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Summary
- The healthcare industry is evolving rapidly with technology giants making impressive strides in the sector.
- In the year 2020, Amazon forayed into the pharmacy business and introduced Amazon HealthLake.
- This year, Apple launched a study with Johnson & Johnson for earlier detection of Afib and participated in COVID-19-related initiatives.
Medical technology is transforming the pharmaceutical and biotech sector. The big technology giants have shown interest in the healthcare industry with the accelerated technology adoption amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Many technology behemoths are making impressive strides in the healthcare sector. The companies are making computers think like human beings, enabling more accurate diagnosis and detection of conditions.
Let us discuss some key initiatives taken by a few technology giants in the healthcare sector-
Amazon's Top Healthcare Moves in 2020
Amazon Inc. (Nasdaq:AMZN) has been building its businesses in the healthcare sector for quite a few years. During the year 2020, the tech behemoth made some of its significant moves so far. Let us acquaint you with significant achievements of Amazon in 2020-
Amazon Launched its Pharmacy Business
In November 2020, Amazon launched its own online pharmacy to allow customers to purchase prescription medicines. Now with Amazon pharmacy, Amazon.com will deliver prescriptions to your doorstep. A new store on the Company’s website, Amazon Pharmacy allows customers to buy medications online via the Amazon application or the desktop website. The launch of e-pharmacy by the e-commerce behemoth is possibly driven by the US healthcare industry.
Introduction of Amazon HealthLake
On 8 December 2020, Amazon disclosed a HIPAA-eligible service, Amazon HealthLake. This platform enables pharmaceutical companies, healthcare service providers, and health insurance service providers to store, query, transform, and analyse health data at petabyte scale.
Often, health data is incomplete, inconsistent, and unstructured. The patients’ information is contained in clinical notes, insurance claims, laboratory reports, medical images, recorded conversations, and time-series data (such as heart ECG or brain EEG traces) across different formats and systems.
Amazon HealthLake helps remove the heavy lifting of indexing, organising as well as structuring patient information. The platform offers a complete view of the patients’ health in an auditable, compliant, and secure manner.
Introduction of the Care Hub
In November 2020, Amazon launched Alexa Care Hub to provide care to the elderly and other family members. With the care hub, family members can personalise alerts and easily check-in with relatives and call for assistance with some easy commands.
Image Source: MegapixlTM
Alexa is designed to assist the people in caring for aged relatives from a distance by using the Care Hub. A free service, Amazon Care Hub needs two linked Amazon accounts.
Apple's most significant healthcare moves
Several applications on Apple Watch, iPad, and iPhone can assist healthcare professionals in providing personalised care. Apple’s powerful hardware is developed to keep up with the demands of the healthcare organisations to make work more efficient and faster.
Johnson & Johnson and Apple Launch Heartline™
In February 2020, Apple and Janssen Pharmaceutical companies of Johnson & Johnson collaborated for enrollment in the Heartline™ Study.
With this partnership, both companies offer eligible US adults aged 65 years and above an opportunity to join the clinical study by installing the Heartline™ Study app on an iPhone.
The study was aimed to assess whether the Heartline™ Study application of Apple Watch can reduce the probability of stroke and improve the health outcomes with earlier detection of atrial fibrillation (AFib).
Apple’s COVID-19-related initiatives with health entities
In March, Apple’s coronavirus initiatives included an online coronavirus screening platform, built in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), that provides the American users with a symptom checking and information tool. The new tool was developed to offer up-to-date guidance and information for people in the US.
Image Source: Apple.com
Moreover, Apple is also participating in the fight against COVID-19 by donating millions of personal protective equipment (PPE) units including face masks and face shields to Zambia. The Company notified that it would continue to provide these services until 30 June 2021.
Alphabet’s Verily Raises US$700M for Investment
The life sciences group of Alphabet Inc (Nasdaq:GOOG), Verily, has raised almost US$700 million of fresh capital in its funding round. The Company stated that the new capital would be used to support the speedy expansion of some of its leading commercial businesses.
Verily revealed that these funds would be used for expanding research including its insurance efforts and its healthcare platform Baseline, which it has used for COVID-19 research.
The Company stated that these funds would also be used for progressing various life sciences programs including immunology, pathology, and surgery.
Moreover, Verily has witnessed a spike in growth and commercial interest in 2020, prompted by its substantial contributions towards public health efforts to tackle the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Andrew Conrad CEO and founder at Verily stated-
Mr Conrad also added that 2021 would be a year of significant and focused growth for Verily’s operations as it expands its Health Platforms product offerings and services for employers, patients, and providers.
