On the twelfth day of Digital Health, Galen Growth data sent to you:
Twelve Tariffs Tangling, Eleven RPM Reckonings, Ten Years of Galen Growth, Nine GenAI Mandates, Eight Scribes a-Racing, Seven Consumer Shifts, Six Major Summits, Five DTP Elements! Four Smart Trial Cures, Three TrumpRx Hypotheses, Two Regulators Moving, and a Pharma Pivot to DTP.
1. A Pharma Pivot to DTP
The defining operational shift of the year was Big Pharma moving from simple advertising to building proprietary Direct-to-Patient (DTP) infrastructure. Led by LillyDirect, PfizerForAll, and Astellas, manufacturers created “digital front doors” to control the journey from prescription to home delivery, compressing time-to-therapy from weeks to hours.
2. Two Regulators Moving
Regulators became unexpected catalysts for speed. The UK government and the FDA moved to accelerate digital clinical trials, with new guidance on digital health technologies (DHTs) and reforms in the UK helping to cut clinical trial approval times by half.
3. Three TrumpRx Hypotheses
An op-ed detailed how the federal TrumpRx initiative acts as a potential disruptor to pharma’s new DTP models. By enforcing price transparency and commoditising cash-pay pricing, this initiative challenges the strategic control manufacturers aim to build with their new platforms.
4. Four Smart Trial Cures
Digital innovation is finally uncorking the bottleneck of drug development. With funding for clinical trial ventures down 46% since 2020, the market is demanding efficiency. New “smart” approaches—decentralised infrastructure, AI recruitment, data transparency, and tighter EHR integration—are becoming the standard cures for slow trial timelines.
5. Five DTP Elements
The most mature pharma platforms, such as LillyDirect, succeeded by integrating five critical components: remote diagnosis, telehealth, online pharmacy, disease management, and health insurtech. Only platforms operationalising all five were considered “full stack” models capable of truly owning the patient journey.
6. Six Major Summits
2025 was a year of global convening. Galen Growth highlighted a circuit of six-plus critical conferences shaping the industry, including JP Morgan, Arab Health, ViVE, SXSW, HLTH Europe, and Bits & Pretzels, where leaders gathered to move beyond hype and focus on execution.
7. Seven Consumer Shifts
Consumer HealthTech solidified its role as a paradigm shift, driven by seven-plus factors, including the rise of the “worried well” and demand for preventive care. The Wellness cluster emerged as the highest-funded area in this sector, capturing 27% of venture capital in 2024.
8. Eight Scribes a-Racing
A “watershed moment” occurred when Epic entered the ambient scribe market, creating a race against startups like Abridge and Nuance. While incumbents have the distribution, startups continue to drive innovation, creating a fierce competitive landscape for clinical documentation AI.
9. Nine GenAI Mandates
At HLTH Europe 2025, Generative AI shifted from a novelty to an executive mandate. Boards now expect “productivity as table stakes,” forcing startups to embed GenAI into business workflows—from RFP responses to lead prioritisation—or risk obsolescence.
10. Ten Years of Galen Growth
2025 marked the 10th anniversary of Galen Growth. From its origins in Singapore in 2015 to global impact, the firm celebrated a decade of providing hype-free, data-driven market intelligence to the digital health ecosystem.
11. Eleven RPM Reckonings
UnitedHealthcare dramatically rolled back coverage for Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM), creating a “reckoning” for standalone RPM startups. This policy shift forces a reset toward integrated solutions that can prove clinical outcomes beyond simple fee-for-service reimbursement codes.
12. Twelve Tariffs Tangling
An op-ed explored how new trade tariffs are creating “tangles” for digital health hardware companies. These geopolitical pressures are increasing operating costs for devices and semiconductors, forcing corporates to adopt more defensive, domestic supply chain strategies.
