Digital health leaders on the most noteworthy events of 2023

Matthew Stoudt, cofounder and CEO of AppliedVR

“Silicon Valley Bank was the clear Black Swan event of 2023 and sent a shockwave through the entire system. It was unprecedented and created a lot of uncertainty for founders and investors alike. That showed us all how fragile, yet also resilient, our innovation industry can be. What was really notable was that everyone came together – from the investors to other entrepreneurs – to figure out how to make it all work.” 

Ankit Gupta, CEO and founder of Bicycle Health

“As the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency ended, the DEA released proposed regulations that could restrict access to telemedicine, despite overwhelming support of its impact for patients. The proposed regulations ultimately received more than 38,000 comments from patients and leaders, convincing the DEA to rethink their proposed in-person requirement and work on an alternative. This was a critical moment for telemedicine at large, and stands as a major step in the right direction in protecting access to care.”

Amit Khanna, senior vice president and general manager of health at Salesforce

“Needless to say, the biggest surprise was generative AI – no one could’ve predicted how much it would dramatically change the tech landscape. After ChatGPT was released, tech companies had to pivot in a very short period to incorporate genAI capabilities into their tech stacks. This is a new chapter in tech that will fundamentally change how software is built and consumed. It is an ‘internet’ moment for tech – just like ‘internet’ changed all businesses fundamentally, genAI has the power to change the software industry.”

Munjal Shah, cofounder and CEO of Hippocratic AI

“The launch of ChatGPT from OpenAI was the most noteworthy event of 2023. For years, we have talked about the promise of AI, but it wasn’t intelligent enough. Now, we truly have AI that has 130 IQ vs. 60 IQ. Over the past several months, investors, hospital systems and digital health companies have moved quickly to invest capital and time into bringing the benefits of this technology to bear.”

Eran Orr, CEO of XRHealth

“The Apple Vision Pro was the biggest surprise this year. Prior to its launch, headsets were either completely VR or AR, but Apple took an entirely different approach by combining both for a mixed reality solution. The Apple Vision Pro is also not just about gaming but everyday usage that can eventually replace the computer. I was surprised that they came right out of the gate with a mixed reality solution.”

Ann Bilyew, SVP, health and group general manager, WebMD Ignite

“2023 has been a very tumultuous year – one of big swings up and down with equal doses of innovation and retrenchment. We had the launch of technologies with tremendous potential like AI/LLM, a reckoning following investor exuberance in digital health in 2021 and 2022, major regulatory moves from the OCR on digital marketing, and the cultural phenom of GLP-1 agonists.”  

Russell Glass, CEO of Headspace

“We saw AI-driven health care become a topic of mainstream dialogue. While companies like ours have been using AI for several years, it’s been fascinating to watch the entire industry begin to put ideas into action and evaluate areas ripe for AI disruption. While I’m excited to see the continued adoption of innovative technologies like generative AI, I share others’ concerns about the risks. As an industry, we need to proceed very cautiously – especially those in the mental health space, given we serve what is arguably the nation’s most vulnerable population.”

Doug Hirsch, cofounder and chief mission officer at GoodRx

“It’ll be hard to forget Medicaid disenrollment, which impacted millions of Americans this year. Those who rely on Medicaid coverage no longer have access to vital healthcare because of procedural reasons like missing paperwork or outdated contact information. And this applies to some of our country’s most vulnerable populations. It’s not right, and we’re likely to see a very tangible impact on the health of communities in 2024 as a result.”