Technology companies around the world have been looking for new health solutions for years. Details on which projects each one leads.
The American giant Microsoft has just made the second largest acquisition in its history by purchasing the AI Nuance company for its cloud-specific technology for the healthcare sector, and it’s just one of the ways technology giants invest heavily in the digitalization of health.
The crisis generated by the global coronavirus pandemic COVID-19 highlighted in many ways health deficiencies, such as labor shortages and the prevalence of disease among young people.
However, this sector, valued at o $ s3.6 billion, Became a focus on investment and contracting; experts predict that health care will skyrocket as the baby boomer generation ages and needs more care.
Technology companies – Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Apple – have been betting on health for years. These are the latest movements and news from technology companies in their attempt to revolutionize the healthcare sector.
Microsoft
Microsoft launched Cloud for Healthcare late last year, the industry’s first cloud-specific offering. The product allows healthcare professionals to schedule and perform virtual patient visits within Microsoft Teams; and monitor patients ’medical devices remotely through Azure.
The technology company is trying to plant its flag on digitization and improving medical records to lessen the administrative tasks that doctors have to do and reduce the exhaustion of doctors.
Microsoft worked with the voice recognition and artificial intelligence tools of Hues to take note of conversations between patients and clinicians during telemedicine consultations at Microsoft Teams.
“We believe that our solutions, along with Microsoft’s platform and capabilities, will return the practice of medicine to this intimate doctor-patient interaction; in addition, they will really reduce the administrative burden“, He remarked Mark Benjamin, CEO of Nuance, In dialogue with CNBC.
Amazon
Like your e-commerce and cloud computing companies, Amazon is strongly committed to health through multiple avenues.
The company launched in November Amazon Pharmacy, Which can ship to most American customers their prescription drugs at no shipping cost.
Prime members get special perks; such as discounts of up to 80% on generic drugs when they pay without insurance and delivery in 2 days when they use Amazon Pharmacy.
Amazon maintains its brand new wearable Hello can analyze a user’s voice through their speech and calculate body fat percentage using a smartphone’s camera, 2 features that set it apart from its competitors Fitbit and Apple Watch.
But Amazon’s most ambitious effort is to develop a way to connect workers from other companies with primary care specialists for online and in-person consultations.
Amazon intends to sell the primary care service – called Amazon Care – to companies that want to reduce the cost of health care for their employees.
Google had perhaps the most tumultuous process to establish a healthcare company. Three senior executives of Google Health – including the global deployment director- they recently abandoned the project.
The tech giant first launched Google Health in 2012, but shut it down after just two years due to low user interest.
Yet Google Health return under new leadership in 2018, Blake Dodge and Hugh Langley of Business Insider reported that the team struggled to define their mission and figure out how to make money.
Public criticism for privacy reasons hamper Google Health’s first major alliance with Ascension Healthcare to store medical records in the cloud.
The United States opened an investigation into the agreement to determine whether Google’s use of medical records violates the privacy law.
Sources pointed out that For real, A life sciences research company, could separate from Google’s parent company, Alphabet, to operate as an independent company.
Google’s health company had recent victories, such as the completion of the acquisition of Fitbit for $ 2.2 billion in January. U.S. regulators are still determining whether the agreement violates competition law.
The company also launched Care Studio, A tool that helps doctors organize patient data; and, launched a collaboration of or $ 100 million between Google Cloud and the Amwell telehealth platform.
apple
The Cupertino giant invests in helping users with their personal health through the I will see. In September, Apple introduced a new Apple Watch for $ S400 which measures the user’s blood oxygen levels and heart rate.
And while it’s not exactly healthy, Apple has just released Fitness Plus, A subscription training service that has the Platoon as its main rival.
The service, or $ 9.99 per month, requires an Apple Watch to sign up. Insurer UnitedHealthcare offered subscribers a free 6-month subscription to Fitness Plus.
Similar to Google, Sources close to apple they remarked in 2019 that the health team lacked focus and growth. Microsoft i Google they had no additional statements to add. Amazon i apple they were not immediately available for comment.
Source: Business Insider