It may be true that the ultimate end play is the consumer, but won’t it take a company like Apple, GE, or Philips to market to the end consumer? What chance does a start-up have of reaching the end consumer? They simply don’t have the marketing mechanisms or supply-chain management capabilities. The start-ups have to chase clinical dollars because the buyer is defined (much like a pharmaceutical sales force knows its target: the doctor and the insurance companies) - otherwise, there is no adoption method.
I double Tom’s thoughts. Honestly, it is difficult to see how companies could take these products to market right now. I don’t think that consumer demand is there yet, and huge investments in product development may all be lost quickly if demand for the product is not realized. Too risky.
I would be interested to hear what others think would be successful products in this space.
I am a representative of the exact scenario that Tom Moore has portrayed.
How is the small company supposed to reach the end consumer and provide them with the knowledge that our little motionPHR application is available.
I am founder of a startup, 20+ years in computer science, wireless and software development in cloud computing and 6+ years in Medical Informatics. Our company is very in tune with the ARRA and the opportunities offered but have not found dollars that we felt were an “opportunity” worth pursuing for our own company. In fact I am a member of the HITSP and a volunteer participate on the Care Management and Health Records committee, which is funded by the government. To state the obvious, the ARRA and government are very much behind PHRs and we at CSI, my company, now have two PHR products available on the iPhone (motionPHR and motionPHR Lite) iTunes market. We are marketing our little hearts out with web2.0 social media, blogging, press releases http://tinyurl.com/mgtnsc. Our bigger challenge is marketing and a lack of funding or a revenue stream. We are strictly bootstrapping and we know we have a long road ahead.
As much as our government is helping providing “help” to promote healthcare reform, with much emphasis on wellness and prevention, the “help” definitely isn’t coming in the form of help to small business. Please don’t tell me about the opportunity to borrow money for small business…. I would much rather bootstrap that dig myself a hole! So, I still totally believe in our recovery package and I also believe that it won’t help me directly, but I have hopes for the message that it is sending our citizens and that the wellness and prevention is a subtle, very subtle message to drive them to buy our product.
We, with motionPHR are looking hopefully to get picked up on somebodies radar to get reviewed or an article written. We have a great app, especially for the chronically ill, to help keep themselves to achieve better health. We have one customer with AIDS that has shared with us how much our medications category and reminders has helped him. Almost every customer we have connected with, the medication component has been key. Also tracking information for multiple family members in the same app, we have backups and encryption. Our product road map is focused on ODL’s and on specific types of the illness where we believe people are or can be motivated to help themselves and it’s proven that their participation in their own health can made a difference.
On the topic of pursuing our market, we hope to connect with a company that has the same target markets demographics that we have, as you mentioned a Pharmacautacal company would be ideal. We have a number of strategies, but getting that initial momentum that brings so much value, is the first step. We know we have a great product, but the marketing and budget restraints are huge challenges.
Since we are really ahead of the curve in getting a product that is viable, stable, secure, encrypted, with backups, which is CCR compliant out on the market, we believe there is opportunity to build key relationships.
Thanks for the post, if your interested in smartphone medical apps, check out motionPHR.com, we also support the Android platform!
July 30th, 2009 at 11:50 am
It may be true that the ultimate end play is the consumer, but won’t it take a company like Apple, GE, or Philips to market to the end consumer? What chance does a start-up have of reaching the end consumer? They simply don’t have the marketing mechanisms or supply-chain management capabilities. The start-ups have to chase clinical dollars because the buyer is defined (much like a pharmaceutical sales force knows its target: the doctor and the insurance companies) - otherwise, there is no adoption method.
July 31st, 2009 at 7:43 am
I double Tom’s thoughts. Honestly, it is difficult to see how companies could take these products to market right now. I don’t think that consumer demand is there yet, and huge investments in product development may all be lost quickly if demand for the product is not realized. Too risky.
I would be interested to hear what others think would be successful products in this space.
July 31st, 2009 at 8:00 am
I am a representative of the exact scenario that Tom Moore has portrayed.
How is the small company supposed to reach the end consumer and provide them with the knowledge that our little motionPHR application is available.
I am founder of a startup, 20+ years in computer science, wireless and software development in cloud computing and 6+ years in Medical Informatics. Our company is very in tune with the ARRA and the opportunities offered but have not found dollars that we felt were an “opportunity” worth pursuing for our own company. In fact I am a member of the HITSP and a volunteer participate on the Care Management and Health Records committee, which is funded by the government. To state the obvious, the ARRA and government are very much behind PHRs and we at CSI, my company, now have two PHR products available on the iPhone (motionPHR and motionPHR Lite) iTunes market. We are marketing our little hearts out with web2.0 social media, blogging, press releases http://tinyurl.com/mgtnsc. Our bigger challenge is marketing and a lack of funding or a revenue stream. We are strictly bootstrapping and we know we have a long road ahead.
As much as our government is helping providing “help” to promote healthcare reform, with much emphasis on wellness and prevention, the “help” definitely isn’t coming in the form of help to small business. Please don’t tell me about the opportunity to borrow money for small business…. I would much rather bootstrap that dig myself a hole! So, I still totally believe in our recovery package and I also believe that it won’t help me directly, but I have hopes for the message that it is sending our citizens and that the wellness and prevention is a subtle, very subtle message to drive them to buy our product.
We, with motionPHR are looking hopefully to get picked up on somebodies radar to get reviewed or an article written. We have a great app, especially for the chronically ill, to help keep themselves to achieve better health. We have one customer with AIDS that has shared with us how much our medications category and reminders has helped him. Almost every customer we have connected with, the medication component has been key. Also tracking information for multiple family members in the same app, we have backups and encryption. Our product road map is focused on ODL’s and on specific types of the illness where we believe people are or can be motivated to help themselves and it’s proven that their participation in their own health can made a difference.
On the topic of pursuing our market, we hope to connect with a company that has the same target markets demographics that we have, as you mentioned a Pharmacautacal company would be ideal. We have a number of strategies, but getting that initial momentum that brings so much value, is the first step. We know we have a great product, but the marketing and budget restraints are huge challenges.
Since we are really ahead of the curve in getting a product that is viable, stable, secure, encrypted, with backups, which is CCR compliant out on the market, we believe there is opportunity to build key relationships.
Thanks for the post, if your interested in smartphone medical apps, check out motionPHR.com, we also support the Android platform!