Project Healthcare, a Nashville Entrepreneur Center program, will be releasing its new podcast, “Friends of Project Healthcare,” on January 16th, 2023. Friends of Project Healthcare is designed to bring together the entire ecosystem of industry innovators – from entrepreneurs to corporations, investors, government, media and educators. In this inaugural season, you, the listener, will hear in-depth conversations with thought leaders and experts working hard to build the future of the healthcare industry. You’ll benefit from learning about industry challenges, the suite of technology being implemented, as well as our guests’ expertise and experience with a clear mission to make healthcare better for all for us.
Nashville may be known as the “Music City,” however we’ve also got our pulse on the future of the healthcare industry. Nashville has been widely recognized as a leading ecosystem driving innovation in the nation’s industry. Developed over five decades, our city’s collection of networks consists of thousands of participants with a deep, personal knowledge of healthcare – combined with a collaborative spirit of contribution that is unique to our community – here at both the Nashville Entrepreneur Center and across the broader Nashville healthcare ecosystem.
Why Now?
Healthcare faces tremendous headwinds after battling the pandemic for close to three years. Operating margins are at their lowest level in decades, federal aid, buoyed by the CARES Act, has been significantly reduced, and healthcare volumes have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels.
Inflation and significant workforce challenges have contributed to the financial strain of an industry in need of significant, technology-enabled, customer-oriented care models.
Each day, approximately 10,000 individuals become Medicare beneficiaries and 22% of the US population is expected to be 65 or older by 2040. In addition, it is estimated that between 5 million and 14 million Americans will lose Medicaid coverage at the end of the public health emergency. Americans continue to pay a greater percentage of their health and healthcare requirements. Finally, workforce challenges are expected to get worse, before they get better, creating an approximate shortage of 450,000 nurses by 2025.
Nationally, approximately 90% of healthcare spending is for “medical care” leaving approximately 10% of spending to address the drivers of health, sometimes referred to as the social determinants of health. These drivers (economic stability, healthy food, social connections, education, and the built neighborhood environment) account for between 80-90% of the factors contributing to health outcomes. Many organizations are building solutions to address these drivers, which will contribute significantly to the overall health and well-being of citizens.
The healthcare industry is ripe for innovation, and it’s still in the very early innings.
Building a Future
Despite these headwinds, there is plenty of room for optimism – although the path forward will require acceleration of partnerships and collaboration models, leveraging technology to reduce administrative burden, and leveraging collaborative data networks for continued discovery and innovation.
Unprecedented advances in cloud, compute, and storage capabilities, equity investments, new entrants, and favorable government influence with respect to interoperable data (real world data and real-world evidence) have allowed healthcare startups to design, build, and deploy new solutions targeting the largest of industry challenges.
PROJECT HEALTHCARE
Project Healthcare, one of Nashville Entrepreneur Center’s largest programs, brings entrepreneurs into the arena to join industry experts through our growing curriculum, events, and purposeful approach to growing and scaling these companies.
At Project Healthcare, we believe an ecosystem approach is the path forward – creating and fueling “radical collaboration” among all participants at any stage of the Entrepreneurial life cycle. We understand our entrepreneurs and Project Healthcare cohort companies need to be surrounded by industry experts, investors, universities, start-up organizations, and seasoned mentors and advisors. Our goal is to continue to orchestrate and grow this ecosystem.
Project Healthcare Chairman, Eric Thrailkill, is a 30+ year industry veteran who will host the new Friends of Project Healthcare Podcast. He will be leading the conversations with entrepreneurs, investors, educators, corporate leaders, and others in the ecosystem to bring listeners along on the journey of transforming the healthcare industry.
To learn more about this show and Project Healthcare at the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, please visit projecthealthcare.com and sign up for our email newsletter.
The future begins now, and we are so excited to have you along for the journey.
Keep the pulse, Friends!
