5 Ways Amazon Could Disrupt Healthcare
by Jakes Moskel Salesforce Consulting Services, Cloud Computing -Just about everyone paying attention in healthcare is wondering
exactly what Amazon has up its sleeve. After inking an alliance with JP
Morgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway in late January, then expanding into
the Medicaid market to take on retail rival Walmart, the Seattle giant
appears to be amassing a number of puzzle pieces.
Exactly how
they will all fit together remains to be seen. Indeed, L.E.K. Consulting
asserted that what healthcare has seen thus far from Amazon is just a
hint of the lasting disruption that’s to come.
"Anyone who thinks
of Amazon as just a very big digital retailer needs to think again,"
L.E.K Managing Director Rob Haslehurst wrote in a new report. "They have
continually expanded their business model and today they are a leader
in cloud computing,
a provider of in-home services and a bricks-and-mortar food purveyor in
addition to their e-commerce offerings. They have repeatedly shown that
they have the capabilities, the patience, and the deep pockets to
disrupt industry after industry. Healthcare is no exception."
1.
Durable medical equipment and medical supplies. Johnson pointed out that
Amazon already sells a broad array of general medical supplies and
durable medical equipment. Building on its logistics and distribution
savvy would make it easy to get into the hospital and provider supply
chain. What’s more, the company already obtained licenses to distribute
medical supplies to providers in 43 states.
2. Mail order and
retail pharmacy. Amazon has secured approval as a wholesale distributor
from 12 state pharmaceutical boards, meaning it could also build
pharmacies into its recently-acquired Whole Foods stores. The L.E.K.
authors suggested that Amazon could also employ its predictive analytics
and customer data capabilities to build digital health tools that track and influence patient behavior.
3.
Pharmacy benefit manager. Pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, drive
prices down by taking advantage of the combined purchasing power of
health plan enrollees. That's something Amazon knows how to do. It could
partner with a large PBM such as Express Scripts or buy a smaller
player, L.E.K. said.
4. Telemedicine or in-home healthcare.
Amazon's Echo and Alexa also give the company an enormous platform for
new voice-activated services, and healthcare organizations are already
starting to conduct proofs-of-concept with them. L.E.K. said Alexa's
first step would be to help book physician visits and, using Echo Show's
video capabilities, virtual house calls would make for a smart second
move.
5. AI-powered diagnostics and continuous care. This could be fully automated, AI-driven, in-home healthcare and diagnostics,
said Johnson, who noted that Amazon has deep AI capabilities –
machine-learning already drives many of its offerings, from its customer
recommendation engine to its service centers. It would be logical to
harness that capability to diagnostics. Johnson added that the company
has already started with Alexa delivering first-aid information and
voice driven self-care instructions. Adding tasks such as auto-refill
and medication reminders would not be a stretch.
Amazon already
has many of the core competencies needed to compete in healthcare,
Haslehurst added, including ready access to capital, a massive
distribution infrastructure, a strong technology base, a robust data
analytics capability, and a deep, talented executive bench.
Sponsor Ads
Created on Apr 5th 2018 20:19. Viewed 450 times.