Gender diversity in digital health: 5 findings from Rock Health

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Leadership team diversity is known to improve company performance and growth. A research report from Rock Health examined how gender diversity affects digital health companies in particular.

Here are five findings from Rock Health on gender diversity in digital health.

1. In Rock Health's latest State of Gender Diversity in Healthcare survey, 95 percent of women and 58 percent of men agreed with the statement that gender diversity has a positive impact on company performance.

2. In 2015, 11 percent of the 45 healthcare companies on the Fortune 500 list have a woman as CTO or CIO. Additionally, seven of the top 10 healthcare companies on 2015's Fortune 500 list have at least 25 percent of their board comprised of women leaders. In nine out of those 10 companies, women hold C-suite level roles in departments including technology, information, human resources, marketing, communications and legal, according to the report.

3. The report identifies McKesson and Cardinal Health among those companies whose boards have strong gender diversity, with an average of 30 percent women representatives and more than one woman executive on the leadership team.

4. Rock Health also reports a significant number of digital health startups that failed or raised less than $2 million since 2012 have little to no women on their executive teams. Thirty-seven percent of digital health zombie companies — those who have raised less than $2 million since 2012 — have zero women on their executive team, and just 15 percent of these zombie companies are led by women CEOs. Additionally, all deadpool digital health startups — those that shutdown in the past year — were led by male CEOs, according to Rock Health.

5. The number of female digital health company CEOs is growing. In 2015, women led 29 funded companies, which is nearly double from 2014. Additionally, 31 percent of companies founded and funded in 2015 had a women CEO.

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The downfall of the diversity policy
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