On Amazon, Apple and Health Care
Last week, Amazon said it would acquire One Medical, a health care provider, for $3.9 billion.
Neil Lindsay, SVP of Amazon Health Services said: “We think health care is high on the list of experiences that need reinvention. Booking an appointment, waiting weeks or even months to be seen, taking time off work, driving to a clinic, finding a parking spot, waiting in the waiting room then the exam room for what is too often a rushed few minutes with a doctor, then making another trip to a pharmacy – we see lots of opportunity to both improve the quality of the experience and give people back valuable time in their days."
Amir Dan Rubin, One Medical CEO said, “There is an immense opportunity to make the health care experience more accessible, affordable, and even enjoyable for patients, providers, and payers. We look forward to innovating and expanding access to quality healthcare services, together.”
Separately, Apple released the 60-page report “Empowering people to live a healthier day.” Comments included:
“Our technologies, devices, and clinical apps help enable hospitals, clinics, and other providers to deliver better care for their patients by helping communication and workflow within the care team and by enhancing the patient experience from registration all the way through discharge.
“They also help improve nursing care, productivity, and patient safety as nurses have access the patients’ protected health information, can receive, triage, and escalate alerts, can administer medication, record clinical observations, and receive ongoing training.
“Apple technology has also empowered clinicians to be more mobile, leading to times savings and more time spent taking care of patients."
OUR TAKE
The U.S. health care market is large and needs improvements - which includes lower costs and providing better access to services. Note: during 2020, U.S. health care spending was about $4.1 trillion ($12,530 per person) - accounting for 19.7% of Gross Domestic Product.
Successful digital health efforts will leverage advances in big data, artificial intelligence, sensors, genomics, and more – while addressing user privacy concerns.
As Amazon, Apple, and other large technology players pursue health care opportunities, the need to address a broad and diverse set of domain expertise should present opportunities for many innovators.