Ada Health – competitive advantages & growth prospects

Ada at heart of telehealth market and well placed for regulatory shifts

Ada Health falls under the “telemedicine, symptom assessments, digital front doors” segment of digital health and its core medical AI addresses each stage of the patient journey. “Actually, it’s quite solution-agnostic in terms of where Ada can play a role in how the market shakes out,” the expert said.

The company “mimics the broader market” in terms of uptake and is leading the pack in the US, with “enormous” growth expected in Asia. “We’ve already seen that trend in China with huge domestic players already at scale there, and there are similar opportunities to serve huge populations across Malaysia and India too, and they’re two markets that Ada has launched into, with very limited marketing support, but has seen really, really huge growth,” the specialist added. “In fact, while only available in English, it achieved over a million users in India.”

Regulatory developments are something all investors in this space should be aware of, the Interview reinforced, particularly with the World Health Organisation in the process of developing a standardised benchmark for health AI that “should be in play over the next couple of years”. This will create a level playing field from which to assess the performance of AI in whatever its intended use case is, and “that’ll really shake out where the top performers are in the market”. The Interview explained how Ada is well positioned here.

After highlighting how the Ada Health platform works, the expert shared their insights on where the company’s future growth is likely to come from in the future. In the medium term, “more of the growth will come in mature markets, including the US, and I think it will be  driven by using an embedded version of that patient experience, which can be co-branded and sit as a seamless part of a provider or payer’s own journey”. With new legislation on the horizon, there is an “opportunity for that quality and risk to be outsourced to a provider like Ada”.

While there are some limitations to using the app as a diagnosis tool, including the need for remote patient monitoring (RPM) tools for conditions like diabetes, Ada could partner with RPM players to capture that corner of the market. 

As part of their closing remarks, the specialist noted that “progress in this space is usually achieved in leaps rather than in increments” and that Ada isn’t resting on its laurels. The company is expected to be able to maintain its hard-earned moat and continue to enhance its own performance, even as the race gets tighter.

To access all the human insights in Third Bridge Forum’s Ada Health – competitive advantages & growth prospects Interview, click here to view the full transcript.