Spine surgeons 'skeptical' of big tech, retail disrupting US healthcare
By Admin | October 19, 2022
Retail giants such as Walgreens and CVS Health and the Big Four tech companies — Alphabet (rebranded from Google), Amazon, Apple and Microsoft — are ramping up their healthcare pursuits as patients increasingly demand lower costs and convenient access to care.
Eight spine surgeons discuss why these large corporations see an opportunity to disrupt the healthcare market and why they're skeptical about the long-term implications of these new players.
Editor's note: Responses were lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: How do you think Big Tech and retail giants will affect how healthcare is provided in America?
Alok Sharan, MD. NJ Spine and Wellness (East Brunswick, N.J.): At Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College (Hanover, N.H.), I had the good fortune of studying under Elizabeth Teisberg, who co-wrote the book on value in healthcare with Michael Porter. Initially, Mr. Porter and Ms. Teisberg started out on their academic journey trying to understand why competition doesn't work in healthcare in the same manner that it works in other industries.
While the answer to that question is complicated, it is clear that the new entrants to healthcare, i.e., Big Tech and retail giants, will certainly force a greater level of competition in the healthcare delivery sector. For traditional healthcare providers, i.e., hospitals and physicians, they will have to look at their fundamentals and figure out innovative methods to deliver care.
In other industries, competition forces individuals to look at the unmet needs of the customer, determine how to deliver that need in a unique manner, such that it gives a company or individual a competitive advantage. This is the essence of...(More)
For more info please read, Spine surgeons 'skeptical' of big tech, retail disrupting US healthcare, by Becker's Spine Review
