Failure Analysis
Outcome Health died from systematic financial fraud, not market failure. The founders fabricated engagement metrics and revenue numbers to investors, inflating the number of...
Outcome Health \USA
Outcome Health installed interactive screens in doctors' waiting rooms and exam rooms to display pharmaceutical advertising and patient education content. The value proposition was threefold: pharma companies could reach patients at the exact moment of healthcare decision-making (the 'point of care'), doctors received free technology and educational content, and patients got relevant health information. This was compelling because it promised to close the loop between pharmaceutical marketing spend and actual prescriptions written, offering attribution that traditional pharma advertising could never achieve.
Discover the reason behind the shutdown and the market before & today
Market Analysis
The point-of-care healthcare marketing space has contracted significantly post-Outcome Health. Traditional players like Modernizing Medicine and athenahealth focus on EHR systems with some patient...
Startup Learnings
Hardware-based healthcare businesses have brutal unit economics that tempt founders toward fraud when growth slows. The gap between 'we have real revenue and real...
Market Potential
The pharmaceutical advertising market remains massive ($6.5B+ in US alone), and point-of-care marketing is still theoretically valuable. However, the market has been permanently tainted...
Difficulty
Rebuilding this requires navigating complex healthcare compliance (HIPAA), establishing relationships with thousands of independent physician practices, managing physical hardware installation and maintenance at scale,...
Scalability
The model has fundamental scalability constraints. Each new doctor's office requires physical installation, ongoing hardware maintenance, and relationship management. The sales process is B2B2C...
Rebuild & monetization strategy: Resurrect the company
Execution Plan
Phase 2
Create a library of 20-30 video modules covering common specialty drugs, using AI to personalize text-based follow-ups based on patient responses to initial questions (e.g., 'Are you experiencing nausea?').
Phase 3
Approach 2-3 pharmaceutical manufacturers in the pilot therapeutic area with a performance-based pilot: they pay only for patients who complete first fill and 30-day adherence, with pricing at 50% below their current patient support program costs.
Phase 4
Instrument the platform to capture structured data on patient barriers (cost concerns, side effects, logistical issues) and provide monthly reports to pharma partners showing adherence rates and qualitative insights.
Phase 5
Validate that the model achieves 15%+ improvement in first-fill rates and 20%+ improvement in 90-day adherence compared to control groups, then use this data to expand to additional pharmacies and therapeutic areas.
Monetization Strategy
Performance-based fees from pharmaceutical manufacturers: $150-300 per patient onboarded (first fill verified) + $50-100 per adherence milestone (30-day, 90-day, 180-day refills). For a specialty drug with 10,000 new patients per year, this generates $1.5-3M in onboarding fees plus $500K-1M in adherence fees annually per drug. Target 10-15 drug partnerships in year one, scaling to 50+ drugs across multiple therapeutic areas. Secondary revenue from anonymized data insights sold back to pharma for $50-100K per therapeutic area report. Gross margins of 70%+ after cloud and content costs, with CAC recovered in first patient cohort.
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