By HIMSS Executive VP Carla Smith in TechCrunch:
“It will be interesting to see if, and at what point, this current lack of interoperability among tech giants will impact the customers they’re trying to serve. It becomes a question of who will mold the other. Will the tech giants embrace industry standards or vice versa? Based on what my organization is seeing at a national level in terms of interoperability and the release of previously hoarded information, I think Apple (for example) will need to both be flexible and influence flexibility.
Looking ahead, some tech and retail giants – Amazon, Google (again) and Walmart – have started to dip their toe in healthcare in a way I believe shows great promise. But, I would like to see more innovation around other areas. For example, IT-enabled communications and reminders could be repurposed to positively influence individuals to stay healthy.”
It’s great to see HIMSS reaching out to TechCrunch, one of Silicon Valley’s top publications. Smith makes some great points in this article about why the tech giants could benefit health IT.
Health IT could without a doubt benefit from the customer/patient engagement knowledge that the Amazon and Google continue to perfect. Just look at the mess of patient portals and imagine how Apple or Amazon would be able to connect with patients in a much more meaningful way.
