Digital Health — What's Going On (May 2026)

The Short Version

Digital health is worth more than $288 billion, but almost none of it is reachable by a solo founder. Strict privacy laws (HIPAA), the need to connect with hospital record systems, and the fact that doctors don't trust unproven tools all get in the way. The few paths that could work: building tools that stay outside the actual medical treatment (practice analytics, patient text messages, help appealing denied insurance claims) and building for licensed professionals who aren't doctors — like physical therapists — who face lighter rules than physician-facing tools. The best path avoids being part of the actual clinical workflow entirely.

A few ideas here were already ruled out and shouldn't be revisited: standalone therapy billing software, basic paperwork tools for physical/occupational therapy offices, and an AI note-taker for veterinarians.

How Big Is This, Really?

Grand View Research says digital health is worth $288.55 billion (2024), growing to $946.04 billion by 2030 — about 22% bigger every year
MarketsandMarkets says $162.1 billion (2024) growing to $573.5 billion by 2030 — about 24% bigger every year

Who actually pays, and who a solo founder could reach

Who's buying	Can one person sell to them?	Why
Hospital systems and large health networks	No	Requires connecting to Epic or Cerner, signing a data-privacy agreement, and going through a long buying process
Group practices with several offices	Barely	Takes 6+ months to close, plus an IT review, and they'll likely require their own security certification from you
Solo or small practices (1–5 providers)	Possible	Lower barrier, but still bound by HIPAA, and often locked into whatever record system they already use
Non-doctor licensed professionals (physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy)	Possible	Lighter rules, and more of these practices are independently owned
Practices that don't take insurance (cash-only, concierge medicine)	Yes	No insurance paperwork, simpler day-to-day process, and they're often willing to pay more to save time
Patients themselves	Possible	Won't pay much ($9–29/month), and it's hard to keep people using a health app long-term

The best customer for a solo founder: cash-only practices and licensed non-doctor professionals (physical, occupational, and speech therapists) who run their own independent practice, have a modest software budget, and aren't fully locked into a big hospital record system.

The Real Problems People Have

Physical therapists spend more time on paperwork than on patients

A common pattern on r/physicaltherapy and PT Facebook groups: "I spend more time doing my session notes than treating patients"
These notes are repetitive — the same kinds of goals and progress updates, patient after patient
Using AI to help write these notes is legally simpler for physical therapists than for doctors, since the stakes on each note are lower
What people actually want: "I need a tool that writes my progress notes for me from a quick form" — and they'd pay $49–79/month for it

Practice owners lose real money on denied insurance claims

A common pattern on r/medicine and r/smallbusiness: "My insurance denials are costing me $30,000 a year that I never chase because it takes too long"
Many small practices just write off denied claims instead of appealing them — that's real money left on the table
Practice owners also have no easy way to see which insurance companies are slowest to pay or deny claims most often

Cash-only clinics have simpler needs, but still struggle

Since they don't bill insurance, there's no insurance-related paperwork requirement (though they still need a signed privacy agreement for patient data)
These clinics are often willing to pay more ($79–149/month) since they keep 100% of what they charge
Their real pain points are simple: scheduling, texting patients, and basic billing

Who Else Is Already Doing This

Full hospital record systems (out of reach for a solo founder)

Epic, Cerner, Athenahealth, and eClinicalWorks are all enterprise-only, with locked-down access. Verdict: don't try to compete with these or build directly on top of them.

Software for physical and occupational therapy practices

WebPT ($99+/month) — the dominant tool built specifically for physical and occupational therapy
TheraNest ($39+/month) — built for therapy practices, mostly mental health
Jane App ($74+/month) — covers several types of health practices
SimplePractice ($29–99/month) — mostly mental health and wellness
Verdict: solid tools already exist here. The real opportunity is an AI note-writing layer that works on top of these tools, not a full replacement for them.

Medical billing software

Practice Fusion (now owned by Veradigm) — has billing built in
AdvancedMD ($429+/month) — combines scheduling and billing
Kareo (now called Tebra) — $125+/month
The gap: a $49/month tool just for appealing denied insurance claims, for practices that already use a separate biller

AI note-writing tools for medical visits

Suki ($199+/month per provider) — built for doctors
Nuance DAX (owned by Microsoft) — built for big hospital systems
Freed.ai ($99/month) — an AI note-writer for doctors
Hint Health ($99+/month) — built for direct-pay primary care
The gap: nothing exists below $99/month for non-doctor providers like physical, occupational, or speech therapists

What You Could Actually Build

BEST BET — An AI note-writer for physical therapists

The problem: writing session notes takes physical therapists 30–45 minutes per patient, and it's repetitive
Who would pay: solo and small physical therapy practices (1–5 therapists), at $49–79/month
What to build: a tool that generates a full session note from a quick 60-second form (patient's name, goals met, exercises done, what's next)
The privacy rules: you'd still need a signed data-privacy agreement, but since there's no audio recording involved, the compliance burden is lighter than an AI tool that listens in on the visit
How to find customers: r/physicaltherapy, PT Facebook groups, the American Physical Therapy Association's community
Verdict: Niche — a real problem, but WebPT already has basic templates, so you'd need to genuinely save more time to win people over

An assistant that helps appeal denied insurance claims

The problem: small practices write off $20,000–50,000 a year in denied claims instead of spending the time to appeal
Who would pay: solo and small practices that already have their own biller, at $49–79/month
What to build: type in the denial reason and claim details, and the tool drafts an appeal letter and tracks what happens next
The risk: you'd need real knowledge of how each insurance company works, and every payer is a little different
Verdict: Niche — real money at stake, but limited in scale, and the rules vary a lot by insurance company

Scheduling and intake for cash-only practices

The problem: cash-only clinics use Calendly plus paper intake forms, with no medical information built into the booking process
Who would pay: concierge medicine, IV-therapy clinics, weight-loss clinics, wellness practices, at $49–99/month
What to build: scheduling, intake forms, and treatment history in one place — no insurance features needed
Verdict: Niche — real opportunity, but crowded by tools like Vagaro and Jane App, so you'd need to pick one specific type of wellness practice to stand out

The Bottom Line

Digital health is the toughest regulated market for a solo founder to break into. The privacy law (HIPAA) isn't optional — any tool that touches patient data needs a signed agreement and real legal care. Most clinical tools also require connecting to a hospital record system, which is either locked down or expensive to access. The most realistic path for one person is either (a) tools that stay outside the actual medical treatment (practice analytics, insurance appeals, scheduling) or (b) non-doctor professions like physical, occupational, or speech therapy, where the existing tools are worse and people are genuinely willing to pay.

Best bet: an AI note-writer for physical and occupational therapists at $49/month, sold on "saves you 30 minutes a day" — not a tool that listens in on the visit, but one that turns a quick form into a full note. Lower compliance burden, a clearer way to find customers, and a category that's already proven to work (AI note-writing for doctors already exists and sells).

Where These Numbers Come From

The market-size figures below come from named reports. Everyday details — competitor prices and what people are saying on Reddit — come from general research knowledge rather than one single report.