Healthcare is in a Tech Bust.
At least that’s the opinion of Marc Andreesen as expressed in a Vox article last week. While I don’t personally know the man and can’t vouch for his Healthcare credentials, his reputation for business success and knack for finding the next wave of technological innovation is beyond question. After all, this is the man who founded Netscape and went on to successfully invest in Facebook, Twitter, Airbnb, Slack, and Lyft to name only a few. Not a bad track record.
Although the Vox article was primarily focused on how AI will change the world (note: it will!), I was struck by the following statement from Andreesen:
“To me the problem is clear: The problem is insufficient technological adoption, innovation, and disruption in these high-escalating price sectors of the economy (Healthcare, Education, Elder Care, Prescription Drugs). My thesis is that we’re not in a tech bubble — we’re in a tech bust. Our problem isn’t too much technology or people being too excited about technology. The problem is we don’t have nearly enough technology. These cartel-like legacy industries are way too hard to disrupt.”
Andreesen is reminding us that Healthcare still has a lot of room for improvement. We are barely scratching the surface of possibilities and disruptive technologies have a lot of runway ahead of them. This should lift spirits and encourage us all to think of the Medtech space as one which is still very much in its early days and with so much pent-up potential. Think about it: we haven’t hit our full stride yet!
When will we know the healthcare industry is reaching maturity and heading for a genuine tech bust? According to Andreesen, it will be when prices start dropping, when job growth goes on a rapid decline or when jobs get outsourced to foreign low-cost countries. So far, I think we can safely agree that none of these are the case yet for healthcare. Not in the US, nor in the rest of the world.
Thank you Mark for reminding us that the future for Medtech is bright and that we have so much more healthcare innovation (and disruption) to look forward to!
Andrew Hyncik is an International Strategic Marketing & Product Development veteran with 20 years of experience in the MedTech, Healthcare and Pharma industries. For more Medtech insights, news and articles, visit MedtechMojo
View Andrew Hyncik’s profile on LinkedIn
Parifornia 