Consumer demand for fast medical services is driving companies to embrace digital technology. The Big Tech in Healthcare report explores the power of technology giants in healthcare. Do you work in the healthcare industry? Gain business insights on the latest technological innovations, market trends, and competitors with data-driven research.
Healthcare organizations must navigate the COVID-19 pandemic and its lasting effects, as well as changing consumer demand for fast, convenient service. The industry is being forced to navigate its digital transformation journey, and Alphabet, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft are joining forces with their technology savvy to partner in this effort.
The big four technology companies — Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft — are accelerating their expansion into the healthcare market and are beginning to focus their strategies on specific parts of the ecosystem. Here’s a closer look at how these companies are stepping up their efforts to reimagine healthcare through collaborations and the development of new tools that could benefit consumers, medical professionals, and insurers.
Amazon has aggressively expanded into as many healthcare sectors as it can in recent years, using its cloud division Amazon Web Services (AWS) and its expertise in voice technology to expand into hospitals, as well as through acquisitions and major partnerships to launch new healthcare projects.
Amazon is using acquisitions and big partnerships to launch new healthcare projects.
How Amazon is changing healthcare
Amazon is embarking on efforts to transform pharmacy, the medical supply chain, health insurance and healthcare delivery. The company is using its delivery muscle to enter the medical supplies distribution space and leveraging its vast employee base to test telemedicine.
Some of the top healthcare solutions and platforms offered by Amazon include:
Amazon Web Services (AWS)PillPackAmazon CareAlexaMedical Supply ChainHaven
Apple is working hard to strengthen its health division as it seeks to realise CEO Tim Cook’s goal of making health Apple’s “greatest contribution to humanity”. The company aims to turn its consumer products into portable patient health hubs and valuable clinical research tools.
Apple aims to turn consumer products into portable patient health hubs.
Each version of Apple Watch is enhanced with new health features, leveraging the health records capabilities of iPhone to work with healthcare organizations looking for ways to improve communication with patients at various points of care.
How Apple is changing healthcare
Apple is using popular consumer products like the Apple Watch and iPhone to build partnerships with payers, health systems, and clinical researchers. Apple has expanded the number of health-related features available on the Watch in an effort to establish the wearable as a clinical tool to be used in medical research.
Apple’s leading healthcare solutions and platforms include:
Apple Watch Health Record Genetic Test
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Alphabet’s focused AI and data storage expertise is helping to advance predictive analytics, precision medicine and interoperability across industries. Alphabet aims to improve consumer health and lower healthcare costs.
Alphabet’s acquisition of Fitbit opens up new possibilities for the company to enter the digital health space.
Additionally, Alphabet announced it would acquire wearables giant Fitbit for $2 billion in November 2019, opening up a world of new possibilities for the tech giant when it comes to health management and employee benefits.
How Google (Alphabet) is changing healthcare
Alphabet is using its dominance in data storage and analytics to solve interoperability challenges and streamline clinical research. The company has won strategic partnerships with hospitals by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) on its cloud platform to solve issues of electronic health records (EHR) interoperability and limited computing infrastructure.
Our leading healthcare solutions and platforms include:
Google FitDeepMindVerilyCalicoFitBit
Microsoft is competing with Alphabet and Amazon for dominance of the healthcare cloud market, and the company has largely stayed away from the consumer side of healthcare, focusing on Azure to help providers and payers target specific populations to improve health outcomes and optimize data storage.
Team collaboration in Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare.
How Microsoft is changing healthcare
Microsoft’s healthcare efforts are driven by its cloud platform, Azure, and the data analytics capabilities it can provide to healthcare companies. These efforts are largely the result of the Healthcare NExT program, which helps provide a company-focused brand while exploring how the company’s technology can be used in healthcare settings.
Microsoft offers leading healthcare solutions and platforms including:
Microsoft Cloud for HealthcareHealthcare NExTMicrosoft GenomicsMedical ScribeMicrosoft Health Bot
Alphabet, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft are all moving into the healthcare industry, and some of their efforts could have a transformative effect on healthcare overall.
As the Big Four steadily move into healthcare, traditional players (hospitals, insurers, pharmaceutical companies, health IT companies) need to know exactly what their strategies are and what they stand to lose and gain.
Key takeaways from the report include:
Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft are all racing to establish themselves within the healthcare market, each targeting a unique sector to transform or disrupt. Microsoft is focused on competing with Amazon and Google for dominance of the healthcare cloud market, while Apple is focused on clinical research initiatives via wearables. Alphabet is leveraging its AI expertise to advance precision medicine, while Amazon is disrupting the pharmacy, virtual care, and telehealth spaces. These companies’ forays into healthcare are providing health systems with the technology they need to close the gap in interoperability and data sharing, giving payers the opportunity to collect more comprehensive health data on their members, and allowing pharmaceutical companies to streamline drug development and manufacturing. But the tech giants’ forays into healthcare are, in some cases, troubling incumbents. For example, Amazon’s prescription delivery business has traditional pharmacies looking for ways to retain their customer base, and Alphabet is building an ecosystem that seems like it could be at odds with the top players in the EHR industry. Additionally, expansion into healthcare could be hampered by consumers having little trust in technology companies handling their health information, as well as widespread cybersecurity crises that could cause healthcare companies to shy away from technology investments.
The full report is below:
Provides an overview of the most prominent healthcare projects and plans from Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft. Highlights deep-rooted gaps in the U.S. healthcare system that are driving these companies and their cutting-edge technologies to enter the healthcare industry. Identifies existing healthcare industry players that will benefit and be threatened by the expansion of large technology companies into the healthcare industry. Outlines the continuing barriers that are preventing technology giants from entering the healthcare industry.
AbbVie, Adidas, Aetna, Allscripts, Alphabet, Amazon, Ancestry, Apple, Ascension, Berkshire Hathaway, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Bright Health, Calico, Cerner, Cleveland Clinic, Clover Health, Color, CVS, CVS Caremark, Deepmind, Devoted Health , Dexcom, Duke University Health, Eli Lilly, Emory Healthcare, Epic, Fitbit, Giant Eagle Pharmacy, Gilead Sciences, Google, GSK, Haven, Health Navigator, iRhythm, JPMorgan Chase, Mayo Clinic, Meditech, Microsoft, Moorfields Eye Hospital, New York-Presbyterian, Nike, Noom, Northwestern Medicine, Novartis, Nuance, Oasis Medical Group, Onduo, Optum, Orbita, Otsuka, Pfizer, PillPack, Premera, Providence St. Joseph Health, QuestDiagnostics, ResMed, Rite Aid, Sanofi, Seattle Children’s Hospital, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Stanford University, Suki, Summit Pacific Medical Center, Suresscripts, UnitedHealthcare, UnitedHealth Group, University of California, University of Chicago, Verily Life Sciences , Walgreens
