Rather than continuing a one-size-fits-all approach that has defined the sector for decades, health brands are beginning to recognize that patients deserve individualized care that benefits them with specificity. Targeting particular health segments of the population has allowed these brands to create thriving and engaged communities. Brands like Folx Health and Tia are delivering care to underserved patient groups (transgender and women’s health respectively), while Thirty Madison has invested in a collection of brands that target specific chronic conditions. These companies are helping overlooked populations feel heard, appreciated, and understood, while also aiming to lower costs and widen accessibility, a significant and long-lingering issue that has plagued the US healthcare system for decades. Our research with Vox Media shows that 42% of US adults spend more on healthcare than all other household expenses—an anomaly in the developed world. So it’s no surprise that bonafide challenger brands are gaining momentum.

Many of the brands we’ve selected are still nascent, but they are nonetheless signaling a changing of the guard. Patients, customers, providers, and other stakeholders are demanding more—more agility in innovation, more empathetic product design and services, more inclusion, more digital connectivity, more insight—because we all deserve more in a world that can deliver it.

But are these new brands adding more fragmentation and more complexity rather than solving for it? What is the ultimate agreed-upon and measurable mission across the industry? How will the old guard respond to these challenges—spinning off more focused businesses or focusing on the connective tissue between their businesses? The future of healthcare is going through seismic changes faster than ever. Only time will tell if the industry is prepared to meet our needs.