Rock Health

🧵Pulling the thread on the digital health “tapestries" trend While overall M&A activity in digital health has slowed in 2024 (21 deals in Q3, down from 28 in Q2, 37 in Q1), an interesting trend we’ve dubbed "tapestry weaving" has emerged. Rather than acquiring like competitors, digital health companies are using M&A to integrate new features and capabilities into their offerings. Like weaving a tapestry, these deals stitch together different solutions to create more robust solutions that address a broader range of customer needs. Why this matters: • After periods of startup valuation recalibration, acquiring built-out products can be more cost-effective than building from scratch • Companies can rapidly expand their capabilities and market reach • This approach creates more robust solutions poised to serve healthcare's biggest players While this approach doesn’t come easily—or always succeed—we expect this trend to continue as companies seek to compete for healthcare's most lucrative opportunities. Success will depend on how well these tapestries are woven, from product integration to unified go-to-market strategies. + For more on this trend, read our Q3 recap by Adriana Krasniansky, Sari Kaganoff, and Tiffany Ramos: https://lnkd.in/gMt3JuQC + Want industry-leading market intelligence, custom insights, or support identifying and evaluating opportunities in this rapidly evolving market? Rock Health Advisory is here to help. Reach us at advisory@rockhealth.com

Who’s heading to HLTH in a few weeks? The Rock Health team will be there, and we’re excited to connect with visionary leaders shaping the future of healthcare.  Our all-star Rock Health Advisory lineup attending this year includes: • Megan Zweig, President • Sari Kaganoff, Chief Commercial Officer • Chris Lew, Consulting Principal • Abigail Tarquinio, Client Experience Manager • Rachel Soffer, Client Experience Manager If you’re an enterprise innovation leader looking for support on navigating the evolving healthcare landscape, developing new strategies, and identifying winning opportunities, we’d love to meet with you! 📅 Reach out to us at advisory@rockhealth.com to schedule a meeting. We hope to see you there! 🎟️ If you plan to attend and haven't registered yet, feel free to use our discount code: 24p_rock250

📰 Hot off the press: Rock Health’s Q3 2024 quarterly funding and market trends recap is now live. The key takeaway? There’s more to the story than just the numbers—if we’ve learned anything from digital health’s recent history, it’s to avoid conflating volume of activity (e.g., venture or M&A deal counts) with quality of activity (e.g., strategic M&A). 📊 Notable insights from our breakdown of Q3: • $2.4B in digital health venture funding across 110 deals this quarter, bringing the total YTD to $8.2B • Though deal count has dropped across the first three quarters of 2024, average deal size held roughly steady at $22M, up from $20M in Q1 • These patterns indicate that investors are making fewer, more focused bets with consistent check sizes 🪡 Of particular note, the emergence of digital health “tapestries"—what we’re calling it when companies strategically weave together new capabilities through acquisitions to compete at scale. This isn't just about adding features; it's about creating robust, integrated solutions that can serve healthcare's biggest players. For the full picture, read our Q3 funding and market trends recap: https://lnkd.in/gMt3JuQC

Join Rock Health at HLTH 2024 as we dive into one of healthcare's hottest topics: the rapidly evolving GLP-1 landscape. GLP-1s have become a stress test for the healthcare system—while these drugs are exceeding expectations for treating obesity, diabetes, and more, potential annual costs are reaching into the tens of billions. Sari Kaganoff, Rock Health Advisory’s Chief Commercial Officer, will moderate a must-attend panel, “Miracle Cure or Healthcare's Breaking Point?” with industry experts: • Terry Gilliland, President and CEO, Geisinger • Elliott Green, CEO & Co-Founder, Dandelion Health • Kavita Patel, Professor of Medicine, Stanford University • Florencia Halperin, Chief Medical Officer, Form Health They'll tackle crucial questions including: How do we balance innovation, access, and affordability? What's the future of healthcare economics in the age of blockbuster therapies? 🗓️ Mark your calendar for October 22 at 10:40 AM. Hope to see you there! #HLTHUSA

More than 2,000 digital health partnerships have been inked since 2020. That’s more than a partnership a day—for nearly five years straight. But anyone who reads the news knows that not all partnerships are successful. At our recent interactive Innovation Studio, co-hosted by Rock Health Advisory and our Member CVS Health Ventures, we convened ~50 enterprise and startup leaders to dig into the question everyone is asking—what makes or breaks a successful digital health partnership? Recapping the discussion, here's what you need to know:   1️⃣ Success hinges on nailing four major phases: need and partner identification, deal structuring, partnership execution, and expansion or completion 2️⃣  We identified a six-point framework for optimizing partnerships: • Vision and goals • Operating and governance model • Financial arrangements • Measuring success • Data exchange and IP ownership • Ways of working and culture 3️⃣ Key strategies from real-world examples: • Build connections across strategy, operations, and clinical stakeholders • Use a "crawl, walk, run" approach to generate quick wins • Prioritize user-first thinking and empathy in rollout and development + For more details and insights, check out: https://lnkd.in/gaeavZJ9 + Thank you to our speakers for sharing their experiences! Julia Ivanova, Thyme Care | Alyssa Reisner, CVS Health Ventures | Rahul Joglekar, Sutter Health | Julia Chou Chapin, Abridge + Rock Health Advisory works with leading enterprises each year to identify winning opportunities at the intersection of healthcare and technology and connect the dots along their innovation journey. Our interactive Innovation Studios are just one way we bring together diverse perspectives to tackle the industry's biggest challenges. Reach out to us to learn how we can support you on your healthcare innovation priorities: advisory@rockhealth.com Sari Kaganoff Chris Lew

