According to data and analytics company, GlobalData, Amazon is poised to make huge strides within healthcare as its business model offers easier connectivity between providers and patients and it has a powerful online platform and artificial intelligence (AI) interface.
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Spending on healthcare in the US alone is in the trillions at $3.3 trillion (or $10,348 per person) and represents the largest portion of GDP (17.9%) for a country in the world. However, patient outcomes are not necessarily as positive as they should be.
“In a country like the US, where the economic foundation lies in capitalism, difficulties arise in unifying healthcare delivery practices across the country,” stated Pavan Kottamasu, senior pharma analyst at GlobalData. “With a wide variety of private insurance companies and federal medical spending programmes, the US has an extremely complicated network of connecting patients with providers.
“A solution could be to move toward universal healthcare in countries such as Australia, Canada, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK, so that all patients would have adequate healthcare coverage and access to medical attention. However, that would mean dissolving multibillion dollar private insurance companies, an idea that would not go well with the companies themselves, and the pharmaceutical, healthcare and business companies in which they are deeply vested.”
Currently, most companies try to find ways to navigate the complex healthcare system in the US to facilitate the connection between providers and patients. Additionally, it is believed that there would be better patient outcomes if they had more frequent access to healthcare providers and if education on healthier lifestyles was improved. Through preventative measures, there would be more long-term benefits to patients and less instances of chronic diseases.
Amazon has been setting itself up to enter the healthcare space for a while: In January this year it announced a collaboration with Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan to launch a healthcare company. A month later the company announced an exclusive over-the-counter healthcare product line and a little later than that, in March, it was granted a new patent for a delivery drone. Most recently, in June, the company acquired US-based online pharmacy PillPack for nearly $1 billion.
“Amazon has already successfully shown the world that it can deliver products to consumers at an extremely fast rate and now has the potential to make huge strides in reducing wasteful spending in chronic disease management, over-utilisation of primary care and pharmaceuticals,” concluded Kottamasu.