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SPOTLIGHT:
The Digital Evolution of Healthcare
Which pandemic-era behaviors
will remain in a post-pandemic
world? A May 2021 McKinsey survey
suggests that our newly-adopted
digital behaviors, in particular the
use of digital health and wellness
tools, are sticky: over half of
respondents said they plan to
continue using teletherapy services
post-pandemic, and just under
80% said they planned to continue
using wellness apps. Both activities
saw some of the highest user base
growth rates (40%+) from their pre-
pandemic baseline. The fact that
COVID has exacerbated behavioral
health conditions globally is well-
understood but, the numbers are
staggering: in January 2021, 41%
of US adults reported symptoms of
anxiety and/or depressive disorder,
a four-fold increase from 2019.
Stretching urgently to meet this
demand is a growing industry of
digital behavioral health solutions,
ranging from light-touch meditation
apps to intensive teletherapy and
addiction treatment programs.
Therapy, like much of healthcare,
shifted hastily to various digital
formats at the start of the
pandemic — first by necessity, then
reinforced by both policy change
and patient preference. From the
start of the pandemic, clinicians
and healthtech entrepreneurs
alike have wondered: how real is
this tidal wave of new telehealth
patients, and are they here to stay?
While it may be years, or even
decades, before telehealth adoption
reaches the same heights as Spring
2020, continued traction and
overwhelmingly positive consumer
sentiment suggest that patient
and provider exposure to virtual
care (many for the first time) will
have a profound impact on the
trajectory of telehealth adoption,
and early indications suggest
that teletherapy may be stickier
and more popular with patients
than telehealth more broadly.
Increased adoption and
evidence of staying power, as well
as a rapidly-expanding addressable
market are driving a surge in digital
behavioral health funding. According
to Pitchbook and Rock Health,
US-based digital health companies
raised $14.1B in venture funding
in 2020, of which digital health
startups focused on behavioral
health raised a record $2.4B.
Furthermore, deal count (67) and
average deal size ($36M) for digital
behavioral health in 2020 were
1.5x and 1.2x greater, respectively,
than their prior peak in 2018.
Even as the digital behavioral
health space shatters fundraising
records and crowns a new class
