How Google could turn into your next healthcare provider
I remember walking through a Super Walmart many years ago (before internet shopping took off), thinking Walmart was going to become a place where people would go for all their needs. In addition to groceries, clothing, electronics, and consumer goods, this particular store also had a hair salon, pharmacy, eyeglasses store, garden center, and several fast-food restaurants inside. It wouldn’t be long, I thought, before you’d even visit Walmart for your dental checkups, tool rentals, and community college courses.
Walmart hasn’t gotten quite that far yet (not for lack of trying), but in some ways other companies have. Amazon, for instance, really is an “everything store.” The company is in a whole lot more than just retail. They compete in a wide range of industries, including shipping, pharmacy services, small business lending, groceries, mortgages, online financial services — even insurance. Due to impending antitrust investigations, it remains to be seen whether Amazon can keep this up, but at the moment the company is the epitome of diversification.
It’s not alone, either. Google, which started as a basic website for internet search, has become something much bigger — almost scarily big. Google’s initial mission statement was to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” To a large extent, that mission has been accomplished. As far back as 2004, however (when the company went public), Google has used that information to push into other industries. In fact, its range of products and services is so vast that it seems as if Google is a part of almost every aspect of our everyday lives. Here are just some of the areas in which Google operates:
- Internet provider services
- Renewable energy
- Smart wearable devices and home appliances
- Operating systems
- Online payment and financial services
- Social media
- Content aggregation
- Market research
- Transport and mapping
- Online retail
- Crisis response and disaster relief
- Autonomous vehicles
- Robotics
- Artificial intelligence
- Food production
Keep in mind this is a partial list, and deliberately omits another important industry Google is currently disrupting: healthcare.
Google is positioned at the frontier of patient management
Like Amazon, Google could face setbacks if shackled by new antitrust legislation in the years to come. However, as long as it continues its broad push into additional markets, healthcare seems like a logical direction in which to head. Why? Well, for starters, Google already owns a vast amount of data that pertains to the general population’s health and well-being.
If you’re like most people, Google knows at least some information about all of the following: where you work; what you do; how early you usually wake up; what time you usually go to bed; whether you drive, bike, walk, or take public transportation to work; whether you’re concerned about anxiety, depression, or other illnesses or symptoms; what kinds of things you shop for; how socially active you are; how physically active you are; how far the nearest hospital is from your home; and of course your name, age, and more. In actuality, that’s barely scratching the surface. In some senses, Google knows more about many of us than we know about ourselves.
Beyond its incomprehensibly huge store of data, Google also has experience in plenty of fields that directly relate to modern healthcare, including robotics, AI, food, transport, and smart devices. Put it all together and Google has arguably one of the strongest foundations possible in terms of the knowledge and resources necessary to succeed in modern medicine.
Why Google is primed to disrupt
From a historical standpoint, it makes sense that a company like Google would be a huge disruptor of healthcare — typically it is those who enter a market for the first time (not market leaders) that are responsible for large-scale innovations in an industry.
Google in particular stands out as possessing expertise in what healthcare needs most: efficiency. With its long-standing reputation for being a data- and analytics-driven company, it can bring innovative efficiency into the realm of medicine and patient care.
Healthcare is the largest service industry in the United States, with annual spending currently over $3.5 trillion. Healthcare delivery, unfortunately, is frequently inefficient, with many experts estimating that the industry wastes billions on unnecessary services, the overuse of emergency departments, the misuse of medications, and other clinical inefficiencies. Inefficiency is also a major problem in non-clinical processes such as scheduling, reporting, and pharmaceutical services.
If Google approaches healthcare inefficiencies with the same analytical mindset that has prompted its current success, and combines that competence with its existing data store, we might soon find ourselves starting to deal with health problems by saying, “OK, Google,” rather than calling a doctor.
A crowded starting line
Are we comfortable with one company owning so much of our data, then turning around and using it to make more money off of us? Certainly there are concerns that must be addressed anytime a market is majorly disrupted — which seems inevitable with healthcare in the near future. Regardless, it’s likely that we’ll happily surrender even more data and privacy if in return, we get better, cheaper, more efficient healthcare.
Google isn’t the only company who knows this, either. Plenty of companies are seeking to pick the lock of the healthcare industry. For example, Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, and Berkshire Hathaway are already at work on a joint venture to establish a new company that will provide healthcare to their 1.2 million employees. Alibaba, Apple, Tencent, and Samsung also all have their fingers in health services.
That said, any and every company that bridges into medical markets has a lot on its hands. Ethical concerns like privacy and equal access carry with them large and heavy responsibilities, both legal and in the court of public opinion. This is no small consideration, especially for major tech companies that haven’t retained a great deal of public trust (or the love of legislators). Assuming Google can rise to these challenges, it may very well be the company that causes the biggest disruption to healthcare we’ve seen in a very long time — possibly ever.
