By Nadia Worgan, Digital Health Consultant
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) took place in Las Vegas from 5th to 8th January 2023. The event offered an expanded digital health section and featured many healthcare leaders in panels and keynotes. Emerging trends and observations from CES include, changing business models and routes to market for digital health, challenges in raising capital in this market and some new, noteworthy product launches in the health technology space.
Why it’s Notable:
The CES is an annual event attended by 100,000 people, including digital health developers, investors and buyers. Unlike previous years, digital health took center stage at the event.
CES provided a platform for many new and exciting product launches entering the digital health space. Examples include:
Withings announced U-Scan, a device to be placed in users’ toilets to scan urine for biomarkers such as hydration and vitamin levels.
Movano launched their improved smart ring, called Evie, designed to provide women with a holistic picture of their health, including resting heart rate, period and ovulation tracking, sleep stages, etc.
NuraLogix showcased their Anura app which uses selfies taken on the user’s phone to offer 1,000 diagnostics, including heart rate, stress levels, blood sugar levels, etc from a photo.
Industry Implications:
Shift to B2B business model:
Many health tech companies leveraged CES to share their 2023 strategy, as part of which they highlighted pivoting commercialization plans. Many health tech companies initially entered the market with a B2C business model and are now shifting from this to a predominantly B2B offering. While it is important to prove value to consumers, it is being considered as a starting point to showcase proof of concept and enable conversations with employers and health systems who are becoming increasingly interested in digital health offerings.
Emphasis on return on investment:
Another emerging trend that was noted from this event, and one that we’ve reported on in the past, is the emphasis of digital health companies focusing on and proving return on investment to demonstrate their value externally. New and existing companies will still need to raise capital which may be difficult, but necessary, so proving return on investment will be imperative here.
Integration into clinical workflows:
The pace at which digital health is evolving is astonishing. And while launching products is important, until they are strategically integrated into health systems and workflows, they will remain as “nice to have” technologies, rather than assets which move the needle in healthcare by improving the patient and healthcare provider experiences.