Rock Health is wrapping up the year in style by sharing the trends it believes are most likely to move the needle in 2024, based on where they stand along its “innovation maturity curve.”
The top trends were plotted along the curve to reflect their funding momentum, research volume, and partnership activity, revealing insights into which innovations are ready to make the leap from hype to impact.
- Food as Medicine (Maturity Score: Nascent) – Nutritional recommendation platforms are moving beyond their historically narrow set of use cases (“niche” support for type 2 diabetes) to a variety of conditions ranging from mental health to cancer. Keep an eye on: As legislation and reimbursement pathways continue to expand in 2024, more providers will start using food as medicine to differentiate their care delivery models.
- Digital Obesity Care (Maturity Score: Nascent) – Although GLP-1s were one of this year’s hottest topics, weight management support services like remote monitoring and behavioral coaching are also coming along for the ride. Keep an eye on: Supply chain and accessibility challenges will continue to constrain GLP-1s, and payors could push for more precise triage to determine who gets priority for medication-based programs.
- AI in Healthcare (Maturity Score: Developing) – AI startups were one of the only groups spared from the venture funding slowdown, raising nearly $2.8B across 101 rounds through Q3. Keep an eye on: Providers and payors will be solidifying their approach to AI governance and thoroughly assessing the tradeoffs between platform-level integrations (EHR plugins) and best-in-breed solutions (built for specific features).
- Value-Based Care Enablement (Maturity Score: Developing) – With the most partnership growth in the analysis, VBC enablement is gaining commercial traction and moving closer to maturity. Keep an eye on: As health systems continue to consolidate, VBC solutions might be pushed toward platform-ization to address more needs, especially in areas where they’re easiest to adopt (solidified, attributable care pathways).
- Data Interoperability (Maturity Score: Calibrating) – Interoperability infrastructure is still under construction, with the ONC only recently onboarding the first cohort of QHINs, but commercial partnerships are picking up as regulations stabilize. Keep an eye on: Data will be increasingly important as more powerful analytics tools become available, and disruptive solutions will need built-in insights capabilities as a value-driver.
The Takeaway
If 2023 was digital health’s transition year, Rock Health expects 2024 to be its recalibration year. Major innovations have begun their trek along the maturity curve, and it’s now time to build the strategies that will give them the staying power to keep progressing.
