
The Reason Silicon Valley Hasn't Built a Good Health App - mmorey
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/03/the-reason-silicon-valley-hasnt-built-a-good-health-app/254229/
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valuegram
From my experience with a couple health related start-ups, I would suggest
that the lack of good health apps has much more to do with the current state
of the health care system, and less with entrepreneurs familiarity with
healthcare. The main problems that make innovation difficult are:

1) Government regulations - healthcare is and has been an important political
issue, and because of this there is a mountain of legislation that must be
accounted for when operating in the field.

2) Healthcare bureaucracy - The interlocking relationships and ecosystem of
healthcare from Patients to Doctors to Hospitals to Insurance Companies to
Government is even difficult for insiders to navigate.

3) Fear of liability/litigation - Healthcare is a scary place for "bleeding"
edge technology, and few institutions are willing to be operating there.

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AznHisoka
there needs to be distinction made between health apps and healthcare apps.
FitBit, Jawbone, etc are health apps but are NOT healthcare apps. Health apps
are great for optimizing health for those who are already into fitness.
Healthcare apps have a better chance of reaching people who actually need it
because they are used clinically, by those in the medical industry. Therefore,
"normal" people have no choice but to use them if the doctor says they have
to. And by healthcare apps, don't think about iphone apps, think about stuff
like SMS, or automated monitoring, or remote monitoring through phones.

The fact is most normal ppl don't care about their health until they get a
heart attack.

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83tb
Yeap, it's really hard to create a succesfull startup when you're not your own
client ;)

