I have posted a number of notes about the increasing role of Big Tech in healthcare. It's time to take a look at the big picture and helpful in this regard is a SWOT table that was included in a recent article about this topic (see: BIG TECH IN HEALTHCARE). It was compiled by Business Insider Intelligence and is presented below:
After having reviewed the bulleted items in the four columns for Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft, I was impressed by the breadth and complexity of the list. For me, all of this this distills into the following Big Tech initiatives in healthcare:
- Home monitoring with wearables for wellness and diagnosis (see, for example: The Evolution of "Wearable Health Ecosystems" and Associated Partnerships)..
- AI and data analytics (see, for example:Three Examples of Predictive Analytics in Clinical Practice; Analysis of the Failure of IBM's Watson; Vertical Integration Backfires).
- Natural language processing of EHR records (see, for example: Amazon Launches New Medical Record Language Processing Service).
- Retail prescription drug sales (see, for example: Amazon-PillPack Pushes Against CVS with Prescription Deliveries; Also Seeking PBM Status).
- Data collection for wellness research (see, for example: Google Said to Be Seeking Data and B-to-B Relationships with Fitbit Purchase; Apple Getting Traction with Its App to Access EHR Records with iPhones).
- Software to increase efficiency of hospital operations (see for example: Dictating EHR Physician Notes Using an Apple Watch with AI Assistance).
Here's are my general conclusions about the role of Big Tech going forward :
- Big tech is banking on healthcare for a large contribution to its future earnings (see: Healthcare Will Contribute a Sizable Portion of Future Earnings for Apple).
- The Big Tech focus will be on AI, home monitoring and diagnosis with wearables, hospital and home data collection for research, and prescription drug sales.
- Home health monitoring systems and predictive analytics web sites from Big Tech may eventually account for a growing percentage of referrals to heath systems for disease treatment (see: Status Reports and Hospital Referrals from Wearable Health Ecosystems; Why Some Hospital CEOs May Be Opposing Interoperability in Support of Epic).
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