Excited to announce Rock Health’s new collaboration with the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP): the “Advancing AI and Digital Health for Primary Care Initiative” 🤝  • There’s clear potential for AI and other digital health technologies to solve primary care challenges like patient access, provider burnout, and administrative burden, and the market has responded. Since 2023, more than 280 venture-backed U.S. digital health startups with AI/ML-enabled solutions have raised $6.3B in funding—and 67% of these companies have built their solutions for provider organizations. • To explore and accelerate the adoption of digital health and IT tools in primary care, Rock Health is collaborating with AAFP to launch the “Advancing AI and Digital Health for Primary Care Initiative.” Our goal is to identify opportunities that can transform clinical practice, streamline operations, and improve patient outcomes. • To kick things off, we’re forming the Primary Care Leadership Committee, bringing together leaders in primary care and digital health. We’re also launching a survey to capture insights from primary care physicians and clinicians on how they’re using (or planning to use) AI and digital health tools. 💡Learn more about the Initiative and meet the Leadership Committee: https://lnkd.in/g5ZSE7a4 🧑⚕️ Are you a primary care physician or clinician? We want to hear from you! Take the survey to share your thoughts and help shape the future of primary care: https://lnkd.in/gn4Qc75n #HealthcareInnovation #DigitalHealth #AIinHealthcare #PrimaryCareInnovation

LinkedIn this week released our annual list of Top Startups, one of my favorite data-driven rankings that we do each year. Healthcare companies are always well-represented on the list, but this year we saw a new trend emerge — the growth of women’s health startups, and particularly those founded by women to address concerns they’ve personally experienced. The perception about women’s health is that it’s a “niche” market — even though women, of course, make up half of the global population. Digital health companies focused on the space attract less than 10% of venture funding, and most years less than 5%, according to Rock Health. But the success of companies like those on this year’s #LinkedInTopStartups list is showing that not only is women’s health a massive market, but there’s room for highly specialized offerings for women at all life stages. Tell me: what do you think are the unmet needs in women’s health — or across healthcare more broadly? Tagging in some experts in our #healthcareonLinkedIn community for their perspective as well: Laurie McGraw, Joanne Armstrong, Mary Stutts, MHA, Alex Farris, Urvashi Bhatnagar, DPT, MBA, Karla Loken DO OBGYN FACOOG, Suzy Engwall, Georgia Cavanaugh

Oral health is much more than just clean teeth—it's a crucial component of overall health and impacts systemic issues including sleep disorders, diabetes, Alzheimer's, heart disease, and more. Yet many overlook this connection because of the way our health system is configured. Oral healthcare is treated and insured separately from general healthcare, creating access barriers and limiting a more holistic approach to care. Rock Health Advisory’s latest piece explores the connection between oral and general health, the evolving landscape of dental innovation, and opportunities for entry. Key takeaways: 💵 The funding landscape | A largely untapped market: • On average, funding for U.S.-based digital dental health startups accounts for less than 2% of overall digital health funding annually • But there are signs of an inflection point—25% of all funding deals for digital dental health startups occurred between 2023 and H1 2024 💡 Opportunity areas for oral health innovation | To reach its potential, oral health innovation must go beyond dental-centric solutions, to new care models connecting oral health to whole-person care, including: • Dental as a medical front door: 27 million Americans visit the dentist but not a physician annually • Chronic disease care: Treating periodontal disease can save individuals with diabetes nearly $6,000 in healthcare costs per year • Care at key life transitions: Gum disease during pregnancy can contribute to preterm birth risks, yet less than half of pregnant women see a dentist  • Consumer empowerment: As consumers increasingly view oral health as part of their overall wellness, there’s growing demand for personalized oral care solutions As awareness grows about oral health’s connection to overall health, we expect to see increased innovation and integration in this space. For more, read the full article: https://lnkd.in/eXgNPGTp + Special thanks to CareQuest Innovation Partners for their support and collaboration on this piece. + Interested in working with Rock Health Advisory to advance thought leadership in the ecosystem? Reach out to learn more: advisory@rockhealth.com #oralhealth #digitalhealth #healthinnovation

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Yesterday, Rock Health Advisory members convened at the Golden Gate Yacht Club for our annual Fall Member Forum, which brings together strategy and innovation leaders from life sciences, health systems, payers, retail, tech, and beyond. San Francisco gifted us with a beautiful sunny day, and we covered critical topics shaping the future of healthcare innovation: • Measuring the impact of digital health initiatives • Evolving consumer engagement strategies • Centering on purpose to create sustainable businesses and movements for change A standout feature of the day was our breakout sessions, which provided the opportunity for members to exchange ideas and workshop solutions in small groups. The hot topic? How they’re making the case for and measuring digital health projects at their organization. From thought-provoking panels to insightful “bayside” chats, the diverse perspectives and collective expertise in the room left us all feeling inspired. It's events like these that remind us of the power of community in driving healthcare forward, and we're already looking ahead to our next gathering. + Rock Health Advisory membership provides the opportunity to expand your network with warm introductions, meet new potential partners, learn from peers, and so much more. Learn more at https://lnkd.in/dRTRQQh5 #healthcareinnovation #digitalhealth