Last night during the State of the Union (or Uniom depending on your ticket), it was a major focus of the address: healthcare reform. The same evening, news was breaking about a potential disruption of the entire healthcare industry. Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase announced that they would combine forces to form an independent healthcare company to service their respective employees.
This alliance is just one bi-product of the unstable state of healthcare in America. Between constantly fluctuating costs around services and medication, and the evolving state of legislation regarding healthcare, it has been difficult for employers to provide adequate coverage for their workers. In their announcement, the companies stated their aim was to provide service “free from profit making incentives and constraints”, focused on delivering quality care over bottom line improvements.
What does this have to do with IoT? Well, this behemoth of a company includes one of the most famed Wall Street investors of all time in Warren Buffet, the largest bank in the United States in JPMorgan Chase, and ecommerce giant Amazon. While the first two components are no doubt important, Amazon is perhaps the most intriguing. The company has been vocal about moving into the pharmaceutical world and with their acquisition of Whole Foods and all accompanying physical locations, there is talk the storefronts could serve as pharmacy locations.
However, the potential of Amazon’s involvement goes far beyond the ability to leverage brick and mortar stores. They have the potential to gamify the entire healthcare system and deliver services to your doorstep.
Imagine Amazon tracking your purchasing habits at a Whole Foods and awarding “healthy eating discounts” on insurance. Imagine your prescriptions being automatically filled and delivered to your door so you never run out of your medication. Imagine the ability to rent and/or have medical devices delivered to your home, so you would no longer have to leave the house to receive treatments like dialysis or your chemotherapy. Imagine the data from those treatments being transmitted back to a physician in real time so they could monitor your response. Amazon brings the tools necessary to make these ideas reality.
Connecting employees to better healthcare, disrupting an industry, and opening healthcare to the art of the possible. That is how these three companies are leveraging their power in the world of healthcare. How can your company spur industry wide innovation? Connect with ClearObject today.
