A quote to remember:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

– Theodore Roosevelt, 1910

Introduction

Healthcare technologies are evolving in at least two remarkable ways: 1) distilling medical information and resources for medical professionals; 2) reinventing the customer (hereinafter referred to as “user”) experience.  The second category, sitting on top of the social layer, describes companies and initiatives who aim to cement closer relationships between healthcare providers and their patients.  To accomplish these goals, emerging companies can exploit three categories of trending fields: behavioral economics, data addiction, and mobile healthcare.

The booms of the social network and IT industry have sparked unimaginable thought leadership as businesses race to define the “social layer.”  In the 2000’s, Facebook, Google, and Apple were among multiple companies that innovated the virtual social world, which subsequently bled into how users and information interact in real life.   The “social layer” sets the stage for rebirths of other industries, such as healthcare, energy, and education.

Innovative insurance companies, startups and healthcare providers are aligning these three three “lenses” to contribute to new healthcare technologies.