As 2024 comes to a close, MobiHealthNews asked executives from across the digital health sector about their biggest surprises and most noteworthy events from the year. 

The execs highlight AI's potential, oncology imaging breakthroughs, nutrition's role in healthcare, inflated AI valuations, cyberattacks and policy shifts, emphasizing the need for practical integration, patient trust and system resilience.

Lisa Suennen, managing partner at American Heart Association Ventures

I am surprised by the run-up in AI valuations and that it has happened the way it has, despite mostly low revenue and low adoption in the healthcare sector, at least so far.  It is amazing how poorly investors and entrepreneurs have internalized the lessons of the digital health crash and how eager they are to create the next one.

Roland Rott, president and CEO of imaging at GE HealthCare

This was a very consequential year in oncology, where we saw the impact that digitization and deep neural networks can have in understanding a patient's response to a particular form of cancer. Reconstruction technology now enables radiologists to generate high-definition, low-noise CT images with exceptional sharpness, improving diagnostic confidence early in disease progression.  

This AI-powered breakthrough was complemented by the debut of yet another cloud-first application integrating multimodal patient data from disparate systems into a single view, whereupon generative AI is then able to summarize clinical notes and reports. We all know that timing is everything when it comes to detecting and treating cancer. Intelligent imaging systems can now equip care teams with comprehensive information to quickly understand disease progression so care teams can strategically pivot treatment plans and tailor proactive interventions to maximize outcomes.

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

The initial excitement surrounding AI has led many companies to invest in large language models (LLMs) in hopes of achieving groundbreaking results. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that not every company needs to develop its own LLM or focus solely on text summarization to derive value from AI technology. Instead, the focus is shifting towards the application layer, where specialized retrieval-augmented generators (RAGs) will play a crucial role in embedding AI capabilities into various business processes.

Monica Cepak, CEO of Wisp

Perhaps the most noteworthy event this year — though not necessarily a surprise considering we saw a similar situation unfold following the overturn of Roe v. Wade — is that we saw a massive spike in demand for emergency contraception, birth control and medication abortion since the results of this year's presidential election.

Ellen Rudolph, cofounder and CEO of WellTheory

In the case of autoimmune disease, there are a lot of theories behind why 80% of autoimmune patients are women, and unfortunately, the reality is that there hasn't been enough research here.

However, one of the breakthrough studies this year pointed to the second X chromosome as one of the reasons why women may be more at risk for autoimmune diseases than men. This Stanford study looked at the impact of Xist, a molecule associated with X chromosomes that might be a key driver in sex-biased autoimmunity. With research like this, we're one step closer to understanding some of the sex-specific differences that lead to women being disproportionately impacted by autoimmune disease.

Dedi Gilad, CEO of TytoCare

The closure of Walmart's and Optum's telehealth businesses in April presented major lessons for the telehealth industry, revealing just how crucial patient trust, utilization and the development of user-friendly telehealth experiences are. Without these, virtual care is not feasible. With them, primary, acute and urgent care can be revolutionized – we've seen this in our work with health systems across the country that have thriving virtual care programs, including remote clinics and at-home care.

The common denominator among successful virtual care programs that we've seen is seamless integration. When virtual care is integrated with other parts of care delivery, it is possible to give patients personalized experiences from home, making virtual care a real alternative to in-person care, rather than a generic disconnected appointment. 

Aaron Neiderhiser, cofounder and CEO of Tuva Health 

Particle Health's lawsuit against Epic for antitrust violations was probably the most surprising event of the year in health tech/health data. I know smart people on both sides of this argument, so it will be interesting to see how it unfolds in 2025.  

Tamar Samuels, cofounder and VP of Culina Health

This has been an exciting year in the nutrition space, with significant momentum behind the "Food Is Medicine" movement. Not only has there been growing public interest, but we have also seen surprising support from federal initiatives, funding and even pharmaceutical companies. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) launched three public-private partnerships aimed at advancing their Food Is Medicine initiatives. These efforts are focused on educating the public, influencing policy changes, and integrating nutrition into healthcare services. 

Additionally, clinical research on GLP-1 medications for weight loss has reinforced the importance of combining nutrition and lifestyle interventions with pharmacotherapy. This year, we also saw healthcare providers increasingly discussing the importance of nutrition with their patients and recognizing the vital role of registered dietitians in healthcare teams to achieve better patient outcomes. 

Neil Patel, head of new ventures at Redesign Health

This year, healthcare policy has been a wild card, especially with RFK Jr. potentially influencing Health and Human Services. Everyone's watching to see how Medicare, Medicaid and FDA policies might change and what that means for reimbursement. 

The Change Healthcare cyberattack was shocking because it happened, how much damage it caused and for how long. It wasn't just systems going down – we saw medical practices unable to process basic claims and hospitals struggling with routine operations. It exposed just how interconnected, and therefore vulnerable, our healthcare infrastructure has become.

Karl Ulfers, CEO and cofounder of DUOS

The most noteworthy and surprising event of the past year was the election. I think this will have a significant impact on our industry. As I noted in my comments about 2024, our sector of the healthcare industry has been impacted by constant change, which was largely driven by CMS and the outgoing administration. I think the biggest surprises this drove in our industry have been the tail and headwinds private insurers have had to navigate:

Headwinds: MA risk adjustment change, broker commission changes, actually no, just kidding, no changes, Star changes and subsequent lawsuits, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and impact to Prescription Drug Plans (PDP), the list goes on and on.

Tailwind: Although counterintuitive, the biggest unplanned tailwind for payers will likely be the IRA and its destabilization of the PDP market. The result of this is that PDP plans are less attractive to older adults and thus traditional Medicare is less attractive, and therefore Medicare Advantage (MA) plans will grow due to the continued migration of traditional Medicare to these plans.

Julia Bernstein, chief operations officer at Brightside Health

This year, digital health firmly entered the mainstream of healthcare. General Catalyst’s acquisition of Summa Health to serve as HATCo's living laboratory demonstrated the growing integration of digital tools with traditional care. 

Additionally, digital health companies have begun organizing themselves around political actions, aligning around shared priorities to influence policies that support innovation and access. These developments signal that digital health is not just here to stay but is shaping the future of healthcare.