INSIGHTS
July 18, 2022

Quantifying clinical impact

Clinical outcomes are the name of the game when it comes to meaningful impact in healthcare innovation—but they can be difficult to quantify. Along with a few bright minds in digital health, we put our thinking caps on to try and measure whether impact is living up to the investment pouring in. To do so, we developed a methodology to calculate a clinical robustness score for any clinically-focused digital health startup. We then compared those scores to the clinical, economic, and engagement claims made by startups. The results were recently published in JMIR. In examining 224 companies focused on clinical diagnosis, treatment, and/or monitoring, we found that just a small portion of startups account for a large share of clinical evidence, and the claims startups make don’t necessarily correlate with robust clinical validation. Read our overview of the peer-reviewed journal article for additional takeaways, plus why it’s so important for innovators to invest in an evidence base.

+ Since the journal article was published, inquiries have poured in: how did we determine each company’s clinical robustness score—and how does any given startup stack up? To answer these questions and apply our findings, check out our primer on the clinical robustness index.

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