We’ve heard all about how Apple will disrupt the healthcare market. And how Google will do the same. Not to mention the moves Walmart is making. So which non-traditional company will have the biggest impact on the industry?
A new report from Reaction Data has the answer: Amazon.
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Reaction Data surveyed 97 leaders (including CEOs, CIOs, COOs and more) from provider organizations and found 59 percent of them believe Amazon will have the biggest impact on the healthcare field. Another 14 percent selected Apple, 8 percent picked Google, 7 percent said Microsoft and 3 percent chose Walmart. Other contenders included IBM (4 percent) and Salesforce (1 percent).
Overall, survey respondents had the most to say about Amazon, commenting on everything from its current influence to its ability to commodify, its convenience to its user-friendliness.
“Amazon has a huge market they can use to distribute materials. They are already a household name and the users are not specific to Apple or Android,” one CEO said in the survey.
The Seattle-based giant has certainly been busy. In recent months, it said it will acquire PillPack and banded together with Berkshire Hathaway and J.P. Morgan for a new initiative led by Dr. Atul Gawande. Earlier this month, CNBC reported Amazon is in internal talks to create primary care clinics for employees at its Seattle headquarters.
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On a slightly different note, the Reaction Data survey also asked participants to weigh in on which specific technologies will have the biggest impact on healthcare. With 29 percent of the votes, the winner was telemedicine. Another 20 percent said artificial intelligence, while 15 percent noted interoperability. A mere 2 percent of respondents said blockchain will have the greatest influence.
According to the report, healthcare leaders see the value in telehealth as it relates to reaching patients in rural areas (24 percent), follow-up care (24 percent) and managing specific patient populations (23 percent).
As for artificial intelligence, it seems that not all respondents value it equally. While 65 percent indicated it’s important, 16 percent said it’s not important and 19 percent were neutral. Still, 28 percent of participants said they are one to two years away from adopting AI at their organization, and 25 percent said they have three or more years to go before they implement it. Fifteen percent noted they don’t think their organization will ever use AI.
On the whole, individuals said they’re mostly looking for traits like convenience and interoperability in AI.
“One fact is for certain: Despite healthcare’s slow technology adoption rates of the past, outside forces are prepared and, it appears, more than willing, to shake up the status quo,” the report concludes.
Photo: George Rose/Getty Images
Correction: An earlier version of this story had the incorrect figure related to the percentage of people who picked Amazon as the company that will have the biggest impact on healthcare.
