The battle beyond our eyeballs
How big technology companies are coming for our health.
In today’s world, money flows towards people’s attention. Or at least, the owners of people’s attention. Behind all the devices we hold dear, an entire industry is constantly lurking to capture more of it in order to generate revenues. As these tech companies basically own our eyeballs, they now want the rest of our bodies by turning their disruptive force towards the healthcare industry.
The brain is our most expensive organ, as it spends 10x more energy than anything else in our body. With over a million billion synapses that are in constant turnover, our brain accounts for 20% of our body’s energy use. A large part of which is controlled by external forces such as tech companies’ platforms and applications that are built around their attention-seeking business models. Our precious attention is always sold for clicks, engagement and view time. And with a global healthcare expenditure expected to exceed USD $10 trillion by 2022, big tech companies are clearly not interested in ignoring this industry’s potential.
With healthcare being big tech’s next target, the everlasting battle for our attention raises many questions. Will the Googles and Amazons of our world really control our health in the future? And how can our current healthcare industry adapt to the benefit of every patient, healthcare professional and consumer?
Let’s dive in.
Big tech’s next target
Many industries have been democratized by technology companies, for which we’ve paid with our personal data. Our very own social graph — consisting of information such as pictures, interests, education, friends, family, demographics, geographies, financial transactions and much more — has emerged from continuously improving algorithms that know more about us than we do ourselves. Big tech companies’ obsession with customer centricity for many years has gotten us — as consumers — so used to the instant gratification and high quality experiences they deliver, there aren’t many industries left where the same level of expectation is lacking. Armed with a global reach, warehouses full of data, and — most importantly — our attention, these companies are taking a shot at democratizing the healthcare and life sciences industry. And they have the potential to completely alter the way healthcare is delivered today.
Every industry is a data industry, and healthcare is no different. Medical records, family history, use of health-related apps and mobile devices, drug prescriptions, past and current treatment plans, the list goes on. If we want to truly add value to one’s health, we need to map one’s entire health journey. And to do so, the very first step is to connect and make sense all of these patient/consumer-generated health data so that we can start making better informed decisions. The better we’re capable of tying all of these loose data strings together and generate actionable insights from it, the better healthcare can become. And if we want a comprehensive and longitudinal view of every patient or health consumer, we can’t ignore big tech’s well-established platforms and algorithms. They know how to know you. And that’s exactly what the health system needs.
Why it’s (mostly) a good thing
Healthcare as an industry is notoriously slow when it comes to adopting new technologies. One where tech companies can’t just ‘move fast and break things’, like they’re used to. But they do have the power to push the regulatory boundaries forward and put pressure on a rusty system that urgently needs a makeover. In an industry such as healthcare, time is not just money, but it’s also human lives. And whether it’s Amazon’s e-commerce empire, Uber’s transportation algorithms, Apple’s consumer devices, Microsoft’s AI and Cloud technologies, Facebook’s network of 2.1+ billion daily users, or Alphabet’s AI and health-related enterprise investments, each of these technology companies has its own leverage and expertise to bring to the table. And yes, they’re mostly profit-oriented. But many of them have also renewed their commitment towards healthcare data sharing standards “so that novel applications can be built and deployed to the benefit of patients, care providers, and administrators alike”. Interoperability is one of those challenges tech companies decided to battle together by not just promoting data sharing standards, but actively helping to define them.
If we want our healthcare to be connected, we’re in need of a radical shift in mindset, fueled by new healthcare strategies and new ways of training our care professionals. Healthcare stakeholders should take notice of the disruptive attitude big tech companies show us time and time again. So let Amazon compete with big pharma players, let Uber allow health providers book riders for patients and caregivers, let Apple read every watch owner’s ECG, let Microsoft process genomic data, let Facebook prompt its users to get regular checkups with their Preventitive Health tool, and let Alphabet redefine the boundries of health research by employing over 100 AI PhDs. All of these perspectives and efforts are paramount, and they often form the basis for partnerships with high-potential start-ups. That said, it’s time for us to start worrying more about our own European alternatives, and data strategies and regulations on our own terms, before we face the consequences of a US monopoly position as such.
As a byproduct of these trends, these tech companies serve as an example of how healthcare stakeholders could, and should, redefine themselves: be it established Pharma or MedTech companies, hospitals, care organisations or other initiatives. It’s not just about leveraging data to promote activities by simply investing in data and analytics capabilities, but it’s about (re)building these businesses around the data itself. From the ground up if they must.
Attention and intention are two very different things
With a reputation to be on-demand, real-time, incredibly convenient and hyper-personal, big technology companies are in the perfect position to capitalize on the flaws in our current healthcare system. A great patient experience is no longer just a nice-to-have. We want the customer experience we’re used to in other industries. These companies understand that energy is our currency, and that we pay attention to something in order to buy an experience. And since they already own a big piece of that 20% of the energy our brain is using, they now want it geared towards health.
Does that mean they will own our medical data too? Well, that’s up to our Governments and European regulators. Generally, patients are willing to share their medical data only when they trust it to be private and secure. According to a survey by Rock Health in the US, only 11% of patients trust big tech with their health data, whereas 72% of patients trust their physician with it. So on the bright side, that makes privacy and security a top priority for big tech companies if they want a piece of the healthcare market. Although it would be naive to think that we — as patients and consumers — really read between the lines to give them our consent to use our data.
But since we check our phone 150 times a day, we have an extremely powerful tool for health engagement right in our pockets. Even more so when you realize that, on average, patients see their doctors 3 times a year for about 15 minutes. So considering the fact that 99 percent of patient activity happens outside of the health system, it would be almost immoral not to take advantage of the massive opportunities to engage in our health journeys with the same architecture — such as devices and operating systems — that are designed to be user-friendly at its core. Tech companies have a constant touchpoint with their users, and they personalize it to the bone. By removing much of the unnecessary friction and creating a portal to the right tools, knowledge and expertise, healthcare could, quite literally, become accessible at our fingertips.
Having big tech companies turn their resources to solve our current health systems’ biggest problems is a welcoming move. And even though it might intensify the battle for attention — and therefore our eyeballs — , let them fight it. Joining that battle for attention seems beyond our control. Let us worry about patients’ and health consumers’ intention. Just like Verizon Media argues, “understanding one’s intentions leads to lasting connections, and repeat intentions”. That’s where healthcare stakeholders, providers and professionals can really make the difference. Not attention, but intention. And digital technology built by big technology giants could be used as the perfect backbone for engaged health consumers and patients. But again, if only we had some European substitutes..
The complexity of our healthcare industry forces big tech to forge new partnerships with existing heatlhcare stakeholders. Each with its own battles, in which trust, transparancy, privacy and security remain at the forefront. And when attention and intention come together, the future might look very healthy.
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As a disclaimer, the views or opinions expressed in my blog articles are personal and do not reflect upon those of the people or organisations I’m associated with.
