Driven by a combination of changing consumer trends, landmark legislation, and accelerated technological advancements, digital innovation has exploded in healthcare over the past several years. In 2022, the U.S. digital health market hit $77 billion — and it’s expected to grow significantly over the next decade.

Naturally, organizations across the industry have looked to unique applications of digital technologies as the landscape changes. But we often only see healthtech as a finished product. The road to rolling out new technology has numerous pit stops, such as testing, assessing value, refining and updating programs, and addressing integration challenges — and addressing these steps successfully rests on a solid foundation of experience and capability.

That’s where strategic partnerships can be pivotal. Whether you run an emerging healthcare startup working with payors or providers, or your health system is considering developing a new digital platform for engaging for your patients, it’s important to know how partnering with the right technology company can position your initiatives for success.

How do digital health partnerships help market entry and growth?

Breaking into the digital health sector isn’t easy. According to McKinsey, investors are generally partial to “providing remote patient support” and “supplying therapies to patients.” Furthermore, emerging tech in these concentrations need to prove they can help save clients resources and demonstrate the necessary experience to address real problems in the industry.

Ultimately, entering the healthcare market demands more than just a groundbreaking product. It requires a deep understanding of technological development, patient needs, and payor or provider dynamics. 

This is where strategic partnerships prove invaluable. For emerging digital health companies, collaborating with other healthtech developers that are laser-focused on testing, refining, and implementing your program gives you space to focus primarily on executing your vision instead of on leveraging resources, time, and energy to build this vision from scratch. And by partnering with complementary healthtech companies, you can leverage their third-party expertise when approaching health systems or payor clients.

For health systems looking to innovate, collaborating with a compatible healthtech partner can greatly accelerate development. Successful digital healthcare vendors boast in-house IT resources that may be able to complement — and minimize investments from — your organization’s IT team. And forward-thinking healthtech developers like Memora Health have internal subject matter experts on staff who pair their clinical advice with your team’s expertise to ensure any produced technology solution aligns with current standards of care.

How do digital health partnerships support stakeholders across care?

Any effective digital health platform needs to be driven by the goal of helping improve outcomes and enhancing the healthcare experience for patients. But with patient experience tied to provider engagement, any sincere digital health initiative needs to address the care team experience, too.

However, empowering multiple stakeholders across care requires a deep and tested understanding of the healthcare landscape, patient needs, and the challenges care teams face. 

Strategic partnerships allow organizations to tap into an expanded network of healthcare expertise, enabling them to tailor their products to effectively address real-world issues. That’s the advantage of choosing an innovator specifically focused on intelligent care enablement — scalable technology that supports both patients and care teams through complex clinical episodes to more efficiently deliver personalized, proactive, and coordinated care. 

This nascent technology is built to equally benefit patients, care teams, and the healthcare system as a whole. Collaborating with such a partner positions your project for success with greater options when it comes to purpose-specific features, a holistic approach to creating actionable solutions, and best practices informed by data collected from across the care continuum.

Is it better to build a digital health program or buy one?

The decision to buy a prebuilt digital health product versus building the product in-house is an important one. While the allure of customization might seem attractive, the reality is that creating effective healthcare solutions requires a significant consideration of medical regulations, data security, and user experience. 

On top of that, building a platform from the ground up can be time-consuming, resource-intensive, and laden with uncertainties. Forty-five percent of IT projects run over budget. In the provider space, over 70% of hospital-led IT initiatives either face monumental challenges or fail altogether. 

Sourcing a prebuilt digital health product from a reputable vendor can offer several advantages that help stave off these unpredictable outcomes. Memora Health continuously conducts rigorous testing, adheres to industry standards, has an established implementation track record, and has been developing its AI-enabled platform for over half a decade.

Moreover, Memora comes to the table with a support system that accounts for the nuances of the healthcare industry, offering timely updates, security enhancements, and technical assistance. Partnering with an effective digital health vendor can help accelerate your time to market, expansion into new services, and your ability to scale to larger patient and member populations.

In a rapidly evolving field like digital health, time-to-market is of the essence. Choosing a prebuilt solution allows companies to focus on their core competencies while leveraging the expertise of dedicated professionals who have fine-tuned their product for optimal performance.   

Curious about how Memora Health’s real-world partnerships create real-world results? Check out our recent case study.