Physicians Capital Fund is an early-stage healthcare fund anchored by physicians and allied health professionals. We're bridging the gap between tech innovators and those on the healthcare frontline. Through strategic investments in the most fundamentally promising healthcare solutions, we're driving a new standard of healthcare innovation.
If you zoom out, 2026 looks less like a "what's the hottest buzzword?" year and more like a "what will health systems actually buy and deploy?" year.
That's good news for PhyCap's thesis.
The market is rewarding solutions that (1) integrate into real clinical workflows, (2) reduce documentation and administrative drag, and (3) reach commercialization faster than FDA-heavy device and therapeutic paths. We still care about clinical rigor, but we like categories where software, data, and distribution can get you to adoption without waiting a decade.
Here are the sectors we think are most promising in 2026, with an emphasis on SaMD, care delivery workflow optimization, and women's health.
Healthcare has a time problem. Clinicians are drowning in clicks, inbox, and documentation. It's not just annoying, it's expensive, it contributes to burnout, and it reduces capacity.
AHRQ's work on documentation burden highlights how commonly documentation is cited as a key driver of clinician burnout and how EHR "work outside of work" is a major issue1. The AMA has also pointed to the scale of the problem in everyday clinical practice, including the reality that clinicians can spend enormous additional time in the EHR beyond face-to-face patient time2.
This is one of the cleanest "value to buyer" stories in healthcare: less time, less cost, more capacity. Also, many of these solutions can be implemented as software and services without long regulatory timelines.
SaMD continues to mature from a hype category into a real regulatory and commercialization lane.
The FDA's SaMD hub is useful not because it makes things "easy," but because it signals ongoing regulatory clarity and sustained focus on software-based medical functionality3. On the AI side, FDA has a dedicated page for AI in SaMD and how the agency is thinking about these products in a total product lifecycle context4.
PhyCap isn't trying to win by taking the longest-duration regulatory risk. We prefer products that can get to adoption faster, show early traction, and compound value over time.
In 2026, the market has less patience for generic AI platforms and more appetite for applied AI that does something specific in a clinical or operational setting.
The AMA's 2025 reporting shows physician adoption of health AI rising materially, and importantly, it highlights that physicians are focused on assistive use cases and real-world fit, not science projects5. Meanwhile, the FDA's Good Machine Learning Practice (GMLP) materials are an indicator that the rules of the road for clinical AI are getting sharper, which is ultimately good for serious builders6.
Rock Health's 2025 market reporting also reinforces where capital is clustering: workflow-centric value propositions are capturing a meaningful share of digital health funding7.
AI is a feature, not the product. We like AI when it's deeply embedded into delivery workflows, has a clear buyer, and has a credible path to deployment.
Women's health is still one of the most mispriced opportunities in healthcare. It's massive, it's underdiagnosed, and it has historically been underfunded across research, care models, and product development.
The World Economic Forum's work on closing the women's health gap frames the opportunity as both a health outcome issue and a major economic opportunity8. They followed with a 2025 "blueprint" that lays out practical steps and investment needs to close that gap9.
Women's health fits PhyCap's sweet spot when it's delivered through SaMD, care delivery innovation, and workflow tools that clinicians will actually use.
Margin pressure in provider organizations isn't easing, and patients are still dealing with confusing, often opaque billing experiences. That combination creates a steady demand for tools that make healthcare payments, pricing, and revenue cycle more efficient.
CMS's Hospital Price Transparency program continues to push the market toward clearer, standardized pricing disclosure10.CMS has also continued emphasizing interoperability and patient access to health information through policy and enforcement direction, which matters because financial workflows are tightly tied to data access and exchange11.
This is another "buyer has to care" category. When the product reduces cashflow delays or admin headcount needs, budgets show up.
In 2026, there's still plenty of innovation in biotech, novel therapeutics, and long-duration device development. It's just not where PhyCap is built to win.
We remain cautious on:
The best healthcare opportunities in 2026 are showing up where adoption can happen now: workflow, SaMD, applied clinical AI, women's health, and financial infrastructure.
PhyCap's edge is staying focused on solutions that make clinicians more effective, reduce friction in care delivery, and reach commercialization on realistic timelines.
1 AHRQ (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality),
Measuring Documentation Burden in Healthcare (Technical Brief, PDF) —
https://effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov/sites/default/files/related_files/documentation-burden-prepub-technical-brief.pdf
2 American Medical Association, Digging into the data to cut EHR burdens that drive burnout —
https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/digital-health/digging-data-cut-ehr-burdens-drive-burnout
3 U.S. Food & Drug Administration, Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) —
https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/digital-health-center-excellence/software-medical-device-samd
4 U.S. Food & Drug Administration, Artificial Intelligence in Software as a Medical Device —
https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/software-medical-device-samd/artificial-intelligence-software-medical-device
5 American Medical Association, 2 in 3 physicians are using health AI, up 78% from 2023 —
https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/digital-health/2-3-physicians-are-using-health-ai-78-2023
6 U.S. Food & Drug Administration, Good Machine Learning Practice for Medical Device Development:
Guiding Principles —
https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/software-medical-device-samd/good-machine-learning-practice-medical-device-development-guiding-principles
7 Rock Health, Q3 2025 digital health funding: $3.5B across 107 deals —
https://rockhealth.com/rock-weekly/q3-digital-health-funding-3-5b-across-107-deals/
8 World Economic Forum, Closing the Women's Health Gap: A $1 Trillion Opportunity to
Improve Lives and Economies —
https://www.weforum.org/publications/closing-the-women-s-health-gap-a-1-trillion-opportunity-to-improve-lives-and-economies/
9 World Economic Forum, Blueprint to Close the Women's Health Gap —
https://www.weforum.org/publications/blueprint-to-close-the-women-s-health-gap-how-to-improve-lives-and-economies-for-all/
10 Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Hospital Price Transparency —
https://www.cms.gov/priorities/key-initiatives/hospital-price-transparency
11 Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Interoperability and
Patient Access Final Rule (CMS-9115-F) —
https://www.cms.gov/priorities/burden-reduction/overview/interoperability/policies-regulations/cms-interoperability-patient-access-final-rule-cms-9115-f
