Page 3 - October 2018 Disruption Report Flip Book

THE DISRUPTION REPORT
OJACNTUOABREYR 2018
...When it comes to innovation, healthcare presents a paradox. It is both a hare and a tortoise. While life-altering breakthroughs in medical treatments can come at a rapid pace, improvements to the way healthcare is actually delivered often happen very slowly.
The forces that have disrupted other service industries—from retail to travel to media—have so far made only tentative inroads into healthcare. Anyone who has had to wrestle with the frustration of deciphering a hospital bill knows how far healthcare has to go before it reaches the levels of customer experience and user-friendly technology that we have come to expect in other areas of our lives.
Nonetheless, change is coming to healthcare, and providers, pharmaceutical companies, medical device makers, insurers and patients all stand to benefit. ...Major players from outside the industry have grasped the magnitude of the opportunity. Amazon, JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway caused a stir in January when they announced plans to form a company to deliver healthcare to their employees in new and as-yet-unspecified ways. Amazon, which has quietly acquired wholesale pharmaceutical distribution licenses in several U.S. states, is also reportedly planning to grow its medical supplies business. Other nontraditional healthcare players around the world, including Alibaba, Tencent, Apple and Samsung, have already entered the industry.
...Among the most important players in healthcare’s disruption story are patients. After years of contending with limited options regarding where, when, how and from whom they get their care, healthcare consumers now have choices. They can pick among a variety of delivery models, including telemedicine, home health, concierge care and online self-help. While healthcare has a long way to go before it can be considered consistently customer centric, these new channels offer consumers qualities they look for from other service providers, including convenience, attentiveness, timeliness, value and price transparency.
...As consumers gain more choices over the way their healthcare is delivered, they will also increasingly be able to access treatments that are specifically tailored to their genetic makeup and health history. Investors are closely watching the pharma and medtech companies that are developing these personalized therapies as well as the contract research organizations that can test patients for biomarkers and the HCIT companies that can integrate and analyze patient data from disparate sources. As is the case with hospitals that are slow to adapt to technological change, investors are reevaluating pharma companies that don’t have the ability to develop customized medications.
The most important layers in healthcare’ s disruption story are patients
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