It’s the Small Things: Niche Opportunities in Health Care
These six trends in specialized health care delivery are just what the doctor ordered.
1. 23 and Me-dicine?
Driven by the plummeting cost of DNA sequencing, growing awareness of genetic-related illnesses and the benefits of personalized medicine, the global genetic testing industry is expected to grow to $19.1 billion by 2024 from $8.5 billion in 2017. Geographically, North America holds the largest share of the market, while the Asia-Pacific region is expected to experience the highest annual growth. –Energias Market Research
2. Weeding out Opioid Addiction
Emerging evidence from a study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse published in September 2018 suggests cannabis may play a role in helping those suffering from addiction by alleviating withdrawal symptoms and decreasing the likelihood of relapse. As a result, more private treatment centers are including cannabis in their treatment regimens. –Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research
3. Linking up to Blockchain
Tracking medical records across the clinics and hospitals a patient visits over a lifetime can be difficult. To centralize records, developers are turning to blockchain, the innovative and tamper-proof technology behind cryptocurrencies, to offer the integrity and continuity of information that medical providers will need in the future. —Forbes
4. Artificial Intelligence, Real Revenue
Health care AI startups have seen a steady increase in the number of deals and value of equity funding in the past year, hitting a historic high of more than $500 million across more than 60 deals in the second quarter of 2018. Their innovations include using AI to diagnose chronic diseases over the phone and producing better medical data for physicians and researchers. —CB Insights
5. A Good Om-en for Meditation
Linked with reduced symptoms of stress-related health conditions, meditation and the $1.2 billion industry behind it—which includes meditation centers, retreats, an array of digital educational materials and employer programs—is projected to grow more than 11 percent annually to over $2 billion by 2022. —Marketdata Enterprises
6. The Femtech Revolution
An increasing number of health care companies are developing health offerings designed specifically for women. Called “femtech,” this burgeoning sector attracted more than $1 billion in funding from 2015 to 2018 for products that include gender-specific prosthetics and pharmaceuticals designed with women’s metabolism in mind. —Forbes
This edition of “It’s the Small Things” originally appeared in the May/June 2019 issue of Middle Market Growth. Find it in the MMG archive.
