Periodic Table of Digital Health

Very recently, CB Insights published something they called the Periodic Table of Healthcare. It was a very clever way to characterize the healthcare landscape, featuring investors, acquirers in pharma, biotech, medical devices, drug discovery, and drug development. They specifically noted that the Table was not intended to characterize the digital health world, so I decided to do that myself! I give you: The Venture Valkyrie Periodic Table of Digital Health (with appropriate credit to CB Insights for the concept):

Yes, I know the font is tiny and you have to increase the zoom on your screen and find your glasses to read it…sorry!

In the Digital Health table there are some notable overlaps with the more general CB Insights Healthcare Periodic Table; for instance, some of the same venture firms and pharma/medtech companies are represented. But my chart is intended to represent the companies that are playing a key role in the digital health ecosystem specifically, without regard to what else they may do.

I am sure I have missed some players and I could not possibly include all of the hundreds (maybe thousands?) of actual digital health companies out there so I picked the ones that get the most buzz or that are widely considered to be market leaders or that are imminently expected to go public. I am sure there are other investors, payers, providers, companies out there that could occupy a space on the chart if I had endless space, and I know there are at least 10,000 other accelerators, but the page size and my attention span are limited, so I went with those that are the most well-known. If I left out your favorite, you can write it into the comments section and I promise to hit my palm to my forehead on your behalf.

According to Wikipedia, the original Periodic Table of the Elements, the one we all had to memorize in high school chemistry, allowed one “to derive relationships between the properties of the elements and predict the properties of new, yet to be discovered or synthesized, elements.” It’s a great metaphor for the digital health world, as there are elaborate connections between and among many of those in my table and, Lord knows, there are more to come. Digital health is notable for its co-opetition, a newish slang word that means effective business collaboration with one’s competition. It’s quite the rainbow coalition, the digital health world, and if you blink you might miss the investments, mergers, partnerships, and marriages of convenience. Building upon one another’s APIs is akin to going steady in digital health, although not necessarily evidence of an impending lifelong commitment.

Actual Periodic Table of the Elements

We are definitely still on the upward-direction side of the hill as more and more entities enter the digital health space. I imagine that at some point we will see the kind of consolidation that most mature industries ultimately experience. When we reach that point, the chart will not have to be in size 2 font.

Hope you enjoy this and thanks to CB Insights for the inspiration.

This article first appeared on VentureValkyrie.com, and is reprinted with permission. For more expert insights from Lisa Suennen, follow her on Twitter @VentureValkyrie, on her blog, and through her book: Tech Tonics: Can Passionate Entrepreneurs Heal Healthcare with Technology?

The nuviun blog is intended to contribute to discussion and stimulate debate on important issues in global digital health. The views are solely those of the author.