Medical Entrepreneurs: Learning How to Build a Business from Dr. Joseph Yi and Mr. Bush

Innovation and disruption are the order of the day when it comes to entrepreneurship. Medical entrepreneurs have started to forge new paths, explore existing methods, and figure out how they can leverage technology as the future is shifting towards a digital society. Globe Newswire notes that the healthcare IT market will cross $500 billion in value by 2027. Grand View Research also mentions that the healthcare supplements industry was worth more than $120 billion in 2019. Medical entrepreneurs are partially responsible for this massive growth in these areas. Here, we explore a few of the more prominent entrepreneurs in the field.

Jonathan Bush (athenahealth)

In the medical field, billing has always been complicated. When we consider how many different hoops a private practice has to jump through to get medical billing correct, it's mind-boggling that any of them get it right. Luckily, tools like athenahealth have helped large and small firms be on point with their medical billing. Athenahealth was initially developed in 1997 as a maternity clinic network, but the brand reinvented itself as a provider of cloud billing services. Ever since the revamp, the brand has seen massive growth. A 2014 estimate put the revenue that athenahealth made at over $750 million. Mr. Bush mentions that the development of the business is inextricably linked to the social good it provides. Without that impetus, he doubts that the brand would be as famous as it is today.

Dr. Joseph Yi (Beyond Recovery)

Addiction recovery programs have found popularity thanks to the opioid epidemic, yet many of the patients involved in them seem to relapse within the first 6 months after completion of treatment. Dr. Yi is a Board-Certified Addiction Psychiatrist and an entrepreneur who brought what he learned from his clients and applied it to the supplements market. Teaming up with three other doctors (including New York Times Besting Selling Author of EAT TO LIVE - Dr. Joel Fuhrman) Dr. Yi examined the holistic nature of his patients' recovery and noted what got them results. The byproduct of his purposeful mission was Beyond Recovery, a revolutionary supplement that he envisions will help those struggling from substance recovery and mental wellness by specifically addressing not only the nutritional deficiencies but assisting in eliminating the excess toxins accumulated from years of poor nutritional habits. Dr. Yi's pride is partially on the product but moreover the approach. He was extremely pleased to see multiple doctors coming together to find a solution that benefited others from a mind & body wellness perspective, especially given the current challenges of the global health crisis.

Technology and New Approaches Rule the Roost

The field of medical entrepreneurs has a lot of room for innovation and growth. Athenahealth is responsible for showing how technology can make lives easier for medical professionals. What's more exciting is Dr. Yi's new approaches for dealing with mental wellness. Alongside care from his outpatient group practice, Modern Behavioral, he managed to perfect the holistic approach to helping individuals recover from a crippling addiction. The launch of Beyond Recovery also underlines that medical entrepreneurs aren't limited by their initial business choice. As Dr. Yi is fond of saying, knowledge may come from school, but wisdom is derived from experience.

Seeing the Future

These innovations and developments are quite impressive on their own, but they speak of an innovative spirit that exists in medical support system entrepreneurs. They spot a need, and they move to fill it, sometimes facing severe opposition from those who are happy with the status quo. They're good examples of how perseverance and understanding of an industry can help an entrepreneur innovate effectively.