Getting into the healthcare sector is exciting. If your business model proves successful, you could be responsible for saving thousands of lives and helping families avoid suffering, pain, grief, and loss.
But actually succeeding in the sector is notoriously difficult. Theranos, for instance, promised everything but wound up delivering nothing at all.
If you’re thinking of setting up a healthcare business, here’s what you need to do:
Knowing That You Have More Than One Type Of Customer
Standard business advice is that you should set up a business that targets a niche group of customers. For instance, diaper companies target women between the ages of 20 and 40.
But when it comes to healthcare startups, you’re rarely appealing to a well-defined group of people. Instead, everyone eventually needs support with their health
As such, you’ll need to think about your target audience in a more sophisticated way. Instead of building a picture of their requirements using demographics, instead, think directly about their core needs. Think about what solutions they actually want and then cater to them.
Understanding That “Fail Fast” Is Not A Good Approach
In the tech world, startups love the idea of “failing fast,” usually while “breaking things.” Unfortunately, that cavalier approach won’t cut it in the healthcare startup world. If you try to move at speed before the product or service is ready, you’ll run into all sorts of regulatory problems and issues.
To prevent falling into a conventional startup culture rut, you’ll want to implement multiple strategies. For instance, you might want to implement ISO management practices to ensure that your oversight is where it needs to be. You might also invest heavily in research supporting your propositions, and then publish your findings in journals for scientists to critique.
Providing A Real Service
At the same time, you want to provide patients with a consumer-focused service. As Brad Schaeffer of MedComp likes to point out, improving technology means that more startups in the sector can offer novel products and rapid turnarounds, often bypassing the conventional medical system.
Understanding That Healthcare Data Is Problematic
Healthcare data can be a blessing, particularly if you leverage it to improve your products and services. However, over time, you will also discover that it is a curse, too.
Healthcare data is complex and kept in a variety of silos, including paper documents, EHRs, and patients’ brains. Getting it all to match up is notoriously difficult and probably isn’t feasible for most startups.
What’s more, you’ll likely have to deal with confidentiality issues and patient privacy along the way. And even if you do find a way to obtain data, it is often so heterogenous that you need to manually correct it by hand.
The trick here is to either avoid any reliance on data or generate your own. If you’re not sure how to do this, look for examples in your industry.
In summary, creating a world-beating healthcare enterprise is challenging. Entrepreneurs face an uphill struggle, perhaps more so than other entrepreneurs. However, the rewards of success are also greater.
