How to Future-Proof a Digital Healthcare Start-up

As a digital health start-up, keeping your communications transparent and using clinically-validated technologies seem like no-brainers with regard to business growth.

But with the industry expanding rapidly, you need to future-proof your digital health care brand or risk becoming part of the 90% of health startups that go bust within the first few years of being founded.

While there are various reasons that cause failure to launch for health startups, there are multiple ways you can prevent this and instead invest in long-term business growth.

Ready to dig into the subject? Grab your scalpel, and let’s explore the basics that make up a future-first digital health organization!

Keep Your Communication Transparent with Social Media

Social media is arguably the best way to reach your audience in the age of the internet. And if you leverage the reach, you can build trust in your offerings through transparent communication. Make sure you’re regularly providing your community members with interesting reads and product-related information to keep them engaged with your brand.

Most health care startups have clients all across the world. All of which speak different languages. So, for this reason, your social media content not only needs to be transparent, but it also needs to be multilingual, as this type of engagements through social media platforms ensure that you build better relationships with your clients, enhance brand awareness, and improve trust in your services.

Use Evidence-Backed Studies to Validate Your Claims

The health care sector is a delicate one, so you need to do whatever you can to make your brand more noteworthy. And backing your tools with research-based facts is one of your best options. Nightingale is a good example with the technology they employ. The company uses nuclear magnetic resonance and their proprietary software to analyze biomarkers in blood samples, and they can back it up with research provided by a team of experts!

Provide Patients and Clinicians from Healthcare Organizations with Innovative and User-Friendly Tech

Did you know that up to 90% of respondents in a Stanford Medicine study said the data on their EHR system has little to no impact on clinical decision support and treatment success rates? This means there’s a plethora of data being collected by health care organizations, but it’s not being used to improve patient outcomes.

Merely capturing all this patient data takes healthcare providers hours to complete, which at the end of the day, burdens the healthcare industry more than it benefits the sector. As a current MA in service design explains, innovation in services from a human and systemic perspective can be accomplished by leveraging creativity and iterative processes. The aim of your digital health service should be to lessen a load of a clinician to help improve patient health — not the other way around.

Localize or Lose Out

Health app localization is the adaptation of a medical or health care app to new markets and languages. This process sees your app going through linguistic, cultural, and technical changes while maintaining its original intent. Why do most organizations need it? Well, because it makes users (the clinician and the patient) feel like the app was designed for their market and language.

By localizing your offering, you’ll make it more accessible to multilingual users. It extends your service to every patient, regardless of their native language, ensuring they have access to quality healthcare when and where they need it most. And what’s more, you’ll also improve your ROI thanks to optimized discoverability for international users.

What ‘Next Big Thing’ Should Digital Health Companies Consider for Future-Proofing Their Brand?

Any healthcare start-up should keep tabs on growing trends that are shaping the landscape of the healthcare sector. Aside from developing platforms (instead of point solutions like new mobile devices) here’s a look at three major trends to monitor:

Telemedicine

The global pandemic enforced social distancing, but it also made many organizations acknowledge the benefits of remote practices. And the same rings true for the healthcare sector. Social distancing gave way to a massive boom in the demand for telemedicine services. In fact, in 2020 alone, 31% of all new healthcare startups focused on telemedicine.

The affordability and advances in healthcare information technology are the primary drivers of this sector’s growth as it’s now cheaper and easier than ever before to consult with your doctor from the comfort of your own home. Digital healthcare startups investing in future-proofing their business should focus on where these trends are heading and incorporate them into their offerings, aiming to adopt technology that allows them to offer this virtual care service in a cost-effective way.

Remote Patient Monitoring

Remote patient monitoring and diagnostic procedures for conditions like diabetes are becoming more popular by the day. Startups are more focused on their ability to deliver patient examinations at home to help maintain social distancing. It’s a virtual care solution that goes beyond remote video consultations though.

Clinicians in the medical industry are using remote medical interpreting as a way to bridge the language barrier when using remote monitoring solutions that keep advancing by the day. Recently, researchers from The University of Cambridge developed an app that enables users to use their smartphones as diagnostic devices! Imagine the impact strategies like these can have on a global scale. You can start by downloading an interpreting app for free.

Mental Health Care Solutions

Mental health is a growing concern right across the world as the rate of depression and anxiety keeps skyrocketing. And the COVID-19 pandemic left the world shook, leading to an increase in the already alarming mental health condition stats.

In many cases, people with mental health conditions don’t seek professional assistance, which just makes matters worse. Luckily, there are various healthcare startups that are filling the gap outside of the hospital environment, introducing personalized services that cater to mental health conditions. An example of these solutions would be chat and video consultations. But there are also other practices used by doctors and patients alike including mHealth apps, addiction management apps, and mental health monitoring apps.

Wrapping Up

Although there are various barriers to telehealth implementation and digital healthcare solutions, there are thousands of virtual care business opportunities that a startup can pursue if they have the right foundational principles and tech in place.

Whether you’re getting ready to launch, grow, or scale your digital care start-up, the tips we’ve mentioned here are all great ways to invest in the future of your business. Today, the majority of people are trying to take their health and well-being into their own hands. And that’s why digital solutions to well-being are the best way to cater to this new demand.

With so many startups in the digital healthcare space, it’s essential to do as much as you possibly can to ensure you stand out from the crowd. But you also need smart strategies that will help you ensure sustainable growth for your brand. By improving access to care services at an acceptable cost, increasing awareness of treatment options, and facilitating remote treatment solutions, digital healthcare startups can future-proof their organization while keeping their focus on innovation and enhanced care.