Huma’s 13-Year Journey to Creating a Global Healthcare Network

Digital innovation, no matter the sector, relies on scalable, secure and interoperable technological infrastructure.

Within healthcare, where innovation is often spoken about but rarely fully realized at scale, those needs are crucial to transforming — and standardizing — the way care and research are delivered and experienced.

“There is so much disparity between one geography to another in the way healthcare is delivered,” Dr. Mert Aral, chief medical officer at Huma, told PYMNTS’ CEO Karen Webster.

But if technology can revolutionize navigation through globally accessible tools like Google Maps, which offers the same high-quality experience regardless of location, why can’t it do the same for healthcare?

That’s the pressing question Huma was founded to answer in 2011, Aral explained, and he noted that the main challenge facing the field is that, because healthcare and life sciences are two sectors deeply entrenched in traditional practices, their transformation requires a significant shift in incumbent mindset.

The ongoing landscape realities mean that, despite the clear benefits, adoption has been hampered by the complexity and fragmentation of existing systems. The integration of digital tools and technologies can often be slow, hampered by a lack of interoperability, insufficient data and the entrenched reluctance of clinical teams and researchers to adopt new systems.

Aral likened the situation to trying to rebuild a house from scratch while still living in it. The core infrastructure needed for digitalization at scale is still largely absent, making the widespread adoption of technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (GenAI) a formidable task. In the U.S., for example, he noted that the adoption of electronic medical records required significant government intervention.

Transforming Care Delivery and Research

But that doesn’t mean the transformative potential of digital health technologies is impossible. Rather, broad adoption, while slow and challenging, is shaping up to be almost inevitable.

“We are trying to accelerate the adoption of digitalization within healthcare,” Aral said. “The reality of the situation is that 99% of your time is outside of the four walls of the hospital — how can we bridge that gap to get better visibility on patients, to know how they’re responding to treatments in real time? How can we intervene earlier? How can we be more proactive and see the right patient at the right time, rather than waiting for them to deteriorate?”

That’s why, over the past decade, Huma has focused on building a foundational layer of technological infrastructure designed to support a range of digital health solutions, from population health screening to remote patient monitoring and digital clinical trials.

Aral noted that Huma’s platform has been implemented in over 3,000 hospitals, with millions of active patients benefiting from its solutions. Demonstrating improved outcomes, increased capacity and new revenue streams for providers is what helps drive adoption, he said.

One of the more significant milestones for Huma was the launch of the Huma Cloud platform. This platform, which took years and significant resources to develop, aims to enable other stakeholders in the healthcare ecosystem to build on Huma’s foundation, thereby accelerating the development and deployment of digital health solutions.

“In order for this to have true impact, we need much bigger scale than what we can achieve on our own as a company,” said Aral, emphasizing that all stakeholders, including patients, providers, payers, pharmaceutical companies and governments, must see tangible benefits.

Read more: Huma Gets $80 Million to Build ‘Shopify for Digital Health’

By offering a disease-agnostic platform approved by the FDA, Huma enables health systems to build and deploy a wide range of health solutions using the same foundational technology. This flexibility and scalability are critical for addressing diverse healthcare needs and expanding the reach of digital health solutions.

Aral said he envisions a future where Huma’s platform powers a global network of healthcare applications, continuously improving through the integration of new diagnostic tools and data-driven insights. This vision aligns with the broader trend toward personalized, proactive healthcare, where technology empowers patients and providers alike.

A prime example of Huma’s innovative approach is their asthma disease management solution in the U.S., developed in collaboration with AstraZeneca. The challenge was clear: how to identify patients who could benefit from advanced treatments more quickly and efficiently. Traditionally, this process is slow, as it relies on sporadic doctor visits and snapshot data.

Aral explained that Huma’s solution leverages continuous remote monitoring, using spirometry devices, wearables and an intuitive app to gather real-time data on patients’ conditions. This approach, he said has significantly reduced the time to treatment optimization, benefitting patients, providers and pharmaceutical companies.

Patients receive timely interventions and personalized care, providers gain a new revenue stream through reimbursement codes for remote patient monitoring, and pharmaceutical companies can more effectively reach patients who need their treatments.

By addressing systemic challenges and building a robust technological foundation, it is possible to pave the way for a new era of healthcare delivery and research.