2019 was a strong year for digital health IPOs: Livongo Health, Phreesia, Health Catalyst, and Change Healthcare all went public. This amounts to a strong validation of evidence-based, digital healthcare, and it’s great news for healthcare innovators and even better news for patients worldwide.
As our CEO Jonathan (Yonatan) Adiri explains,
This is another signal that we're not going to have the emergence of an AI god in a white robe that’s going to rid humanity of cancer. We're far more likely to see a swarm of efficient, razor-focused startups that will tackle one healthcare problem at a time, digitizing effectively and creating value.
Learn more from Yonatan about how digital startups are solving problems, creating value, and making giant leaps for the healthcare industry.
Video Transcript
Earlier today, Livongo became a publicly-traded company. A clinically significant digital healthcare pioneer goes public.
That’s great news for the industry and it’s even greater news for patients worldwide. It’s also another signal of the fact that we’re not going to have the emergence of this A.I. God in a white robe that’s going to rid humanity of cancer.
We’re far more likely to see a swarm of very efficient, razor-focused startups that are going to tackle one healthcare problem at a time, digitizing effectively and creating value.
Early signs of the swarm are very visible. Consider PillPack successfully tackling drug delivery and packaging, winning a one billion dollar Amazon acquisition that now allows them to scale nationally.
Consider Omada Health’s trailblazing work in harnessing behavioral science in the diabetic space.
And perhaps the most exciting for me is the work pioneered by GoodRx in introducing transparency to drug pricing, helping average Americans save 80 percent on prescription drug pricing. Think about it. That’s ten billion dollars saved in less than a decade.
Having Wall Street validate Livongo’s evidence-based healthcare. That’s nearly $1,900 dollars saved per patient per year, and an 8 percent reduction in HbA1c measurements, is an enormous step in the right direction for the industry.
Fifty years ago, as the Apollo 11 crew was getting ready to leave Tranquility Base and fly back home to Earth, as they received their green light from Houston, they responded on the radio: “Roger that, Houston. Seems like we’re number one on the runway.”
Well, Livongo, in a way, is number one on the runway. And their IPO is a giant leap for the healthcare industry.
