Insight
Healthcare: the incumbents strike back
Disruption in healthcare is rarely destiny. It’s often a timing decision.
For years, the disruption narrative in healthcare has followed a familiar script.
Digital-first challengers arrive with modern interfaces, elevated experiences, and consumer-friendly brands. Legacy leaders stand in place. Attention shifts. The category begins to feel redefined.
But that story isn’t inevitable.
In the healthcare landscape we’re seeing something more nuanced, especially in the most consumer-adjacent sectors, like diagnostic imaging and dermatology. Incumbents are not losing ground because they lack capability. They lose ground when the way they show up no longer reflects what they’re capable of.
We’ve seen this play out repeatedly. In many cases, the gap has emerged by no fault of their own. Incumbents were built for a referral-driven, insurance-mediated system, not a consumer-initiated, digitally-shaped one. But in today’s environment, experience has become a proxy for credibility.
When how an organization shows up feels outdated, perception begins to drift even when clinical outcomes remain strong. It’s subtle at first. But over time, perception shapes growth, recruitment, and competitive position whether leaders intend it to or not.
When lifestyle defines leadership
In diagnostic imaging, the rise of proactive MRI and longevity diagnostics has been propelled by highly visible startups. These companies frame early detection as aspirational and consumer-directed, amplified by influencers and digital fluency.
Established imaging networks, meanwhile, manage fleets of equipment, navigate payer reimbursement, operate at national scale, and carry regulatory and liability complexity that startups simply don’t. In many cases, they also possess deeper diagnostic infrastructure and increasingly sophisticated AI capabilities.
When how an organization shows up feels outdated, perception begins to drift. Over time, perception shapes growth, recruitment, and competitive position.
We saw this tension firsthand in our work with SimonMed. As one of the largest diagnostic imaging providers in the U.S., SimonMed had decades of clinical credibility and technological leadership. But as it expanded into preventive and longevity services – competing more directly with consumer-first startups – the brand needed to reflect the sophistication of the platform behind it. The greater risk was allowing others to define what modern preventive leadership looks like.
When institutional authority is expressed through outdated digital journeys or overly clinical language, it can feel less relevant, even when the medicine hasn’t changed.
When medicine meets retail
In dermatology, a different tension is playing out.
As traditional practices expand into aesthetic services, they compete in a space shaped by med spas: elevated, lifestyle-coded, and retail-savvy. Med spas don’t balance payer mix, oncology referrals, Mohs surgery schedules, or physician oversight in the same way medical dermatology does.
Medical practices carry real operational and clinical responsibility.
But younger, digitally-fluent patients evaluate experience differently. They expect clarity, warmth, and thoughtful design alongside rigor. When established practices remain rushed or operationally fragmented, perception begins to drift because experience signals haven’t evolved.
The authority is there, it just isn’t always translating.
Striking back – on their own terms
The incumbents who are striking back aren’t copying startups. They’re modernizing how their credibility is expressed through simpler, sharper storytelling, rooted in their clinical advantages and warmer, more human visual identities and digital experiences. The result is an authority that feels visible and relevant, not assumed.
The incumbents who are striking back aren’t copying startups. They’re modernizing how their credibility is expressed.
Today, SimonMed is positioned for growth in preventive imaging and longevity with a brand that reflects the scale and sophistication of its clinical platform.
Across sectors, the pattern is consistent: credibility remains the advantage. But it only protects growth when it is coherent and legible during times of change and confusion. When expression lags, challengers don’t need to out-innovate, they only need to out-clarify.
This pattern isn’t confined to imaging or dermatology. As hybrid care models and AI reshape expectations – often faster than organizations anticipated – similar dynamics are surfacing across the system.
For leaders navigating expansion or competitive pressure, the question isn’t whether you’ve earned trust. It’s whether that trust is translating clearly across the experiences that now shape perception.
If that tension feels familiar, we’d welcome the conversation.
About the author: Jason Hutt, Head of Strategy and Health Lead
Jason has over 20 years experience combining insight and creativity to craft compelling brand strategies that drive growth and inspire audiences across healthcare.
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