Is it too early to say that the health tech boom feels like a million years ago?
In 2020 and 2021, the jolt of pandemic and favorable economic conditions created an explosion of adoption and investment for companies that hoped to transform some corner of the stodgy health care system with technology.
Those roaring days feel like a distant memory. Many of those would-be disrupters are now struggling through a much different environment. Interest rates are high and as of the last accounting, private investment in health tech for the 2023 was on track to reach less than half its 2021 peak. Many companies that were once relentlessly chasing growth have pivoted to survival mode, laying off workers, adjusting business plans, and scrounging up capital on whatever terms are available as they try to stay afloat. Meanwhile, as health care habits have crept back toward the status quo, dreams of rapid transformation fueling speedy success have faded to the sobering reality that selling health care services is slow and hard, even when you’ve got a really great idea.