A call for 'dialing back the hype'

Donna Cusano

David Whelan of Forbes turns a gimlet eye (not Ed. Donna’s, but close) on healthcare tech startups that overpromote into a stratospheric ‘hype zone’ of self-importance. His case in point is ZocDoc, an appointment setter for participating doctors that will not, despite the passion of its founder, ‘help fix the healthcare system.’ Whelan’s point is that you don’t have to ‘save the world’ or be the Big Thing that ‘fixes healthcare’. Those of us who’ve been observers and participants for awhile have seen (or been part of) lots of better mousetraps, sailed up and down the hype curve (Gartner’s), picked through the debris field of broken companies and dreams–and been through several waves of hype-meisters. Not every device or system is going to be ‘transformative’ or ‘disruptive’, but they can help people in increments and in the aggregate, fitting together, perhaps amounting to more. What is credible now–scaling back expectations, finding a workable business model and enduring. An ecosystem that pays, anyone? Health Start-Ups Like ZocDoc Should Dial Back The Hype