Seven Things To Remember When Launching A Health App

Seven Things To Remember When Launching A Health App Delphine Groll, Forbes Councils Member

Delphine Groll is the cofounder and COO of Nabla, a healthtech building a medical AI assistant.

If entrepreneurship is known to be an arduous endeavor, venturing into healthcare makes it even harder. Restrictive and overly complex regulations, along with tricky business models, can quickly discourage an entrepreneur from launching a startup in this industry.

I've been in the healthcare space for a few years now, working on the way that machine learning could support physician productivity through automation in order to allow physicians to spend less time on bureaucratic tasks. To understand the way digital healthcare delivery works, my team and I even ran our own women's health app for a year. I've put together seven pitfalls to be mindful of when launching a health app company.

1. Understanding the patients on your app will, by design, be harder than usual.

Doctor/patient confidentiality—along with HIPAA and GDPR rules—makes it impossible for non-healthcare professionals to know what is going on with a patient. As an entrepreneur, you've probably been told countless times about the importance of understanding your users.

Think about this well in advance and plan to create additional roles on your platform such as administrators and reviewers who can see anonymized data.

2. Recognize how the physician's way of working is different.

The medical profession is very peculiar. It's characterized by dynamics that have long been in place and of which physicians are very protective. Some of these ways of working will seem logical to you, and others won't. Trying to change these because digital interactions respond to different behavioral codes will sometimes look like an impossible task.

Be ready to turn into a chief evangelist officer to promote the benefits that digital healthcare tools can bring to doctors and the overall care experience. Work together with your care team to find a common ground on how to organize their available working hours and what is expected from them as well as other aspects of their job. Be specific about the kind of patient experience you want to achieve to retain your users.

3. Think thoroughly about your go-to-market strategy.

This may seem obvious, but the reality is that the go-to-market strategy for healthcare apps is complex, as you will have to take into account the health economics of each market. For instance, health spending will definitely impact your strategy regardless of whether you operate in a country where health coverage is subsidized. I've seen many healthcare apps fail because of the wrong go-to-market strategy and not understanding who the payer should be.

4. Rely on existing technological tools to accelerate time to market.

I know this might be controversial and that some of your engineers may not agree, but I recommend not spending time rebuilding technological tools that already exist. This is about focus; think about what your true value add is, and spend time, money and effort working on it. Is it your comprehensive health program? The highly qualified medical practitioners on your app? The great content that you offer?

For example, don't start building a chat functionality yourself if you can use one that's already available in the market.

5. Never forget about patient engagement.

I've seen many health apps get carried away by the initial excitement that comes with user-acquisition campaigns. Getting those patients on your app doesn't mean they'll actually use it or that they'll stay in the medium-long run. If you want to build a product that people "can't live without," design your app for engagement. This means thinking early on about all of the amazing features and options your patients will get and being obsessed with them.

6. Choose investors who are specialized in the healthcare field.

Aside from funding, your investors (if chosen well) can connect you with a wide range of opportunities—valuable partners, trusted suppliers, new customers, etc. Investors who are familiar with the intricacies of the industry and are passionate about improving the healthcare system will be in a better position to help you.

7. Embrace healthcare's legal standards and use them to your advantage.

It's very easy—and very normal—to feel overwhelmed by the legal side of things, especially in healthcare, where data protection is paramount. GDPR, HIPAA and other standards are there to protect patients and to get them to trust your product. Shift your thinking to see GDPR/HIPAA compliance as a competitive advantage. Build a privacy-by-design product. The more diligent you are, the better your reputation should be, and the more your users should trust you.

Conclusion

Launching a healthtech startup is like forming your own orchestra. You'll have to make different stakeholders (physicians, patients, regulators, developers, etc.) work together in harmony. Keep an open mind, listen and try to understand everyone's perspective. That is, stay humble and see feedback as a gift because, in such a complex industry, it really is.

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