him at: X.com/NealKShah
Steven Wardell is the Managing Director of Wardell Advisors, a digital health business development consulting firm and the author of The Future of Digital Health. Follow uim at X.com/StevenWardell.