Health care disruption is on the rise

Welcome to the brave new world of digital health care. Whether you’re talking about telemedicine or predictictive diagnostics, the future of health care will look markedly different from the health care of today.

One example is Amazon’s Echo technology, also referred to as Alexa. This voice-activated device is now able to provide life-saving instructions if someone in the room is suffering from a cardiac event.

Alexa can also provide itself as an elder care companion or offer up specific diagnoses or answers regarding everything from diabetes to seizure medication.

But what does this digital revolution mean for established players? The fact is, disruption of this kind always leaves winners and losers in its wake.

In this case, legacy players like medical technology and hospital companies will find themselves squeezed between health insurers and pharmacy-benefit managers on one side and insurgent players like Amazon and Google on the other.

As health care services enter the digital realm, expect to see the pharmaceutical industry circle the wagons. From predictive care to advanced genomic sequencing, could drugs be on the chopping block for a number of conditions?

One thing is certain as we enter this brave new age of health care; the true winner in all of this will be patients. As they harness new digital tools and compare services like never before, expect to see patient satisfaction rates rise, which can only be a good thing.