I journey to a whole lot of the most important conferences within the healthcare world, however I didn’t make it to this 12 months’s J.P. Morgan Healthcare Convention in San Francisco. As a result of all of us have FOMO sometimes, I reached out to leaders from throughout the trade to listen to how the convention went and find out about their takeaways from the occasion.
Under is an inventory of among the extra notable issues that executives instructed me.
The life sciences trade isn’t prepared for AI
Internet Solar, president of Komodo Well being, wrote through e-mail that “we are able to’t confuse enthusiasm for readiness” in relation to safely making use of AI in life sciences.
“From the displays we noticed at JPM this 12 months, it was clear that infrastructure to assist AI programs, together with the instruments to make sure they are often successfully built-in into the healthcare system, continues to be a piece in progress. This contains the info basis that AI programs are educated on to the extent of human contact essential to generate correct outputs that may be trusted and acted upon,” he defined.
The hype may be deceptive. Solar wrote that the conversations he had throughout the convention made it clear that “only a few” life sciences corporations have even “gotten out of the beginning blocks” in relation to deploying AI instruments at scale.
He famous that the few which have accomplished this are helmed by people who’re AI specialists themselves. Solar thinks this speaks to the mismatch between the huge degree of AI curiosity and “the utter lack of knowledge round learn how to even get began.”
Life sciences corporations have lots to study when it comes to the kinds of AI use instances they need to prioritize, in addition to the companions and investments required to implement new instruments efficiently, he added.
GLP-1s can’t finish the weight problems disaster by themselves
Sean Duffy, CEO of Omada Well being, wrote that GLP-1s have been a subject of dialogue in “100% of [his] greater than 32 conferences” on the convention. His message famous that an outsized portion of those discussions explored the “medical and financial implications of those medicines on the general well being of our nation.”
To Duffy, there gave the impression to be a consensus {that a} “medicine alone” method won’t be enough in relation to GLP-1s. He predicted that “innovation in opposition to this reality will seize the trade’s consideration in 2024.”
RIP to Telehealth 1.0
Whereas he was at J.P. Morgan’s convention, Included Well being CEO Owen Tripp seen that “everybody appears to agree that the heyday of telehealth 1.0 is over.” It is a good factor, he added.
“Transactional pressing care and behavioral well being — whereas handy, beloved and an extremely essential a part of our enterprise — doesn’t supply the aggressive differentiation it as soon as did, and for corporations the place that’s the enterprise, it’s a lifeless finish,” he wrote through e-mail.
Retail clinics are in powerful instances
One theme from the convention stood out to Trilliant Well being CEO Hal Andrews: that the retail clinic-based major care mannequin is struggling.
“For anybody who has ever operated a major care workplace, the truth that Walgreens and CVS have immediately turn out to be so lukewarm on their lately acquired companies isn’t a surprise, however the velocity with which they’ve signaled their change of coronary heart to Wall Avenue is,” he wrote.
This pattern additionally gives a doable rationalization for the “important management modifications” CVS and Walgreens have made since Labor Day, Andrews added.
Timing will separate winners from losers
Seth Joseph, managing director of Summit Well being Advisors, seen that “nobody appears to be ready for the opposite shoe to drop anymore.”
Final 12 months was a 12 months of two wars, rising rates of interest, inflation and banking disaster. But, in Joseph’s view, the recession that economists have been anticipating didn’t present up. He famous that “neither irrational exuberance nor dwelling in worry” are good locations for healthcare leaders to start 2024 with.
“For well being tech, 2024 is prone to be a narrative of the haves and have nots. The most important delineator between the 2? Timing. The ‘haves’ reached operational scale heading into the pandemic or have been based because the pandemic. The ‘have nots’ raised large rounds throughout the pandemic and are struggling to justify the valuations and expectations,” Joseph’s e-mail learn.
Psychological well being providers have to be embedded into extra care fashions
Talkspace CEO Jon Cohen wrote that he felt “utterly energized” after seeing that psychological well being was a ubiquitous subject all through the convention.
“There was not a dialog within the presentation rooms or in my 1-on-1 conferences that didn’t contact on, in a method or one other, how corporations are addressing sufferers’ behavioral well being wants — both by preventative care or as a part of complete particular person care. It has by no means been extra obvious that psychological and behavioral well being have turn out to be synonymous with basic well being and healthcare,” he defined.
Radiologists will lead the medical adoption of generative AI
All clinician-facing AI is being regulated as Class I or Class II medical gadget software program. To Sirona Medical CEO Cameron Andrews, this indicators that physicians, software program distributors and traders are waking as much as the truth that medical AI is a medical gadget and must be regulated as such.
Now that the trade is taking clinical-facing generative AI fashions critically, cloud distributors and AI corporations want to speculate closely in large-scale, specialty-specific basis fashions for multimodal doctor specialties like radiology and pathology, Andrews wrote.
“As medication’s digital-native specialty, it’s broadly anticipated that this transformation will occur in radiology first,” he famous.
Founders have altered their fundraising timelines
Lynne Chou O’Keefe, managing companion at Outline Ventures, wrote that her major takeaway from the convention was that “founders are looking forward to the following 12 months and want extra assist and partnership than ever earlier than.”
When she attended the occasion in earlier years, O’Keefe noticed a ton of founders actively fundraising. Now, extra are searching for steering on the proper time to begin fundraising and recommendation on which milestones to focus on, she defined through e-mail.
“As effectively, we imagine being strategically offensive is high of thoughts — fascinated about strategic place out there and learn how to assume offensively about partnerships in a 360-degree view,” O’Keefe added.
SPAC mergers could improve within the biopharma house
Ian Chan, CEO of antibody biotech Abpro, wrote that the biotech trade is “getting into a turning level” that can result in new financing alternatives.
“Having acknowledged this flip and the continued want for novel monoclonal antibodies, we’re transferring ahead with this chance and taking part in a SPAC merger ourselves and wouldn’t be stunned if an increasing number of corporations contemplate this route,” his message learn.
Supply: champpixs, Getty Pictures
