Vol. 1: What would a Harris-Walz presidency mean for healthtech?

Written By Katherine Chen

PLUS: welcome, FDA healthtech priorities, and Mayo Clinic’s AI adoption.

Happy Tuesday!

If your eyes are on this … welcome to the first-ever edition of Your HealthTech Today! 🎉🥂 We’re so glad you’re here. Today, we will be covering what’s new in the news and our healthtech Q&A of the day.




New in the News

FDA advances healthtech equity.

Photo: Andrew Harnik / AP file

  • Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) published a discussion paper titled “Health Equity for Medical Devices.”

  • The paper is consistent with CDRH’s 2022 to 2025 strategic priority of advancing health equity for all Americans. In the paper, the agency recognized the “urgent public need for innovative technologies that help reduce barriers to health equity,” seeming to endorse both the healthtech products and their equitable distribution and accessibility nation-wide.

Healthcare and life sciences lead AI adoption.

Photo: Daniel Hertzberg / USN&WR

  • A recent 451 Research and Vultr report found that around half of healthcare and life sciences respondents said that they view AI as the most significant tech advancement over the next five years.

  • It indicates widespread adoption of AI in the healthcare industry and reflects growing marketing efficiency, strategic focus on AI, and other trends.

  • 93% of healthcare and life sciences organizations surveyed said that they plan to increase their AI spending by 2025, and two-thirds reported either custom-building models or using open-source models to deliver AI products.

Mayo Clinic takes on 3D imaging

Minnesota Mayo Clinic

  • On July 26, 2024, Mayo Clinic announced its collaboration with biotech company JelloX to develop and validate 3D digital imaging and AI technology for pathology screening.

  • This follows from the Clinic’s comprehensive digital strategy to develop a “future state vision” in its healthcare practices, as well as Jello X’s March 2024 participation in the Mayo Clinic’s fifth cohort of the MedTech Accelerator.

  • While the exact impact of this collaboration is not yet conclusive, it is significant in that it marks a major partnership in using AI to research and clinical practice at a high-profile institution like Mayo Clinic.



Q&A of the Day

What would a Harris-Walz presidency mean for healthtech? The Democratic duo’s healthtech policies didn’t just fall out of a coconut tree.

Existing in the context of all in which you live and what came before you, Vice President Kamala Harris, daughter of breast cancer researcher and colon cancer survivor Dr. Shyamala Gopalan, enters her third week as a 2024 presidential candidate with $200 million in donations, a Gen-Z approved campaign theme, and the unveiling of healthcare and tech issues on which she intends to run.

Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff visiting Paris lab where Harris’ mother researched breast cancer. Photo: Sarabeth Maney/POOL/AFP via Getty

As the former California state Attorney General, Harris aggressively pursued consumer protection suits, which may mean plans to impose stricter federal regulations governing technology in healthcare. As the entire market moves toward commercial technologies, this would have a large direct impact on healthtech companies and patients in terms of data privacy and user rights.

And, efforts to democratize healthcare could have ripple effects on the privacy healthtech industry, such as by displacing the need to turn toward direct-to-consumer prescription services with more affordable standard pharmaceutical options. However, it Harris has publicly supported technological innovation is not as outspoken as other members of her party or administration about shutting down trends toward A.I.

Harris’ new running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, has also been a mighty force behind policies that could impact the Democratic Party’s presidential ticket. As Governor, Walz enhanced mental health infrastructure, protected abortion and gender-affirming care, expanded affordable healthcare access, and focused on increasing transparency in the pharmaceutical drug industry.

Like Harris, Walz has family ties to cancer and illness. He lost his father to lung cancer when he was nineteen years old — something that makes healthcare access personal to the Governor. Harris and Walz both appeared at a March 2024 “Fight for Reproductive Rights” event held at a Minnesota Planned Parenthood.

Photo: Adam Bettcher / AP

In many ways, while Harris falls left of Biden, Walz falls further left than Harris on healthcare policies, which could indicate an even stricter agenda for the commercial health, tech, and healthtech industries as a President-VP duo. As the Harris-Walz campaign unfolds, we will be sure to keep an eye on its policies regarding healthcare, technology, and their intersection.



Thanks for reading!

(Seriously, from the bottom of our hearts.) Have you ever heard someone brag about listening to Chappell Roan back when her EP came out in 2017? We hope that reading this newsletter is like that, but for healthtech happenings. 😉

Until next time …

Katherine Chen