“Big Tech”—companies like Amazon, Google, and Apple—is taking over healthcare. At least, that’s what the news headlines would have us believe. These companies and more have made huge announcements just within the past 6 months about their plans for transforming the healthcare industry. Some announcements about Big Tech in healthcare, like Amazon’s pursuit of a better healthcare system, have been shrouded in mystery. On the other hand, tech giant Apple has been upfront about their user-oriented healthcare innovations and investments.
In any case, Big Tech certainly has the resources to fund major projects to transform the products, systems, and processes healthcare professionals use every day. When the news headlines predict a healthcare invasion, it begs the question: how can doctors, practices, IPAs, and hospitals keep up?
In the past few years and even the past few months, we’ve seen some big news come out of investments from Big Tech in healthcare.
The major players in Big Tech in healthcare right now—Amazon, Google, and Apple—already have a track record of disrupting major industries like retail and telecommunications. They have the money and the resources to rock the world of healthcare, which has had few significant changes in the past 30 years aside from Obamacare.
It’s easy to feel that the world of healthcare as we know it is in jeopardy with these upcoming changes, especially with little research about the impact of these changes on individual practices, health systems, and hospitals. But many of these innovations and initiatives can only be positive in the long-term. That is, as long as hospitals and doctors are willing to work alongside these changes.
There’s a lot of hype surrounding Big Tech in healthcare today, and it can be difficult to keep up with it all. A common fear is that patients will use new technologies to self-diagnose, or that some new medical devices could create false panic over results. Currently, though, it’s too early to say either way. Rather than dismiss these new technologies, physicians should focus on doing their due diligence. Be aware that some patients are researching or using these technologies.
Right now, companies like Apple are actively seeking involvement from health researchers and hospitals alike. In fact, several innovations from Big Tech have already been implemented within major health systems. If your technology and internal systems haven’t been updated in several years, then you’re falling behind..
Many of the innovations we’re seeing from Big Tech in healthcare involve communication. Amazon, for example, hopes to create a better healthcare system overall that cuts out the middlemen. Apple hopes its devices will be used to better communicate with patients, ideally amongst several specialists.
Big Tech is tapping into something that some doctors have resisted for a long time: giving patients more access to their health information and to their doctors. Healthcare organizations everywhere can learn from Big Tech’s attempts to meet the changing needs of patients, providing better ways to communicate and access the information they need.
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