Can Healthcare be better with AMAZON ?
Many industries and market sectors are, or are about to be, disrupted by the introduction of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Healthcare is a very large industry and market sector in most developed countries, often being the first or second largest national budget item. There are big dollars in play here. The healthcare digitization market is estimated to be worth about $300B annually and there are several health-information-technology companies already serving this market, like Cerner, Optum, Medidata, Epic, Viva, and IQVIA. So, is there room for a disruptive new kid on this block?
Amazon has announced a new service called Amazon Comprehend Medical. They made the announcement in November, and the objective is to help hospitals, insurers, and pharmaceutical companies analyze all the health record data they have. This service would use AI to sift through all medical data, structured and unstructured, to pull out information such as diagnoses, symptoms, and treatments. Amazon also thinks that AI analysis could be a big help in many areas, such as clinical decision support, revenue cycle management, clinical trial management, plus building population platforms and fulfilling privacy mandates. This has been tried before by some big players, like Microsoft’s Healthvault and Google Health, both failing to deliver much to the market so far. The stakes are high and it will be tricky for Amazon to tap into the health-IT space, where heavy hitters like Cerner and Optum have been laying the groundwork for many years already. Amazon may have to rely somewhat on existing customer recognition and trust in order to penetrate this market, and they may need to touch on many parts of the healthcare universe before gaining a foothold.
Amazon acquired PillPack in June, an online comprehensive pharmacy service, and has plans for a joint venture with JP Morgan and Berkshire Hathaway to supply hospitals with health equipment. This may serve to get a foot in the door and allow Amazon to enter and disrupt this market sector.
Several companies have a budding awareness of how AI can assist all Healthcare systems and the breadth and depth of ideas is impressive. These ideas include many groundbreaking possible deliverables, such as:
- Accurately predicting atrial fibrillation events
- Confirming that a specific treatment was effective for a specific condition in a specific patient
- Very early prediction and detection of diabetes
- Putting these new tools in doctor’s offices and hospitals for the immediate benefit of patients
- Presenting treatment options and plans based on AI analysis of all the data
- Earlier detection of specific health conditions, like cancer and eye disease
As these companies explore more of the capabilities of AI, the number of ideas and benefits will grow, however, there will be some interesting dynamics when health insurers look at the situation and have to decide whether or not to cover the cost of medical “predictions” or “ suggested new treatments”. No one is saying that Healthcare is simple – even the US President said “It’s an unbelievably complex subject. Nobody knew that Healthcare could be so complicated”
Let Trend Disruptors be your guide to the future, as we continue to identify technology investment opportunities that can lead to financial success.
Stay Tuned!
