InsightaaS: The HealthWorks Collective is “an editorially independent, moderated community for thought leaders in international healthcare” sponsored by Siemens. The site has posts on a wide range of healthcare-related topics, including many on IT/healthcare issues.
“Why a ‘Switzerland Approach’ Might Become a Key Part of Wearable Health Platforms” is one such IT-centric piece. In it, Chris Hoffman, a senior director with healthcare-focused investment banking firm TripleTree, looks at Apple’s recent announcement of Health and HealthKit, and at other recent announcements from Google, Microsoft, Salesforce.com, Samsung and WebMD, concluding that the plethora of systems will highlight the “importance of broader interoperability and data integration.” Eventually, Hoffman believes, there will be a need for a platform that can connect input from medical wearables supplying biometrics, activity metrics, and other inputs with apps, and with the healthcare provider and payer communities. “In the quest for harvesting consumer healthcare data, wearable devices, digital apps and consumer services will remain front and center in transforming health and healthcare,” he says, with the effect that “Convenience and the ability to engage consumers on their terms will carry the day because in connected health without convenience, there is no engagement.”
It’s been a few weeks since Apple’s announcement about its Health app, the consumer electronics giants’ new dashboard for capturing health data; and HealthKit, its foray into establishing a healthcare integration platform for wearables and other sensor-generated data.
In February, Optum’s acquisition of Audax was market validation for using mobile and rich media features as one approach to helping plan members to get and stay healthy. Since then, several other well know information technology players have put their chips on the table relative to announcements about connected, wearable health solutions.
- Google. This week Google announced Google Fit as a hub for data connectivity with fitness tracking wearables and cross-platform APIs that developers can use to provide consumers with the means to better keep track of their fitness goals. This is Google’s second act in health, and with their previously announced diabetic-sensor-in-a-contact-lens, they seem to have a well thought out technology and product strategy.
- Microsoft. In February, Microsoft added to its quietly evolving Healthvault platform..
Read the entire post: www.insightaas.com/ATNJuly22-Link
