For decades, healthcare has been built around a single physical location: the hospital. That model is beginning to lose its central role. A €480M funding round for a preventive health insurer, a $700M raise for an early diagnostics company, and a public remote monitoring initiative in Spain all point in the same direction. These are not isolated events, but signals of a broader shift toward home-based care, continuous data collection, and prevention. Understanding this transition requires separating technological hype from the infrastructure that is actually being built.

The hospital is no longer the starting point of care

Over the past year, both private capital and public healthcare systems have been moving in the same direction. French digital health insurer Alan raised €480M in 2026, led by Prosus, reinforcing an AI-powered insurance model built around prevention. Swedish preventive diagnostics company Neko Health secured $700M in a Series C round to expand its full-body scanning clinics across the United States. Meanwhile, Spain’s Navarra Health Service launched ARGA, a public remote monitoring platform designed to strengthen hospital-at-home care.

Despite their different contexts, these initiatives share the same underlying logic: healthcare is increasingly delivered outside the hospital through continuous data collection and remote patient monitoring. Importantly, this shift is not being driven solely by digital startups. Public healthcare systems are moving in the same direction, suggesting a much broader transformation. The common denominator is continuous clinical data generated beyond the hospital setting.

Why is prevention becoming a business opportunity now?

Preventive healthcare is not a new concept. What is new is the infrastructure that finally allows it to scale. Advances in artificial intelligence, connected medical devices, and remote monitoring now make it possible to analyse health data continuously and at significantly lower cost. At the same time, the European Health Data Space (EHDS), which entered into force in March 2025, is beginning to provide the interoperability that has long been missing. This regulatory framework enables safer and more efficient sharing of clinical information across public and private healthcare providers. Prevention is not gaining momentum simply because people believe in it; it is becoming viable because technology and regulation are finally catching up.

Demographic pressure is also accelerating this shift. As populations age, healthcare increasingly requires continuous monitoring rather than episodic treatment. The cost of failing to prevent disease is rising faster than the cost of prevention itself.

The continuous patient relationship becomes the new strategic asset

For startups, value is no longer concentrated in a single diagnostic event but in maintaining an ongoing relationship with patients. That requires combining connected devices, clinical programmes, and human support into an integrated experience rather than offering them separately.

For investors, the evaluation criteria are evolving as well. Diagnostic technology alone is no longer enough. Long-term engagement, data continuity, and patient retention are becoming equally important. Alan’s model also illustrates how insurers can move from simply reimbursing illness to actively helping prevent it. In this new landscape, data infrastructure—not just medical devices or clinics—becomes the foundation of competitive advantage.

This also reshapes the competitive landscape. Companies focused solely on one-off diagnostics increasingly compete against businesses capable of building long-term patient relationships. Competitive advantage no longer comes only from having the best product, but from being able to support patients throughout their healthcare journey.

What could slow down distributed healthcare?

Several barriers remain.

The first is timing. The EHDS will not be fully implemented until 2029, with some categories of health data only becoming available by 2031. Until then, true interoperability between public and private healthcare systems will remain limited.

The second is economic. Healthcare reimbursement models still largely reward individual clinical interventions rather than continuous patient management.

The third is adoption. Having access to continuous health data does not automatically mean patients will act on it without appropriate human guidance and support.

Finally, there is a capital challenge. Business models that rely on physical clinics require significantly greater investment than purely digital healthcare solutions.

These constraints do not invalidate the trend, but they will shape the pace at which it unfolds. Distinguishing between what is already commercially viable and what still depends on future infrastructure will be critical for making informed investment decisions.

Healthcare outside the hospital is ultimately not a story about technology—it is a story about relationship infrastructure. The greatest value no longer lies simply in diagnosing disease earlier, but in maintaining an ongoing connection with patients afterwards. For startups, corporations, and investors alike, the key question is no longer who has the most advanced scanner, but who is building long-term continuity of care. Ironically, the less visible the infrastructure becomes, the more value it creates.

At GCO Ventures, we continue to follow how prevention, health data, and home-based care are reshaping the future of healthcare infrastructure. Stay tuned to our blog for next month’s Deep Dive.