Health sector at digital inflection point - Meeker

Digital analyst and futurist Mary Meeker from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has ushered in a bullish future for the healthcare sector. In her annual Internet Trends report, Meeker has foreshadowed that the U.S. healthcare system is hitting an “inflection point” which may have global flow on effects.

 Digital analyst and futurist Mary Meeker from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has ushered in a bullish future for the healthcare sector. In her annual Internet Trends report, Meeker  has foreshadowed  that the U.S. healthcare system is hitting an “inflection point” which may have global flow on effects.

While the U.S. system still faces the challenges of high costs, resource wastage  and rising costs for both individuals and employers she was optimistic about the reforms brought about by the Affordable Care Act.
Meeker says that the digitization of healthcare is finally gaining traction with 84% of hospitals and academic or institutional practices now using a fully functioning electronic health record (EHR) system. The Act is investing U.S$35 bn in electronic health records for providers.

Significantly, digital health venture investments are up almost 40% year over year.

Data is driving growth and innovation in health care and as such stimulating the digital sector.  She notes that re-imagining Apps, for example, is key to healthcare growth as it assists people in streamlining their personal healthcare data flow. 

The “Biggest Re-Imagination of All,” Meeker contends  is people enabled with mobile devices coupled with sensors, which will result in a fertile crop of available and shareable data.  For health care and technology platforms, she forecasts that this will be a huge leap forward.

In overall macro trends, the rate of growth of  global internet usage is slowing down, particularly in the  U.S., which grew only 2%. China  was the exception, growing 10%  with almost three times as many people online than the U.S. China is also the biggest place where mobile devices are the internet platform of choice.

Mobile computing remains the hot growth area with high room for growth  as only about 30% of the phones in the world are smartphones. Mobile now accounts for 25% of all  web usage, up 14% from a year ago. In Europe mobile is 16% of all web usage, up from 8% last year, whereas in North America, mobile is 19% of all usage up from 11% last year.

Meanwhile, the broadcasting model continues to change with TV channels growing as fast as apps and moving ultimately to one  based around interactive content. Meeker states that the Second Screen era has arrived, which “opens big opportunities for companion content.”  Media companies and brands  are starting to realize that TV –in whatever form- can gather more engagement and revenue from content ( interactive )  and gamification than from social conversation..