Our one word for healthtech in 2023 would be—AI revolution.
With the emergence of generative AI models, 2023 was the year of the AI revolution in healthtech.
We saw the rise of AI. It’s adoption in several healthtech domains, from drug discovery to patient communication and hospital operations.
On the other hand, 2023 was also a challenging year for healthtech. The year saw the lowest-ever funding, a frozen IPO market, valuation cuts, startups raising down rounds, and even several startups going bankrupt.
A lot happened this year. And with just a day left to bid goodbye to 2023, let’s recap it all.
2023 healthtech roundup
Global market
- Over 70 healthtech companies and 140+ biotech companies announced layoffs in 2023, affecting more than 30000 employees.
- 475+ cyberattacks on healthcare organisations were reported in 2023, compromising data of over 106 million people.
- Global digital health funding plumbed to $10.2 billion by Q3 2023, reaching just 40% of last year’s total.
- Silicon Valley Bank released the Future of Healthtech Report 2023 emphasising value-based care as the next big thing in healthcare.
- Bessemer Venture Partners unveiled their State of Health Tech Report 2023 at HLTH2023. It talked about must-have traits for healthtech startups to attract investors in 2024, healthtech trends predictions, and a lot more.
Events
- Digital health was at the forefront of CES 2023. The world’s largest tech event saw the most revolutionary devices, like at-home urine analysis device by Withings, medical-grade smart ring for women by Movano, portable virus detector by ViraWarn, and a lot more.
- At ViVE 2023, health industry leaders revealed what the future of healthtech holds. They discussed the importance of innovation, collaboration, and investment in transforming healthcare systems to provide patient-centric care and achieve health equity.
Big Tech
- Tech giants including Microsoft, Google, Meta, OpenAI and others signed a voluntary agreement with the WhiteHouse for responsible use of AI
- Google launched Med-PaLM 2 and MedLM suite of generative AI models for healthcare. It onboarded 30 AI-based healthtech startups for the ‘Google for Startup: AI for Health’ program.
- Amazon launched AWS HealthScribe, a HIPPA-complaint healthcare-focused generative AI-powered summarising tool.
- Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan announced their plan to build a computing system that may help eliminate human disease completely by 2100.
- Amazon rolled out One Medical membership for Amazon Prime members, which includes 24/7 virtual care, video chats with licensed providers and access to an in-app “Treat Me Now” feature for quicker access to common concerns like colds, flu and allergies.
- Microsoft unveiled new healthcare-specific tools in Fabric, Microsoft’s new data analytics platform, and AI health tools in Azure AI. It also announced Text Analytics for health with abilities to label and extract important information from unstructured sources like clinical documents and notes.
- Google announced AI-powered search capabilities on the Vertex AI Search platform for the healthcare industry.
- Amazon announced its $4 billion investment in Anthropic, an AI research startup, to further enhance HealthScribe’s capabilities.
- A collective of 30 healthcare stakeholders collaborated to launch VALID AI—Vision, Alignment, Learning, Implementation and Dissemination of Validated Generative AI in Healthcare—for responsible use of AI.
New launches
- Japan-based Omron Healthcare debuted its “Going for Zero” plan to eliminate heart attacks using early detection technologies with features including its Personal Heart Health Coach app.
- Low-cost Indian brands—Noise, Boat and Ultrahuman—launched smart rings to grab the increasing interest of smart wearables in the Indian market.
- Noise, India’s second-leading wearables brand, launched Noise Health API to help enterprises leverage health data and create personalised solutions for their customers.
- AstraZeneca launched a new healthtech business, Evinova, to provide AI-powered clinical trial solutions to other pharma, CROs and biotech companies.
- Humane launched its AI-pin with health, nutrition and fitness features that can scan your food and tell you its nutritional facts.
Funding and bankruptcy
- Sam Altman invested $180 Million in Retro Biosciences, an anti-ageing startup working to add 10 years to human lifespan.
- India’s Unicorn Startup, PharmEasy, took a 90% valuation hit to survive in the turbulent times.
- Elon Musk’s brain chip startup Neuralink raised $280 million in a funding round led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund. It also started recruiting people for human clinical trials of its N1 implant and R1 robot.
- Verge Genomics and AstraZeneca signed a $882 million deal to discover drugs for rare neurodegenerative diseases.
Healthtech Research
- Scientists created synthetic human embryos to understand the black box period of human development.
- Researchers developed a sensor that can see like the human eye
- Scientists are developing new AI-powered wearables to monitor drug abuse.
- Research in bioresorbable materials to develop degradable implants and medical devices is advancing at a faster pace.
- Researchers developed a wearable ultrasound breast scanner to detect breast cancer at home.
Regulatory
- The Indian government announced its extensive collaboration with AWS on Health IDs to maintain digital health records.
- India’s National Medical Commission (NMC) announced that doctors in India will get unique IDs. The pilot phase will be launched in 2024, and within six months, doctors across the country will receive them.
- The FDA approved the type-2 diabetes drug Mounjaro for obesity after clinical trials revealed it yielded 20% more weight loss. The drug will be sold under the name Zepbound for weight loss.
Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments below!
