This article was derived from the previous articles “New Models for the New Era” and “A New HBI for a New Era,” which were published on heralthcarebusinessinternational.com on April 19 and 12, 2024, respectively.

Last week I wrote about the inspiration behind the conference title “New models for the new era” and how it applies to our healthcare sector (read last week’s blog below). As well as serving this market, HBI is a media business too. This week I’d like to share some thoughts about our journey and place in the market. Spoiler alert: we are branching out beyond the traditional healthcare services beat that has been our mainstay. Read on to find out more. 

In the “digital era”, all media businesses have experienced challenges and opportunities. HBI is no exception. Running an events business during pandemic restrictions is certainly one challenge which springs to mind! And I can’t mention this without taking the opportunity to thank all our valued customers and partners whose goodwill and custom enabled us to negotiate a successful passage through those times. 

Readers will likely know that HBI was recently acquired by French company Europevents SAS. Europevents SAS is also the owner of IPEM, the premier relationship broker for global private equity. Working with new owners in our own “new era” has given the management team a fantastic opportunity to review our own business model and core purpose – or raison d’etre as they might put it.

To date, the underlying logic of our business has been to deliver value to the market with a dual approach – a membership offering that provides immediate, day-to-day, and year round value to our members, and our continuing events programme that provides industry-leading expert insights along with unique networking and peer engagement opportunities.

Membership revenues are profitable and predictable based on a subscription model. While revenues from events activities are potentially more profitable, they carry a risk profile that can be volatile, as seen during the pandemic. From a business perspective, the resilience and synergies from our dual approach have strengthened HBI, and we believe this brings greater value to our community of users.

This is a proven model employed by many of the best B2B media businesses in a digital media era which has moved seemingly permanently away from the advertising funded models of old. Our evaluation is that the underlying model of the business is sound.  

Evaluating our core purpose with Antoine Colson, IPEM’s CEO, has proven even more interesting for us. Up until now, we have sought to deliver value to the market by focusing on the ‘for-profit health and care services sectors in Europe and beyond’, what I often refer to as our business paradigm.

Our purpose has been to help those leaders who are running and investing in health and care services businesses to expand their networks and to develop winning investment and business strategies that deliver both profitability and the best patient outcomes. This has been a fine paradigm that has served the business, its customers and, we trust, the wider market very well. 

However, like everything in life, there is room for improvement and a need for change.

We have been covering a multitude of sub-sectors whilst leaving others uncovered. For example, up to now we’ve chosen not to cover Aesthetics despite the relevance of this market to our customers and its relationship with other sectors that we do cover, such as Dentistry, Ophthalmology and Primary Care. 

The time has come for a new paradigm.

Now, HBI will track investment activity across healthcare with a primary focus on private markets in Europe, and also across the Middle East, South Africa, India, and Australia. 

Our mission is to support healthcare executives, investors and advisors to make the right connections and to take better informed strategic and investment decisions. We will do this by providing exclusive networking opportunities and actionable business insights at our events and through online news, data, and analysis.

We will continue to cover M&A activity, new government legislation, ESG, the emergence of new business models, and internationalisation in terms of their impact on private investment, profitability, and patient outcomes. We will report on areas such as property investment and digital technology in greater depth, and venture into new areas such as Aesthetics, Wellness, Retail Pharmacies, and Veterinary Services, among others.

You can already see tangible evidence of our new paradigm as seen online in this year’s inaugural Property Investment Report, in the establishment of Executive Meeting Suites for conducting high level meetings efficiently at HBI 2024, and in the conference program where sessions such as Veterinary Services and Nuclear Medicine appear for the first time. 

In remodelling our business for a new era, all our plans reflect our determination to support our customers to thrive.

If you have any thoughts or comments about HBI’s new direction, I’d be delighted to hear from you. You can reach me by email at thomas@healthcarebusinessinternational.com or drop me a message on the conference app to arrange a meeting at HBI 2024 the leading international healthcare CEO and investor deal-making conference.

This week I‘ve been thinking about ‘New models for the new era’, the conference title for HBI 2024, which will take place in London June 10-12.

We believe that the healthcare sector is entering a new phase — one where new models are required to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities that a changing healthcare ecosystem will present.

All over Europe, and beyond, healthcare activities are increasingly being paid for either out of pocket or by private insurance. This is a trend that is set to continue because of a lack of public funding, long waiting lists, and chronic workforce issues. 

When it comes to healthcare, the classic question is “who pays?”. It’s clear that the answer is increasingly frequently going to be “the patient”. This is particularly true for activities that are considered to be non-critical or purely elective, such as aesthetic procedures. 

The new era is also being driven forward by new technologies. While innovation might not resolve every healthcare challenge, rapid advances are now in play which can increase productivity and deliver better patient outcomes. In the Imaging service sector, for example, remote MRI operation (used by companies such as Evidia) and AI automations are already saving time, increasing the throughput of patients and delivering tangible improvements to the bottom line. 

Alongside the challenges presented by a new era comes the need to reevaluate existing business models to ensure that they remain fit for purpose. In some cases existing models will continue to deliver excellent outcomes both for patients and for businesses. Others, meanwhile, will need to be adapted, or reimagined entirely. 

What we can be certain of, however, is that new challenges will emerge. 

We will be taking a close look at new business models at HBI 2024. Topics for discussion will include the ongoing move to deliver more services in both primary care settings and pharmacies, remote patient monitoring, and asynchronous care, all of which represent new ways in which time and space can be used in healthcare. 

Look out for next week’s blog where I’ll be writing about how HBI is embracing these changing times and how we’re adapting our own business model to better serve our market.

In the meantime, hundreds of delegates are already signed up to attend HBI 2024. I’d urge those readers who have not yet booked their ticket to sign up now. If you’re not in the room, you will miss out on the chance to be part of the only international conference which considers the business of healthcare from the perspective of those running and investing in the sector. This is your chance to engage in peer-to-peer networking, to hear from top speakers, and to schedule efficient business meetings at one time and in one place.

We would love to see you there. We would welcome your thoughts on this story. Email your views to Thomas McMullen or call 0207 183 3779.