Much Potential for Digitalization in Healthcare

There is a lot of potential for digitalization for the majority of the companies in the healthcare industry, which has not yet been tapped into. At the same time, these companies see themselves being confronted with massive changes and innovations. For some time now, these issues have no longer only been driven by small, innovative start-up companies. Tech giants like Amazon, Google and Apple have also discovered the potential and the opportunities in the healthcare industry for themselves, which is not by chance.

Big Players Drive the Digital Transformation of the Healthcare Sector

An increasing number of companies have been looking at the healthcare sector – and not just since the the joint venture “Haven” by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway und JPMorgan Chase. The opportunities coming from digitalization are fueling the dynamic healthcare market. The maturing smartphones and wearable technologies make it possible for patients to monitor their own health and send the data to their doctors. By transmitting blood pressure, body fat and heart readings, the smartphone can contribute to checking and improving an individual’s health. Improved communication between doctors and patients could provide additional motivation for the increasingly popular video appointments which allow patients’ and doctors’ computers to connect directly with each other via a server. The possibilities – even if the Corona pandemic was an accelerator here – have not even begun to approach their limits.

Apple and Stanford are collaborating on using smartphones to measure blood sugar levels. In contrast, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is focusing on the field of artificial intelligence. In the future, data collected by mobile devices should help to provide sound diagnoses and estimates of risks in connection with the descriptions of symptoms – and of course, it should indicate ideal treatment options by integrating data from other patients. In turn, Stanford University is using Tensorflow (Google’s platform for machine learning) to train an algorithm that can already detect skin cancer with 91 percent precision. By doing this, technology is supporting doctors in diagnosing illnesses. Considering that early detection is the best means of treating skin cancer, this technology may be a decisive step in combating the disease.

In contrast, Facebook has already been concentrating on mental health for some time. With the help of artificial intelligence, the company is monitoring the online behavior of its users, such as pictures posted on Facebook or Instagram. This should detect indicators of depression and prevent potential suicides.