Subscribe if you want to be notified of new blog posts. You will receive an email confirming your subscription.

Please enter your name.
Please enter a valid email address.

Please check the captcha to verify you are not a robot.

Something went wrong. Please check your entries and try again.

network effect

platform

Your Company Has A Technology Platform…But Do You Have A Platform Business Model and Strategy?

Today in healthcare, platforms are understood mostly as technology. That’s not wrong, but it’s limiting and it misses a huge opportunity to adopt a platform business model.

In most other industries platforms are also understood as a business model and strategy. Outside of healthcare, there are 45+ books focusing on this topic.

This post is written for:

  • 9,000+ early-stage digital health companies, most of which have a software and/or hardware technology platform as a centerpiece of their offering
  • Healthcare incumbents — health systems, health plans, pharma, medical devices, etc. — that provide a digital platform as part of their external offering. For example, health systems that have an EHR platform, a patient portal, and/or a population health platform.

What Do Platforms Do?

Platforming virtual mental healthcare

Platforming Mental Healthcare: Investors Create New “Mental Models”

by Randy Williams, MD and Vince Kuraitis, JD

One sector at this year’s JP Morgan Health Care Private Equity Conference caught our attention: the virtual mental health market. Six months ago, market leader Headspace Health announced a $6 billion merger with Ginger to create perhaps the largest mental health platform business to date. Headspace announced yet another acquisition, this time with the Y Combinator incubated start up, Sayana. The combined companies support the mental health and wellness needs of over 100 million individuals.

Many others are joining the investment opportunity of tech enabled mental health. This past year alone, investors poured $5.5 billion into the space, up over 130% from 2020 according to CB Insights.

“Mental Models” Shape Our Thinking

The Headspace/Sayana merger announcement has us thinking…is it time for a broader “mental” model reset in healthcare? (Pun definitely intended).

As in any industry, healthcare leaders use mental models to frame their thinking about the current state and how to envision tomorrow. Mental models are useful tools that help us understand and act within complex systems. They not only shape what we think and how we understand but they shape the connections and opportunities that we see.

Is Physician EHR Adoption Getting Past the Penguin Problem?

Remember the penguin problem described by economists?

No one moves unless everyone moves, so no one moves. 

Overcoming the penguin problem has a lot to do with creating expectations. A recent writing by Dr. James O’Connor in Physician Practice expresses a voice from the physician community that I’ve never heard before.  His essay is entitled “Meaningful Use — Doctors Have No Choice”.

Is HITECH Working? #2: Key physicians will sit on the sidelines (at least for now).

(click on any of the above graphics to be linked to the orginal source)

by Vince Kuraitis JD, MBA and David C. Kibbe MD, MBA

In the previous post in this series on “Is HITECH Working?”, we straightforwardly noted that hospitals are playing in the HITECH game. The issue of whether physicians will play is MUCH thornier.

As the headlines above succinctly convey — we conclude that for now there is too much fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) to expect significantly increased EHR technology adoption by […]

Is Gawande Right? Are Pilot Programs the Key to Delivery System Cost Reductions?

Atul Gawande’s most recent New Yorker article “Testing, Testing” addresses the critics who lament that there is no master plan to curb delivery system costs in pending health reform legislation.

Gawande retorts: “Is that a bad thing?”

…and he answers his own question by describing the value of pilot programs contained in both the Senate and House versions of health reform legislation.

Is Gawande correct?  Yes and no….

The Real Secret Sauce of Medicare’s Participation in Regional Collaboratives — Network Effects

Last week I asked whether Medicare’s Biggest Change in 40 Years is on the horizon. That post described and discussed implications of Medicare’s new direction for the medical home — the shelving of Medicare Medical Home Demonstration (MMHD) and the refocusing on the recently announced Multi-Payer Advanced Primary Care Initiative (MAPCI).

In that post I touched briefly on the potential for MAPCI to create effective networks at multiple levels — contracting networks, health IT networks, social and collaborative care networks.  I’d like to expand […]

Medicare’s Biggest Change in 40 Years on the Horizon?

Earlier this week CMS issued a typically cryptic Announcement indicating that they were shelving the Medicare Medical Home Demonstration (MMHD) and instead would focus on the recently announced Multi-Payer Advanced Primary Care Initiative (MAPCI). My blog post from Tuesday provides details and asks the question “What does all this mean?”

Today’s blog post will tackle:

Medicare’s biggest change in 40 years?
The rise of MAPCI
The fall of MMHD
Implications/discussion

Medicare’s Biggest Change in 40 Years?

What’s a Network Industry? Is Healthcare One?

This post is a foundational overview of characteristics of network industries.  Much of the terminology will deserve deeper discussion, but we have to start somewhere.

In his book The Economics of Network Industries, Professor Oz Shy lists four characteristics of network industries.

The main characteristics of these markets which distinguish them from the market for grain, dairy products, apples, and treasury bonds are:

Complementarity, compatibility and standards
Consumption externalities [network effects]
Switching costs and lock-in
Significant economies of scale in production

In this essay, I’ll quote from Dr. Shy in explaining each […]

Intro to a New Series

  “We need to make care linkages a core competency of American health care.” 
George Halvorson, Chairman and CEO, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Kaiser Foundation Hospital

 

There’s a double meaning to the title of this new series: Healthcare Crosses the Chasm to the Network Economy

At the level of technology, it’s a reference to Geoffrey Moore’s bestselling business/technology book — “Crossing the Chasm”. The Chasm here is the huge gap between early adopters of technology and mainstream users. The book describes the process of bringing […]

Overcoming The Penguin Problem: Setting Expectations for EHR Adoption

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Economists call it “The Penguin Problem”  — No one moves unless everyone moves, so no one moves. 

The role of user expectations is crucial in getting penguins to move off of ice floes and in the successful adoption of new network technologies.  I’ll cover two main points in today’s essay:

How “The Penguin Problem” Helps Explain Low EHR (electronic health record) Adoption To-Date
How Recent Federal Actions Are Setting Higher Expectations for EHR Adoption

The Penguin Problem and Low EHR Adoption To-Date

While not the only factor, […]