DAVOS, Switzerland Tech companies are coming for the healthcare industry's lunch.
That's according to Amy Webb, a quantitative futurist and professor of strategic foresight at New York University Stern School of Business. When Business Insider asked Webb for a prediction she expects to happen that most others don't think will happen, her response turned to the relationship between big tech companies and healthcare.
"Amazon, Google, and Apple completely dismantle the healthcare industry as we know it," Webb told Business Insider on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
"From diagnostics to pharmaceuticals to the physician-patient relationship, and I would argue they're already in the process of doing that," Webb said.
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Tech powerhouses like Google, Amazon, and Apple are increasingly focused on expanding in US healthcare. They've pursued strategies such as building out life-sciences divisions and offering hardware like fitness trackers, and even shown some signs that they'll get into the business of providing healthcare.
Tech companies have an advantage that established healthcare players don't when working to change how the healthcare industry operates.
"Part of what is on their side is the regulatory issues that traditional players have to deal with don't apply in the same way," Webb said, referring to the regulations that protect patient-data privacy within doctors' offices and other established healthcare institutions. "We could, 20 years from now, have a completely different approach with completely different providers."
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Webb pointed in particular to the tools getting developed that collect information about our health, such as wearables like Fitbit, which Google is acquiring, and the Apple Watch and voice assistants like Amazon's Alexa.
In the future, that information and other sensors and tools could be used to get a better picture of a patient's health without a doctor's office visit. That goes beyond the initial intention of the devices.
"What's happening in a sort of transparent way because this is not the primary use case for all these technologies is our homes are being turned into clinics," Webb said.
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How tech giants will dismantle healthcare industry: Amy Webb - Business Insider
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