This past year I’ve been exploring different aspects of “health tech” -- including technology used in healthcare & technology that helps health (outside of healthcare). I have been especially interested in health tech innovation and the contexts in which innovation occurs. Technology development and implementation do not happen in a vacuum…there is a web of people and subsets of data involved. People often equate “health tech” with only EMR, smartphone apps, or sensor watches. However, there are many other stakeholders and sources of data to involve if society is to truly leverage the power of technology to improve health. I keep mentioning data because even with physical devices, many (will) involve collecting, analyzing, displaying, &/or transmitting data. Data is often what ultimately connects the stakeholders, and data is what gets transformed into information that influences each stakeholder’s actions. Lately quite a few colleagues have asked me for a copy of the diagrams I scribble on scratch paper during our meetings. In an effort to help more people understand and innovate in the health tech ecosystem, I am sharing the following drafts. They are not meant to be perfect exhaustive lists of every possible example and relationship, but rather a high level overview. Let me know if you think of other key items to add or modify for when I get a chance to update this, thanks! Wen Dombrowski MD www.Twitter.com/HealthcareWen www.LinkedIn.com/in/WenDombrowski http://bit.ly/DataEcosystem (short link to this page)

1. The Health Tech Ecosystem
This past year I’ve been exploring different aspects of “health tech” -- including technology used in
healthcare & technology that helps health (outside of healthcare). I have been especially interested in
health tech innovation and the contexts in which innovation occurs. Technology development and
implementation do not happen in a vacuum…there is a web of people and subsets of data involved.
People often equate “health tech” with only EMR, smartphone apps, or sensor watches. However, there
are many other stakeholders and sources of data to involve if society is to truly leverage the power of
technology to improve health.
I keep mentioning data because even with physical devices, many (will) involve
collecting, analyzing, displaying, &/or transmitting data. Data is often what ultimately connects the
stakeholders, and data is what gets transformed into information that influences each stakeholder’s
actions.
Lately quite a few colleagues have asked me for a copy of the diagrams I scribble on scratch paper
during our meetings. In an effort to help more people understand and innovate in the health tech
ecosystem, I am sharing the following drafts. They are not meant to be perfect exhaustive lists of every
possible example and relationship, but rather a high level overview. Let me know if you think of other
key items to add or modify for when I get a chance to update this, thanks!
Wen Dombrowski MD
Twitter.com/HealthcareWen

2. Key Stakeholders in Health Tech
(these are general groupings based on the U.S. healthcare system)
Created by Wen Dombrowski 6/2013

3. All the sources of data
that reflect or influence health
Created by Wen Dombrowski 6/2013