Will Big Media Spoil HealthIT for the Little Guy? – #HITsm Chat Topic

We’re excited to share the topic and questions for this week’s #HITsm chat happening Friday, 8/31 at Noon ET (9 AM PT). This week’s chat will be hosted by ShereeseM, MS/MBA (@ShereesePubHlth) on the topic of “Will Big Media Spoil HealthIT for the Little Guy?“.

We’ve all witnessed big tech’s recent push into healthcare. Atul Gawande is in a deal with Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, and Berkshire Hathaway, and it looks like we might be seeing our EOBs being sent to us from Google fairly soon. Amazon’s hired 20,000 doctors. Ok, that was an Onion article, but illustrates the point.  And now comes big media into our little world. And in an industry that still resists change, healthcare technology is still small. But what would make media companies want to dabble in the healthcare IT space. Well, to understand the why, you must first understand the who.

The “who” is Comcast Corporation. Comcast, the big media company, best known for broadband solutions, is now making a play for healthcare technology. Comcast recently entered a joint venture with the Independence Healthcare Group, in which the two will build patient-centered digital platforms for Comcast’s 60 million plus customers. The collaboration looks to make the patient-provider communications seamless by allowing patients to view needed information and to-do lists prior to operations and other engagements. Time will tell if this is finally the project for Comcast, as their prior attempts to break into the market, initially partnering with Kaiser Permanente on a now defunct pregnancy app and later with a UC Davis partnership on health and nutrition videos, were both colossal failures.

The “who is also Cox Communications. Cox tried to make a statement in the healthcare IT space by partnering with Cleveland Clinic to develop Vivre Health, a home health product and service delivered by broadband. The venture failed and Cox eventually pulled out. But like Comcast, Cox believes they have now found their footing. They are banking on the value of remote patient monitoring and in 2015 they purchased Trapolla. The product is now in development.

Now that we know the who, let’s concentrate on the why. The easy answer is market share. The healthcare market is worth more than 3 trillion dollars, according to CMS estimates. It’s only intuitive that other industries would come calling. Media companies may see healthcare IT as an opportunity to capitalize on a growing industry while their own industry may be cooling off. Companies have to leverage their current capabilities to drive growth in others sectors. Media companies are in a unique position to do just this.

The interest in healthcare tech by big media may have a negative impact on smaller or independent brands. Based on broadband alone, smaller companies can’t compete on the scale of companies like Comcast and Cox Communications. Could the current interest in the market, which is growing, mark the end for smaller companies? Time will tell but what is certain is that nothing in healthcare comes quickly. Big media may find it hard disrupting in healthcare where the small guy may already have the lay of the land. And small or not, already vested players won’t sit idly by while big media giants come it and try to dim their flame.

Join us for this week’s #HITsm chat to discuss big media in healthcare. What will be the impact for good and/or bad? How will they fair? Is this a good choice for them?

Topics for this week’s #HITsm Chat:
T1: Does big media belong in healthIT? #HITsm

T2: Will big media make seismic gains and at what cost to smaller companies? #HITsm

T3: What sound contributions can media make to health IT? #HITsm

T4: How can smaller companies compete with big media in the health IT space? #HITsm

T5: Given; healthcare is like no other industry, due to regulations. Will the complexity of it discourage big media? #HITsm

Bonus: Big media and big tech, what problems in healthcare would you like to see them tackle? Price Transparency? Prescription drugs? The opioid crisis? #HITsm

Upcoming #HITsm Chat Schedule
9/7 – International Healthcare: Standards, Patients, and Personal Experiences
Hosted by Jessica Maxine Selby (@JessMSelby)

9/14 – TBD
Hosted by TBD

9/21 – Human Centered Design in Healthcare #PatientsMatter
Hosted by Jen Horonjeff (@jhoronjeff) from @Savvy_Coop

9/28 – How Does Interoperability Affect Technology Adoption in Healthcare?
Hosted by Niko Skievaski @niko_ski from @redox

10/5 – TBD
Hosted by Joy Rios (@askjoyrios) and Robin Roberts (@rrobertsehealth)

We look forward to learning from the #HITsm community! As always, let us know if you’d like to host a future #HITsm chat or if you know someone you think we should invite to host.

If you’re searching for the latest #HITsm chat, you can always find the latest #HITsm chat and schedule of chats here.

About the author

John Lynn

John Lynn is the Founder of HealthcareScene.com, a network of leading Healthcare IT resources. The flagship blog, Healthcare IT Today, contains over 13,000 articles with over half of the articles written by John. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 20 million times.

John manages Healthcare IT Central, the leading career Health IT job board. He also organizes the first of its kind conference and community focused on healthcare marketing, Healthcare and IT Marketing Conference, and a healthcare IT conference, EXPO.health, focused on practical healthcare IT innovation. John is an advisor to multiple healthcare IT companies. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can be found on Twitter: @techguy.

   

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