Institute For The Future

Analysts predict new e-health models

Wireless Healthcare, an analyst group in the United Kingdom, has offered an opinion about Google and Microsoft's attempts to build a presence in the online healthcare sector. According to a report in Government Technology, Wirelss Healthcare believes that Google's recent investment in genetic profiling company 23andMe and Microsoft's purchase of the intelligent medical search company Medstory will impact healthcare professionals and medical device manufacturers, and could result in new health services that are "highly disruptive." Peter Kruger, a Wireless Healthcare analyst, is quoted as saying,

"We are seeing the emergence of a new ehealth model that challenges some of the assumptions made by existing online healthcare providers and medical device manufacturers. This new model impacts not only on how diseases are diagnosed but also the way healthcare is delivered and ehealth services are funded."

Kruger also addresses the critical issue of revenue streams, pointing out that internet search companies will not be able to rely on their traditional advertising model to support an online health business.

"Advertising and healthcare do not mix well and this issue is already proving to be controversial. I am sure that regulators would be unhappy if banner advertisements started to appear on a patient's online medical record or diagnosis."

However, Kruger offers that there are other funding models, some more service-based, that may be viable alternatives to advertising.