Data Privacy, Digitized Healthcare & Startups

In a recent post, I discussed growth in platforms that connect people with service providers. The verticals were beauty, massage, and personal training health. But that’s not the only vertical, I learned. There’s a whole thing called med-tech and I haven’t really been paying much attention to it in the past few years, to be honest. The IoT and digitalization of records exploded – before data managers caught up to the risks. So when it comes to startups dealing with sensitive information, the trend is rising as the market for technologies to help compliance while optimizing data management costs.

One trend that’s apparent in startups and investments is the use of data technologies to fuel innovation. And since I’ve investigated this more, I’ve learned that some of these advancements have allowed startups to enter new verticals. Due to HIPAA and privacy laws, medical records have previously been a no-go as far as data sharing and analysis, but that’s changed. A few notable start-ups are moving forward in the new and exciting field of medical data.

The exciting news is that these startups can mean great gains for the consumer.

Could investors who saw privacy laws as problematic have a new perspective now?

Adviise, a healthcare startup, uses the power of secure data to enable patients to find suitable doctors and medical professionals. The current state of healthcare in the US can leave patients frustrated, with fragmented personal medical records and complex procedures to gain approval for visits and treatments. Adviise aims to empower patients with choice and knowledge. It would be interesting to see if this startup might potentially change over to a B Corp as the core its goal is to help consumers very directly. While I live in Israel, I am in Facebook groups of moms all around the world. One thing I’ve seen a few times in the recent past is a horror story of being stuck with a very large bill for seeing a provider out of network. The story goes that the patient is brought to the normal place of the test, but the test administrator happened to be out of network. We’re talking about mistakes in the 100’s of dollars, which can be a huge burden for many families already. This is a story I’ve seen again and again, and many times it’s related to tests for chronically ill children who tend to spend more time seeing providers and going back to the same place. 

DocAuthority, aims to help businesses with data management and data security B2B company with solutions tailored to the unique needs of data management and security in the healthcare industry. One of the most regulated and complex arenas in data management is when it comes to personal medical information. DocAuthority’s data protection and document management aims to help businesses use data in the most efficient ways possible while maintaining the highest security standards. All of this efficiency can ultimately benefit the consumer, who can feel safer sharing personal information. The public “leaks” and the publishing of personal data from websites was common in the early 2000’s, but is less prevalent today as laws and protective technologies catch up to the digitization of data records. Helping companies be security compliant benefits consumers who can feel more relaxed about sharing information and have started to understand the various levels of security, from “secure” websites to just being savvier about giving out information, while at the same time benefitting from using tech-based services that rely on personal information.

AIDoc is one such startup that people trust to hold very personal information. This innovative AI model uses data to analyze scans that radiologists would normally analyze themselves. Using the scans, they add patient data and help radiologists make faster decisions with what they call Radiology AI. It’s exciting to think that we can use data to help save lives once we have security protocols in place to protect the data. An innovation like AI in the medical field is astounding. This exciting product uses data analysis and artificial intelligence to make better decisions in healthcare. What I like about this product is that it works together with providers instead of trying to replace them. Radiology AI is an innovation that has only been made possible now that we have both relaxed our expectations of privacy on a personal level and made regulations that put the consumer at ease when giving medical information or doing tests. The applications for this kind of AI are endless, and the news that the FDA has given clearance for their stroke identifying technology isn’t surprising.

There are many more promising startups in the field of medical technology, but one thing is very clear and that is the security of data is an inseparable part of any tech that manages personal medical information. Securing data is key for any company working with personal health information.

Could investment in medical technologies that rely on data security be one of the biggest growth opportunities? 2020 will be an exciting year to find out.