🚀 The Rise of PreventTech
I can see the PreventTech revolution gaining momentum, driven by three converging forces:
Enter PreventTech: Market Innovation Filling the Gap
We haven’t seen the ten-year plan yet, but the prevention industry has already made up its mind. It’s the private sector that’s going to do the running this time round. Tired of waiting for NHS procurement, companies are refining their products and proving ROI in the private market.
For now, Prevention-as-a-Service is more Waitrose than Lidl, more Buckinghamshire than Blackpool. That’s unfortunate. But it’s also exciting. PreventTech companies are defining the healthcare system of the future.
They are emerging across six distinct categories:
🧠 1. Risk Identification & Early Detection
Platforms using genomics, diagnostics, and predictive analytics to identify disease risk early, enabling targeted interventions years before traditional diagnosis.
🥦 2. Metabolic & Lifestyle Health
From digital coaching and personalised nutrition to the integration of GLP-1s and metabolic monitoring, this category is rapidly evolving. New therapies are complementing lifestyle-based approaches.
🛡️ 3. Immune System Support
Driven by COVID-era awareness, this sector includes immunonutrition, anti-inflammatory biologics, and immune monitoring. These tools proactively reduce chronic inflammation and age-related disease risk.
🧬 4. Preventive Therapeutics
A new wave of drugs and biologics is emerging to delay or prevent disease onset, especially in areas like cardiovascular health, neurodegeneration, and metabolic disorders.
🧰 5. Infrastructure & Enablers
These are the data platforms, clinical trial tools, and engagement technologies that make scalable prevention possible.
🏥 6. Preventive Care Delivery
Virtual clinics and digital platforms are delivering personalised preventive care, from menopause and mental health to diabetes and frailty. These services are overcoming NHS bottlenecks and raising the bar for care delivery.
Why Markets Will Lead
PreventTech suffered a false dawn post-pandemic. Healthtech goldrush and COVID-contract booms left scars. But the clinical success of new therapies, combined with consumer demand for proactive care, has changed the game. Just read PitchBook. Clearly the market is swinging back.
I watch our Government’s growing horror. It just sounds like more money, more appointments, more taxes. I watch with sympathy but frustration as the government wrestles with short-term budget pressures, political cycles, red tape, and a burnt-out workforce. Meanwhile, each week, I meet private companies running hard at these new opportunities.
We are witnessing the rise of a parallel prevention system, driven by market forces. This is not about replacing the NHS. It is about proving what is possible when prevention is properly funded and focused.
These companies are not bound by bureaucracy or electoral cycles. They are delivering better outcomes and attracting serious investment. As they scale, they will build the evidence base that could finally force government action.
The Road Ahead
The question is not whether PreventTech will succeed. It already is. 1.6m Brits on GLP-1s through the private sector can't be wrong. The real question is whether government will learn from these innovations and finally match its prevention rhetoric with meaningful action.
Next, I will be profiling some of the standout companies in this space. What is your experience with PreventTech? Are you seeing similar innovation in your sector? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
Lord James Bethell Former Health Minister | Member of the House of Lords | Advocate for innovation in public health
Insurance is about opportunity - not fear | Providing our clients with the confidence to thrive
4moThe NHS is an amazing achievement and must be preserved. If you preserve as is then you run the risk of obsolescence and demise. Inherent in preservation is adaption. The NHS was founded with the objective of keeping working age adults (let's face it mainly men at that time) fit and able to work. The benefit to the country is that these people could continue to support their family. Got a hernia from work - the NHS will fix it ... The NHS is now all things to all people. We need to define what the NHS is. I would see the NHS as having four roles in the current healthcare environment: 1: Continue with that we call MOT medicine - fixing working age people so that they can continue to work 2: Supporting birth and child health 3: Providing advice and support for prevention 4: Management and alleviation of suffering I will leave aside the issue of the need to be able to afford a decent diet etc. for long term health. To me that is a slightly different issue to the NHS - but all important for population health. This framework helps give us all equal opportunity. I don't like the full privatisation of prevention. It creates a very two tier society. The NHS should focus far more on prevention than dealing with long term disease.
Consultant in Public Health
4moIf our goals were to be, for the sake of argument, the improved length and quality of life distributed equally across our whole population, then Preventech will generally be the least cost effective solutions. Commercial determinants of health put us at risk, and then sell us expensive, bespoke tech interventions. If some Preventech was able to remove garments from lots of people, then it may be worth getting excited about (things that can clean indoor and outdoor air pollution in a city, things that can make healthy food cheap and available, policies to redistribute wealth) You say that "this is more Waitrose than Lidl" at the moment, but that is built in. I love tech solutions but prevention on a case by case personalised approach is expensive and guaranteed to widen inequity. Does fairness figure in your criteria for judging new Preventech?
CEO UK & International Health Coaching Association | Registered Health Coach | Co-Chair SIO/BSIO Health Coaching SIG | Cross-Sector Health Policy Advocate | GWI-WCI | International Speaker | Author THE REAL FOOD SOLUTION
4moInteresting and timely James … PreventTech works best when combined with human support from health coaches who can: - Support people to better understand personal data from tech platforms - Build relationships and motivation to act on risk and establish sustainable health behaviour change - Ensure that tech doesn’t widen inequality by leaving people behind Looking forward to our chat 🙂
🧡 Connecting healthcare, technology, and people to heal our communities. 🧭 Guiding you to build partnerships and systems that shape the future of healthcare. 🫶
4moFor all it's problems the medical system has learned to provide safe ethical care. We should not take that for granted. It has taken many years of learning. And even then there are still scandals and mistakes. This explosion in health tech MUST be regulated, or what we will see is a lot of digital snake oil salesmen causing significant harm. Think of your IT provider at work. Would you REALLY want those dudes looking after your sick gran for profit? I'm not saying it won't happen and there won't be potentially enormous benefits. But it must be done safely or significant harm will be caused to many.
Healthcare Strategist | Helping HealthTech, MedTech, Life Sciences break into health systems and scale with clarity
4moThis is a fantastic and timely analysis of the growing PreventTech landscape. Other commentators have already mentioned the health equity challenge. If we consider this as a massive case for change to fill the crucial gap in the traditional health system to move beyond treating sickness and towards a healthier population (and reversing the decline in health span), we might get those solutions into the NHS at scale for everyone. This could be through a) public-private-partnerships (could harness the data gap by other commentators or b) a proven-to-procure pathway similar to the government's proposal of the "one stop shop for tech". Interested what options others would consider.