Rethinking Medical Devices and Digital Health Start-ups

Steve Blank wrote an excellent 3 part blog series last week. We covered Part 1 which described the challenges Life Science companies face in Therapeutics and Diagnostics. Part 2 summarized here addresses the issues medical device and digital health start-ups frequently face.¹

Medical devices take shape in many forms with all being most being instruments, apparatus, reagents, etc that are used to diagnose, prevent, or treat disease or other conditions (in contrast to drugs, which act through chemical action within or on the body). Medical devices vary greatly in complexity and application from bedpans to diagnostic tests, to complex surgical devices. Medical Device start-ups are notoriously difficult to fund and Steve Blank discusses how factors such as regulatory issues, business model issues and venture capital issues all take it toll.¹

“We need a “Needs Driven/Business Model Driven” approach to solving the problems facing all the stakeholders in the vast healthcare system” Steve Blank.

The fact that the status quo for Life Sciences is not working is not a new revelation. Lots of smart people are running experiments in search of ways to commercialize basic research more efficiently. Steve Blank believes we need a new model to attract private investment capital to fuel the commercialization of clinical solutions to today’s major healthcare problems that is in many ways technology agnostic.

Read the full blog post here