Digital health was top of mind in the past year, as the world turned to telehealth solutions and remote patient monitoring to find ways to protect their well-being during a challenging year.

Key growth areas and trends in the industry have been highlighted by the pandemic. At the all-digital CES® 2021, three investors joined us for a health investment session, “Digital Health: Business Growth and Opportunities,” to explain what they see areas of health care they would invest in and why.

The Consumer-First Model of Health Care

Lynne Chou O’Keefe, founder and managing partner at early-stage venture capital firm Define Ventures, explained how a consumer-first model of health care is a key investment area.

“I think post-COVID has completely emphasized [the need for a better experience] in simplifying the [health care] experience and truly making it for the consumer first,” she said.

Chou O’Keefe emphasized that beyond direct-to-consumer care, this also means focusing on populations who have not been receiving valuable care from today’s health care system. Define Ventures incubated health company Folx Health, which focuses on LGBTQ+ health care for a consumer-oriented experience.

The Affordability of Health Care

The affordability of health care is another digital health area where Sydney Thomas, principal at Precursor Ventures, sees further potential.

“As long as we’ve had private health care, we’ve been talking about affordability of health care,” she said.

An interesting model that has emerged, however, is breaking down health care to individual components that can allow patients to pay for the products and services they need rather than paying for an entire package.

Thomas explained with this analogy: “If you’re not going to eat the whole apple, you’re just going to get a bite, then just pay for the bite.”

The Business of Health Care

The business end of the digital health industry is equally as important as the consumer side, however. Bill Evans, CEO of Rock Health, said that the business-to-business models of health care “have a huge potential to introduce efficiency and effectiveness, not at the expense of experience.”

For specialty care areas especially, such as maternal care, Evans believes that there are unmet needs within the business. He emphasized that despite the tension, there is a way to be good for business and also help underserved populations and patients with specialty needs.

“[Health care company] Arine does a lot of medication management in a way that’s delightful for physicians, and their workflow supports existing workflow,” he said. “It addresses primarily high-need and highly vulnerable populations because that’s the population for whom medication management is highest impact, potentially.”

On-demand programming from the all-digital CES 2021, including the full session of “Digital Health: Business Growth and Opportunities,” is now available for all to view. The industry-changing insights and announcements shared by tech visionaries at CES 2021 are key to the continued growth and advancement of your business and our tech ecosystem. With that in mind, we’ve opened the CES sessions to everyone.