From American Well to Venture Capitalists, Health IT on the Rise

Companies in healthcare IT have been percolating for the past five-plus years.

Now, with the regulatory climate evolving and big companies like Apple getting more serious about health and wellness, it looks like 2015 could be when it’s all going to pop.

Let’s connect a few dots:

—American Well has raised $80 million in Series C funding from unnamed health plans, academic medical centers, private equity, and other institutional and corporate investors. The Boston telehealth company makes software for virtual doctor visits and has been around since 2006. (Check out these in-depth CEO interviews from 2009 and 2010 to see how far the company has come in five years.)

—Google Ventures is moving deeper into healthcare and life sciences, putting more than one-third of its invested money in 2014 into the sector. Not really a new trend, but a notable one to watch.

—Tech venture capitalists are saying healthcare could be a breakout market in 2015. Union Square Ventures’ Fred Wilson has been watching the sector for years and spoke about some relevant trends at a conference last week. Meanwhile, in a series of related tweets, Founder Collective’s Eric Paley noted an uptick in consumer-driven opportunities in healthcare, citing companies like PillPack, GiveForward, Kinsa, and Omada Health. Let the race to find the “Uber of healthcare” begin.

—A wide range of other healthtech companies have made news recently: Welltok, Wellframe, Propeller Health, CareCloud, Doximity, and HealthEdge, to name a few. They run the gamut from making connected health devices to providing software for insurance companies, hospitals, and employers. What’s clear is there’s no shortage of problems to solve in the convoluted world of healthcare.

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.