If I can’t bring my dog, I’m not coming. Shouldn’t this be an RSVP option for the many invites to the holiday parties and dinners? What a powerful way to recognize that, yes, we are post-pandemic, and everyone wants to see each other again – but we all have new self-isolationist habits that we would like to continue, including an excessive amount of attention to our fur babies. Some might say this type of RSVP-ultimatum is a “power move” but really, we just can’t bear to stand leaving our pets alone any more than necessary. Speaking of power, what is driving the many power plays in the digital health space that we are witnessing? We chase this ball down (see what we did there?) in our One Thoughtful Paragraph below.
Power plays in the news this week:
- Company power moves to help consumers with medications. Walgreens launched a new app, Rx Savings Finder, to help consumers find free third-party discount cards and compare prescription drug prices. Elevance Health’s PBM, CarelonRx, is launching a digital pharmacy to help users track their prescriptions and connect with pharmacists 24/7.
- Money powers digital health startups. Intuitive Ventures – a venture capital fund focused on early-stage diagnostics, medtech therapy, and digital health companies – raised $150M for its second fund.
- Big tech companies are the power behind AI in healthcare. IBM and Meta launched the AI Alliance with only one healthcare organization among its 50 founding members. Google is working to influence AI regulation and integrate AI into its healthcare offerings. Microsoft is focused on partnerships with health systems and other tech partners to impact care delivery, administrative processes, and privacy.
Farmer’s Dog, a newish brand of healthy, personalized dog food, is doing really well – especially among the type of dog parents who insist on bringing their dogs to holiday parties. The pandemic-induced being-at-home-all-the-time situation made us notice that our dogs have latent health issues – digestive, lack of energy, overweight, etc. Enter a subscription-based, freezer-to-bowl product with a devoted dog parent following who swear that Farmer’s Dog fixed their dogs’ problems – including a famously flatulent Frenchie. This power move by a dog food startup made us wonder how power moves are generated in the healthcare market. What is it that kicks these big ideas and big companies into high gear in healthcare? Rock Health explained it last week: Policy is a powerful lever to drive private market innovation. And then they went on to point out that the 21st Century Cures Act led to interoperability solutions and price transparency rules gave rise to new services and tools. Now, Congress and the federal agencies are poised to dig in on AI in healthcare policy, and the private sector power players are ready to pounce. In fact, we are getting loads of invitations to programs and meetings about these AI in healthcare power plays. We think ONC should set a good example and let us bring our four-legged plus one to their sold-out Annual Meeting next week. If not, we are strongly considering saying: “Sorry, we can’t go; we have plans with our dog.”
If any of this is new to you, then you need MyMaverick! Check it out here: https://www.maverickhealthpolicy.com/my-maverick/
