Patients are becoming ever-more engaged in managing their own health, creating opportunities for healthcare providers that can combine clinical care with personalised services, digital engagement and strong patient experiences. For Verlinvest, the trend is particularly visible in outpatient specialties, where patients play an active role in treatment decisions and are often willing to pay out of pocket. Investors in Healthcare spoke with Julius Hugelshofer, investment director at Verlinvest, about the opportunities this shift is creating for investors.
Healthcare has traditionally been viewed as a defensive sector supported by demographics and rising demand. Increasingly, however, investors are also paying attention to how patients engage with healthcare services. This shift reflects a broader consumerisation of healthcare, as patients take a more active role in treatment decisions and increasingly seek personalised care across specialties from dentistry to aesthetics.
Providers are using digital tools to personalise care and improve patient engagement, while patients are becoming more informed about treatment options and taking a more active role in managing their health.
“On the provider side, consumerisation and personalisation are good for business,” says Hugelshofer. “They improve patient satisfaction, but they can also lower costs because personalised healthcare often effectively equates to greater prevention.”
At the same time, patients are arriving with a better understanding of their health and the treatments available to them.
“We’re seeing a complete mindset shift,” he says. “Patients are much more aware of what drives their ailments and are increasingly using data to inform themselves before engaging with providers.”
Patient-facing specialties
According to Hugelshofer, the biggest impact is being felt among patient-facing healthcare providers.
While emergency medicine and major surgery remain largely driven by clinical necessity, outpatient specialties are increasingly influenced by patient choice and engagement.
Areas such as dentistry, ophthalmology, fertility and aesthetics are particularly attractive because patients play an active role in treatment decisions and increasingly seek personalised care.
Many of these specialties are also closely linked to prevention, which Hugelshofer sees as one of the most attractive long-term themes in healthcare.
“Anything linked to prevention can benefit from personalisation,” he says.
The growth differential is already visible. Within dentistry, for example, digital orthodontics and transparent aligners are expanding significantly faster than the broader market.
“We see growth rates in consumerised treatment areas that are two to three times higher than in traditional segments,” Hugelshofer says.
For investors, that creates an attractive combination of healthcare’s defensive characteristics and faster structural growth.
Technology supports delivery
Hugelshofer sees AI as an important enabler rather than an investment theme in its own right.
Providers are increasingly using AI-driven tools to improve scheduling, patient intake and operational efficiency, while diagnostic applications are becoming more common in areas such as radiology.
The bigger opportunity may be improving the patient journey.
“We’re seeing AI help patients adhere to treatment plans, improve outcomes and navigate the treatment process more effectively,” he says.
Verlinvest generally prefers to work with specialist third-party technology providers rather than build proprietary tools.
“There is so much investment going into AI development that it often makes more sense to adopt best-in-class solutions rather than trying to build everything yourself,” Hugelshofer says.
Technology is also helping providers combine online and offline care. Traditional healthcare operators are adding digital assessments and follow-up tools, while digital health businesses are increasingly looking for ways to gain direct access to patients through physical clinics or partnerships.
“In the end, doctors still need to see patients physically to reach the most accurate medical conclusions,” Hugelshofer says. “The multichannel approach is definitely the best way to capture this trend because it’s what patients increasingly expect.”
Scaling platforms
For Verlinvest, the opportunity lies in building differentiated healthcare platforms in large and fragmented markets.
The firm looks for founder-led businesses with the potential to become category leaders. Differentiation can come from clinic formats, practitioner recruitment, training capabilities, patient acquisition strategies or other operational advantages.
“We like businesses that have something differentiated on either the demand side or the supply side,” Hugelshofer says. “People are moving into undergoing certain treatments as if they are purchasing consumer goods – that’s where experience is extremely important. Look and feel of a clinic, consistency of protocols, how you get treated as a patient.”
Europe’s fragmented healthcare landscape creates opportunities for both organic growth and consolidation. While local execution remains critical, some specialties are easier to scale across markets than others.
“The more consumerised a treatment is, the easier it is to scale internationally,” he says.
Demand for treatments such as aesthetics and eye surgery tends to be relatively consistent across markets, influenced by many of the same consumer and social media trends. Faceland, a chain of branded medical aesthetics clinics across Europe in which Verlinvest invested in 2023, illustrates that dynamic well: the core demand pattern travels across borders, but success in each market still depends on navigating very different patient expectations, regulatory environments and operating models.
“But execution always needs to be local,” Hugelshofer adds.
New opportunities
When assessing new opportunities, Verlinvest starts with long-term shifts in patient behaviour.
The firm is particularly interested in areas linked to prevention, where patients are engaged, willing to spend and increasingly focused on maintaining long-term health.
“It starts with identifying trends that will impact consumers over the next five to 10 years,” Hugelshofer says.
For Verlinvest, that means focusing on healthcare markets where patients are becoming more engaged in their own care and backing businesses that can translate that demand into scalable service platforms.
