What exactly is a 'digital health IPO'?

IPO fever is hitting a bit of a frenzy amidst a slew of recent listings, and with it has come a renewed focus on the exact boundaries of digital health — or, alternately, of health-tech, connected health, eHealth, or any of the other myriad monikers for the intersections of healthcare, technology and innovation.

As observers from various mainstream and niche industries have flocked to discuss Health Catalyst, Phreesia and Livongo’s entries into the public markets, it’s becoming clear that those inside and out of the healthcare technology world hold a different idea of which companies are in the space, and how best to describe them.

Today’s coverage from Business Insider and Inc., for instance, included each of these firms as well as Change Healthcare’s revenue cycle management business as recent examples of digital health IPOs, while also counting Ancestry’s genetic testing business and SmileDirectClub’s online assessments for mail-order teeth aligners in the same camp. Even connected fitness company Peloton has been evoked as a part of the trend.