HealthLink Dimensions conducts an annual survey to understand physician communication preferences and media habits. This year’s report revealed notable trends in how physicians prefer to access and receive information from healthcare marketers, including:

This report underscores the importance of tailored communication strategies to effectively engage with physicians across various channels and formats. Don’t miss valuable insights for improving interactions with physicians.

The digital health sector has shown remarkable resilience, raising $5.7 billion across 266 deals in the first half of 2024, according to Rock Health’s mid-year report. If this trend continues, 2024 could surpass the year-end funding totals of 2019 ($8.2 billion) and 2023 ($10.7 billion). Here are the key insights from the report. This is an uptick compared to previous quarters showing languishing investment.

Investment in Key Clinical Areas
Mental health remains the top-funded clinical area in digital health, with $682 million raised in the first half of 2024. Other significant investment areas include weight management and obesity care ($261 million) and reproductive and maternal health ($214 million). This diverse funding landscape highlights the ongoing demand for innovative solutions across various therapeutic areas.

Focus on AI-Enabled Startups
Artificial intelligence is a significant driver of investment in the digital health sector. AI-enabled startups accounted for 34% of total sector funding in the first half of 2024. Notably, 38% of Series A rounds went to AI-focused companies. These significant investments support AI upstart costs, such as training models and acquiring datasets, and open opportunities for early-stage acquisitions. For instance, Fabric’s Series A funding facilitated its purchase of MeMD from Walmart’s shuttered healthcare business.

Revival of the IPO Market
After a 21-month hiatus, the digital health IPO market is showing signs of revival. Q2 2024 saw three companies—Nuvo, Waystar, and Tempus AI—go public. This activity reflects a modest uptick in the broader IPO market and provides insights into the strategies of late-stage digital health companies. Both Waystar and Tempus AI used funds raised during their IPOs to pay down debt, aligning their exit strategies with the current economic climate.

There’s strong funding momentum and a potential return to more sustainable venture patterns. Rock Health indicates that while uncertainties remain, such as the upcoming U.S. presidential election and changes in virtual care policies, the resilience of digital health founders and investors suggests a positive outlook for the sector.

A recent article published in MediaPost discusses a study conducted by ​​Harvard Business Review Business Analytics, which found that the number of channels marketers need to manage is creating complexity in their marketing endeavors, and this is having a negative impact on performance. The study found that only 30% of marketers feel their marketing is effective, while 66% feel complexity is undermining their ability deliver value.

The study also found that over 50% of marketers feel their teams are overwhelmed by the sheer number of channels they need to manage, while nearly 60% feel they need hyper-specialization to manage different channels.

The study further broke down just where marketers see increased complexity resulting from more and more marketing channels and the impact it has on their ability to deliver.

A recent report published in MediaPost discusses how nearly two-thirds of Google searches stay within Google's ecosystem, meaning users do not click on external websites. Data from SparkToro’s CEO, Rand Fishkin, reveals that 59% of searches in the U.S. and nearly 60% in the EU result in zero clicks, with significant traffic directed to Google-owned properties like YouTube, Maps, and Images. This trend raises concerns about the impact on web publishers and suggests potential regulatory implications, particularly in the EU, where the European Digital Markets Act could influence search dynamics.

Observer discusses how AI systems are helping hospitals reduce the length of patient stays. For example, Concord Hospital and RWJ Barnabas Health have seen a decrease in patient stay duration using AI-powered electronic health record (EHR) systems like Wellsheet. Concord Hospital reported a 1.25-day reduction in average stay length. Despite these benefits, experts caution about potential side effects, such as increased readmission rates, emphasizing the need for careful integration of AI into healthcare.

In one instance, HonorHealth, a non-profit health system in Arizona, found that over a three-year period that ended in the first quarter of 2024, 86 percent of its patients received early discharge through the use of an AI-powered EHR system called Qventus. 

A study by Sermo, a leading social networking platform for HCPs, found that 23% of health systems have adopted AI into their organizations and 71% expect to integrate AI into their health systems within the next five years.

A recent article in eMarketer dove into key trends around Baby Boomers, as they pertain to their shopping habits. The article points out that while much of the focus in many industry publications has been on trends involving younger generations, such as Millenials and Gen-Z, we cannot overlook this important demographic. As pointed out in the article, Baby Boomers (ages 60 to 78) make up 20% of the US population yet control $76 trillion—52% of the country’s net wealth, per the Federal Reserve. 

When it comes to mobile device usage, Google remains the most frequently used mobile app for Boomers, with 76% of them reporting it is their most frequently used app, followed by Facebook and YouTube, accordingly.

The article further points out that, while 73% of Boomers feel technology is important for financial management, only 12% are using (approximately 9.5 Million) their mobile wallet on their smart device.