Healthcare tech: the driving force behind value-based care?
In 2020, healthcare technology investment went into overdrive. We speak to Sunny Kumar, Partner at GSR Ventures, to find out how COVID‑19 has transformed the industry and whether healthcare technology can bring us one step closer to a value-based model of care.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about the most unexpected and unprecedented challenges, stretching our finite healthcare resources to an extent where they have reached a breaking point. The pandemic forced healthcare systems and providers to become more agile, and the industry has adopted technologies at a rate like never before.
The numbers speak for themselves. During the last 10 years, investments in the health-tech sector trended between $2 to $5 billion. In 2020 alone, this number rose to more than $14 billion.1 So how has this rapid adoption of technology transformed the way care is delivered?
Fishawack Health talks to physician and AI informatics expert turned venture capitalist Sunny Kumar to learn how the healthcare technology landscape has changed because of COVID-19. He reveals how innovative technology drives us closer to value-based care and the trends he thinks are worth the hype.
What’s your role at GSR ventures?
SK: As a partner at GSR Ventures, I oversee healthcare technology investments. We structure our work in a full-stack manner. So, I am involved in everything from developing our investment thesis to finding visionary entrepreneurs to partner with and determining which companies are most likely to create transformative impact in a sector. Once we partner with a company, I support our founders as they scale up and, at the appropriate time, help elevate those companies to the next level.
Do you think the pandemic has been a catalyst for changes in the way care is delivered?
SK: Healthcare is becoming more consumerized. Patients are looking for options designed around them, as opposed to the more traditional one‑size‑fits‑all healthcare system. A meaningful set of patients prefer to get their care delivered through technology, for example, via text message. They want to be able to get everything they need at the click of a button—that really didn’t exist before in a scalable manner.
