A Year in Review: Digital Health & HealthXL 2022 Recap

After a booming few years of growth in digital health, things returned to a normal cadence in 2022, with fewer investments occurring across the landscape. However not all was quiet either, big tech firmly set its sights on digital health and made some big moves, the femtech market continued to grow and Europe launched its first ever digital health action plan. Much remains to be fixed in healthcare; no doubt we’ll see old and new players build on that momentum in 2023. In this blog we recap on the most notable developments this year and also highlight HealthXL’s top moments of 2022.

Digital Health 2022: Highlights 

1. Big tech is focused on healthcare

First attempts by tech giants to disrupt this industry may have failed but this did not stop these companies from making significant progress over the last year in the industry. Amazon launched their virtual clinic alongside their healthlake imaging and analytics offerings at HLTH, their pending acquisition of One Medical is also certainly one to watch. Meanwhile Google acquired Sound Life Sciences, to further expand its digital sleep monitoring offerings. 

Most interestingly, it was predicted that Apple will enter the U.S. health insurance market in 2024 which could give Apple a competitive advantage with an opportunity to approach healthcare with a more service based revenue model, as well as increased interoperability between stakeholders and improved access to healthcare data. 

We expect to see further activity by these tech giants in the healthcare industry next year. 

2. Digital health funding environment cooled down

It’s no secret that the market is shifting, Q3 2022 saw the lowest funding for digital health for the first time in 11 quarters. Interestingly, in tandem with this reduced funding, numerous digital health companies have been laying off their workforces. To balance the market, digital health companies will have to aid VCs in de-risking their investments: companies will need to focus on having a strong business model, proven ROI and a clinically validated solution.

3. The women’s health market gained momentum 

The femtech market has gained significant traction over the last year and we saw an expansion into new therapeutic indications. Menopause, a typically underserved women’s condition, was a focus point this year with providers, pharma and digital health companies entering this field. Mayo Clinic partnered with Lisa Health to create an artificial intelligence based app to support perimenopausal and menopausal women, while Astellas pharma announced they would be launching a new digital health solution for menopausal women. Gennev, a menopause virtual care platform was acquired by Unified Women’s Healthcare, allowing Unified to provide essential care across its 2,500 affiliated womens healthcare providers across the U.S..

4. The European regulation and reimbursement landscape continued to evolve

Earlier this year, France launched their digital health scale up 2025 program which includes a new fast track pathway (Prise en Charge Transitoire “PECT”) offering a transitional and temporary one-year reimbursement access pathway for DTx or telemonitoring solutions. 2022 saw Europe’s first ever digital health action plan released, which will act as guidance for policy makers to address barriers to digital health adoption in their respective countries. The plan highlights Europe's commitment to digital health acceleration and may help standardize the fragmented reimbursement landscape in Europe. 

5. Healthcare entered the metaverse

This year the hype around the metaverse grew. We saw more companies in the industry establishing their place in this virtual world. XRHealth, an augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) telehealth platform, raised $10 Million to support the expansion of virtual treatment in the Metaverse. We also saw CVS make moves into this space, filing a trademark that would allow it to sell goods and services in the metaverse. 

HealthXL 2022: A Recap

1. We hosted over 217 events in 2022 

As the Covid-19 restrictions disappeared at the beginning of 2022, our in-person events grew. We held three in person Global Gatherings this year where our community discussed key digital health topics face-to-face again:

• In Basel we discussed building a digital health ecosystem 

• In Barcelona we covered the evolution of DTx in Europe.

• In Chicago we explored different business models in digital health

2. We launched a new in-person meeting format: HealthXL insider

As the excitement of being back to face-to-face meetings grew, we decided to launch our HealthXL insiders. These events are essentially a meet up of eight - ten HealthXL community members in different cities to have an informal roundtable discussion over dinner, which are led by a trusted anchor; they proved to be some of our most popular events in 2022. 

Our first insider event will take place in Q1 in Basel where we will discuss the digital front door and at-home diagnostics.

3. We launched our Big Tech and Digital Health report

Earlier this year our specialized Advisory Team launched our Big Tech in Digital Health report which explores how major players in technology are approaching digital health and putting their stamp on the future of healthcare. Check out the report here. 

4. We established our community advisory board and thought leaders

Within our DTx, oncology and mental health communities we established our advisory board group and thought leaders. Our community advisory board members provide strategic guidance on what our community should focus on and ensure our meetings are on point and valuable for every community member. Complementing this are our thought leaders, a group of esteemed individuals at the forefront of our network that lead and anchor our conversations. 

We also launched a new meetings series, which focuses on a dedicated topic over four virtual meetings and allows for deeper conversations. This year we launched the cardiometabolic and immunology series, while next year we will launch a new meeting series each quarter, starting with our Innovation in MedTech series in Q1.

5. We continue to evolve our platform to meet our members' needs 

We are always evolving our platform to meet your needs and this year we have launched new features to provide a more valuable experience for you. Our revamped home feed is the start of great learning journeys. Whether you want to go deep on a new topic, just stay up to date or find just the right analysis to persuade a key stakeholder it starts here. Great connections happen at our meetings and the new invite to meeting feature acts as a powerful new tool to invite other HealthXL members, or those in your network, to a digital health meeting. Learn more here.

If you have any suggestions for the platform team, then please share them on [email protected] and we promise to deliver on them in 2023.

6. HealthXL turned 10!

This year HealthXL celebrated our tenth birthday! It’s been an exciting journey and we’re constantly evolving to support our customers' needs. Over the past ten years we’ve worked with some of the biggest names in pharma, healthcare and medtech and supported startups on their journey to lead emerging areas in digital health. We can’t wait for the next ten years!

And that’s it for 2022! From all of us at HealthXL, happy holidays, and happy new year!

Join the HealthXL Webinar on ‘Retail Healthcare: Current and Future Opportunities for Digital Health’ on 26th January. Click here to Request to Join.