No ideal digital health business plan

What's the ideal business plan for an entrepreneur looking to get into the digital health space?

Apparently, there isn't one.

[See also: mHealth needs to focus on consumers]

This isn't shocking news, according to presenters at the Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance's 8^th Annual Convergence Summit, being held Wednesday and Thursday in San Diego. Their advice? Patience is a requirement, not a virtue, and make sure what you're selling is what people really need.

Many new mHealth businesses "expect the customer to change the way they're doing things fundamentally," said Sam Brasch, director of Kaiser Permanente Ventures and part of a panel discussion on connected health investment. "That's a hard sell."

Brasch, who was joined on the WLSA stage by Rafael Torres of GE Ventures, Jack Young of the Qualcomm Life Fund and Nick Augustinos of Cardinal Health, said the emerging mHealth companies are starting to realize that it's no longer just about the device. Hospitals and payers, he said, are taking a look at solutions that not only collect data but know what to do with it.

"The opportunity is here for these medical device companies to become more than device companies," said Frank Rahmani, a partner with the San Diego-based law firm of Cooley LLP and the panel's moderator.

[See also: Venture funding and mHealth]

Augustinos pointed out that where the earlier companies focused on solutions for providers, those entering the space now are seeing the value in the consumer experience. Devices and solutions that make it easier for both the consumer and the clinician to collect and interpret data are seeing interest from venture capitalists.

"People are starting to engage more with these devices in monitoring what they're doing," he said.

This is opening the door, he said, for companies interested in big data and analytics, as well as information services. Those ventures, added Young, are going to find interest in the payer market, which is in the best position to use that data.

Above all else, the panel said, entrepreneurs looking to get into healthcare should realize that the market isn't about healthcare any more – a point around which the entire conference is based. The convergence of digital health and consumerism, of wellness and preventive health services, is pushing the envelope for new ideas that look beyond the traditional hospital setting.

"Our destination should always be health and not care," Augustinos said.