Early indications show Funding for digital health startups in the fourth quarter of 2022 fell so much that they are close to the first levels of the last 2019.
But dollar amounts don’t tell the whole story. How you grow as a digital healthcare company is just as important as whether you grow up
A company built for the long term must have clinical experts as part of its leadership to ensure that care is always based on the patient’s medical needs, as well as maintain quality control.
Here’s a framework that digital health startups can consider:
Bring physicians into senior leadership
The best case scenario for a digital health startup is to bring in a clinician as a co-founder.
I speak from experience. My co-founder is a triple board certified psychiatrist who brings clinical expertise to everything she does. From evaluating product roadmap decisions with our technology department to discussing strategy at board meetings and managing our entire clinical team, her contributions are vital to the health and direction of the company.
Dedicating resources and space to full-time providers allows them to focus more on patient care—the reason they got into medicine.
Outside the C-suite, hiring physicians as senior executives with responsibilities beyond clinical practice is invaluable. The key is to make sure clinicians know they will report to another clinician, not a non-clinical executive.
Non-clinical leaders, including founders and non-clinical C-suite executives, must practice what they preach. They should consistently use their clinical partners for business discussions even if they do not have a clear clinical impact.
The main benefits of taking this approach include:
- The clinical and non-clinical partnership is more active by leaps and bounds;
- Other team members and clinical staff will see and respect inclusion;
- Clinicians may discover something that has an indirect but important clinical impact.
Beyond hiring in-house clinicians, startups should consider inviting physicians to join their board of directors. Their presence on board helps guide a company towards becoming an ethical and sustainable medical practice focused on helping patients rather than a technology company operating at the expense of patients.
This commitment to patient outcomes is a differentiator and should be reflected at every level of work of a digital health startup.
Celebrate the dedication of providers
Dedicating resources and space to full-time providers allows them to focus more on patient care—the reason they got into medicine.
