Healthcare data as an asset is not an emerging idea.
It is an established and rapidly growing market. The global healthcare analytics sector was valued at over $50 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach nearly $200 billion by 2033.
The infrastructure, the investment, and the commercial interest are already there.
This blog is about where those opportunities sit, and what they look like in practice.
Two distinct opportunities
There are two distinct ways healthcare data creates value, and it is worth being clear about the difference between them.
The first is clinical and operational.
Organisations that can take complex datasets and turn them into meaningful insight, identifying which patients are at highest risk, where care is most needed, and how to intervene before a crisis occurs, are becoming essential partners for Primary Care Networks, Integrated Care Boards, and place-based health systems.
Risk stratification, proactive care, CVD prevention. The organisations making the most progress on all three are those that have learned to treat data as a core operational asset, not an afterthought.
The second opportunity is commercial.
Real-world health data, gathered at population scale over time, is the raw material from which new products are built.
This requires a very different set of capabilities, and it attracts a very different kind of organisation. But the underlying logic is the same: whoever understands the data, and knows how to work with it, holds significant advantage.
A dataset far broader than the NHS
Health data is being generated far beyond the clinical setting.
Every time someone checks their heart rate on an Apple Watch, tracks their sleep with an Oura ring, or monitors their recovery with WHOOP, they are producing data with tremendous health and commercial value.
The global wearable healthcare devices market was valued at over $41 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach nearly $76 billion by 2030.
We leave our health data behind in almost every interaction, and that data is being aggregated, analysed, and built upon by organisations operating well outside the traditional boundaries of healthcare.
This matters because the commercial opportunity is not confined to those with access to NHS records. The dataset is vast, continuous, and growing, and the organisations that understand how to work with it, across all of its sources, are the ones building the most significant advantage.
GLP-1 drugs: The Case Study
The clearest illustration of the commercial opportunity is sitting right in front of us.
Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound, the GLP-1 drugs now reshaping the conversation around obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular risk, did not emerge from nowhere.
The evidence base that made them clinically viable, commercially investable, and ultimately approvable was built on decades of real-world data. Data about how obesity progresses. How type 2 diabetes develops. How cardiovascular risk accumulates over a lifetime. Much of that data sits in healthcare systems like the NHS.
The two of largest companies behind these drugs, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly who generated more than $40 billion in GLP-1 sales in 2024 alone. GLP-1 products now account for 82% of Novo Nordisk’s US revenue and 48% of Eli Lilly’s. By 2030, Mounjaro is projected to be the world’s top selling drug at $36 billion annually, with three further GLP-1 products expected to sit in the global top ten.
These companies have understood that health data is not simply a record of what happened. It is the raw material for understanding what could happen, and for building the products that intervene. GLP-1 will not be the last time this happens. It is the model.
The businesses being built right now
The organisations gaining ground in this space share a common capability: they know how to work with health data at scale.
Life sciences companies are using real-world evidence to identify new drug indications and accelerate development pipelines. Analytics and advisory businesses are helping NHS organisations understand what they hold, how to use it, and how to commission intelligently from those who can.
Predictive analytics, the capability most directly relevant to proactive care and early intervention, is the fastest growing segment of the healthcare data market, projected to grow at close to 27% annually through to 2030.
That growth reflects where the investment is going, and where the opportunity is concentrating.
What this means if you work in or alongside healthcare
Health data, clinical, operational, and consumer, is one of the most valuable assets of our time. The organisations and individuals who learn to read it, interpret it, and build on it are the ones who will shape the future of healthcare and create significant commercial value in the process.
Understanding that value, and developing the capability to work with those who can unlock it, is becoming a genuine strategic leadership skill. Not a technology question. Not just an information governance task.
A business capability that will shape which organisations lead, and which ones follow.
Sources
Global healthcare analytics market size and forecast: Grand View Research, 2024
Predictive analytics growth projections: MarketsandMarkets, 2024
Global wearable healthcare devices market size and forecast: MarketsandMarkets, 2024
GLP-1 drug sales 2024: Sherwood News, February 2025
GLP-1 revenue share for Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly: I-MAK, 2024
GLP-1 sales projections to 2030: Fierce Pharma / Evaluate, 2024
