A study on American-based digital health start-ups has found that nearly half—44 percent—of digital health startups lack credibility clinically, with a general lack of robustness in clinical findings.
“Many venture-backed startups in digital health have limited clinical robustness (reliability),” the authors wrote in the study.
The authors examined 224 startups that have received at least one round of investments costing $2 million or more, with an average age of 7.7 years. Altogether, the companies assessed have raised $8.2 billion in venture capital funding since 2011.
Of the 224 startups, 98 of them had a “clinical robustness” score of 0 out of 10.
Further, 15 percent of companies made clinical claims of benefits despite having no clinical credibility at all.
While around 20 percent of the companies had a score of 5 or higher, indicating acceptable reliability of the clinical benefits, the average score altogether was 2.5 out of 10, a significantly low score for digital health software.
The findings all highlight a concerning reality of the disconnect between the market and scientific evidence.
Digital health is currently projected to be a very profitable market, with a forecasted growth of 17.9 percent from 2021 to 2030. Though the business prospects are bright, evidence of actual clinical benefits has been scant.
The technology is a wide-encompassing market, with direct input in diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. It has...
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