By 2030, the global digital health market is expected to reach $1.5 trillion. Over the past decade, investment in digital health in the United States has increased nearly tenfold to $15.3 billion. Despite these investments, most digital health tools lack sufficient evidence to support their claims about clinical benefits. To address this issue, the Peterson Center on Healthcare has launched the Peterson Health Technology Institute (PHTI), a nonprofit organization that will provide independent evaluations of innovative healthcare technologies to improve health and lower costs.
Launched with a commitment of $50 million, PHTI will deliver rigorous, evidence-based assessments that will analyze the clinical benefits and economic impact of digital health solutions, as well as their effects on health equity, privacy, and security, according to the Peterson Center.
PHTI points out that although digital health technologies have great potential, patients, providers, payers, and investors have limited information about the efficacy and performance of the many digital health tools entering the sector. PHTI’s goal is to fill this information gap with independent, publicly available evaluations. The organization will establish an original assessment framework developed specifically for digital health tools, in partnership with the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER).
"Technology has the power to transform healthcare, improving outcomes for millions of Americans while also reducing our rapidly growing delivery costs," said Michael A. Peterson, CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, in a statement. "It's clear that digital tools and artificial intelligence can provide a range of benefits to patients, but we have an inadequate understanding of what works and how much it should cost. By producing independent, evidence-based research on emerging technologies, the Peterson Health Technology Institute will help improve and accelerate healthcare innovation in the United States."
PHTI will monitor the evolving pipeline of emerging digital health technologies to better inform the purchaser and investment community. PHTI will then collect and analyze comprehensive and relevant data and evidence about the clinical performance of health technologies. Through its evaluations, PHTI will identify and highlight the most promising new digital health innovations and also expose products that are not effectively delivering their stated benefits to patients and the system.
"As digital health tools replace and augment traditional healthcare, they should both deliver better health outcomes and improve affordability," said Caroline Pearson, executive director of the Peterson Center on Healthcare, in a statement. "In order for technology to successfully contribute to the goal of a more effective and efficient healthcare system, patients, providers, and payers need better information about what works."
"The Peterson Health Technology Institute can play an essential role in cutting through the hype surrounding new digital health technologies and the commercial interests behind them, providing independent, evidence-based evaluations of their potential for improving care and lowering costs," said Drew Altman, president and CEO of KFF and a member of the Peterson Center on Healthcare's Advisory Board, in a statement.
