23 connected strategy in the healthcare industry 4. The long-term success of digital health companies focused on patient care is still yet to be determined even though some companies have been able to gain traction in the market in recent years through the use of connected strategies. All of the companies assessed in this analysis were only founded in the past 10 years, have experienced evolutions in their business models, and have not yet gone public. Therefore, the long-term viability of these connected strategies is still an open question and difficult to assess based on publicly-available information. Additionally, there are a large number of digital health companies trying to revolutionize patient care with varying degrees of success. The case studies featured in this analysis are only a small sample and may be benefiting from serving a sweet spot in their respective markets as opposed to really improving the service in a fundamental way. Furthermore, while these digital health companies have shown improvements in patient outcomes and cost of care, it remains an open question as to how these connected strategies are impacting health- care providers. With more data and more touchpoints with patients, providers may start to feel overwhelmed unless these digital health companies can continually improve the user experience features of their platforms and the data analytics capabilities. However, the recent COVID-19 may be a tailwind to the success of these digital health companies going forward because it demonstrated the usefulness of connected strategies in being able to care for patients virtually and more efficiently. This may lead to broader accep- tance and usage of digital health start-ups for patient care. 