Next Multi-Billion Dollar Opportunity for IT!

Has anyone seen this opportunity?. It looks like Google and Microsoft have been preparing themselves for quite sometime.

Will talk about what they are doing in just a little while..

First, the news is that US Government is planning to spend multi-billion dollar in Healthcare IT. Most of the spending is going to be centered around Electronic Patient Health Records related Solutions. If this stimulus plan gets approved, it is going to openup Healthcare IT market like never before. It will bring tremendous opportunities for Electronic Health Record technology/product vendors, HealthCare IT solution providers / Hospital systems.

Check out this newsbriefing to know more about this plans in detail.

Now, what does this newsbit has to do with Google or Microsoft?

Google and Microsoft have been incubating similar HealthCare IT solutions for the last few years. Maybe on a low key - Google is providing 'Google Health' whereas Microsoft calls it as 'Microsoft Health Vault'.

Both the solutions let the patient key-in and manage their Electronic Health Records and online and selectively share that data with the partner ecosystem. The partner ecosystem would be Health Care providers, Pharmacists, Insurance companies, etc.

Now, with this kind of platforms and solutions in place, the patients can expect to experience the following set of services in near future:
- Health Predictions based on your current medical records
- Video Conferencing with Doctors with (Doctors having access to your medical history)
- Recommendations/Targeted advertisements/medicines that are highly personalized
- Upload infomation from their Healthcare devices directly to the platforms (e.g. glucose meters, bood pressure cuffs, etc. from various vendors)

Both Google and Microsoft are offering these services for Free to Patients. While both the solutions look identical, there are major differences. First, Only Microsoft provides support for uploading data directly from Medical devices. And it supports a variety of devices from various vendors when compared to Google. Second, Microsoft is investing significant amount of money in Health Care IT related solutions, while Google grows the platform organically.

There are competitors as well like Dossia, who provide similar EHR platforms to corporates. But, Google/Microsoft have the muscle power to outperform the competitors and has the ability to build a wider ecosystem around its platforms.

Both the platforms are not subject to HIPAA regulations yet. But, eventually they will need to comply with government regulations, if they want to address the privacy and security concerns of patients.

'IT matters' for Google

I would recommend you to check out what Google.org does. In short, Google.org aims to use the power of IT to address the global challenges of our age. First, I should say, the aim itslef is so high, that it positions Google as a special company that cares for the world.

Today, I came across an interesting initiative by Google.org - To track Flu Trends in United States. It could look like Google Trends, that projects the patterns and trends in search of specific keywords. However, the key distinguishing factor in Google.Org initiative is that Google is trying to accurately model real-world phenomena using patterns in search queries. In simpler terms, if there are more searches for Flu symptoms, there is a possibility that there is a flu breakout in that specific state/region. It gives a state-wise graphical representation of Flu Trends in US based on the aggregation of related search queries.

Now, if the tool can help predict the outbreak, it would certainly help a lot in preventing too. And early detection of the outbreak can reduce the number of actual people who get affected. Instead of constanly debating whether IT matters or not, I think we should appreciate companies like Google that really does something about and makes us believe that IT can help in solving real-world problems

He Who Owns the Information, Has the Power!

Ok, I made that title up!.

This is what I felt when I came across Google Health recently. Google Health is a comprehensive health portal which allows people to maintain their health information in the Google Website and consult with Doctors on the medical conditions/prescriptions.

If you have observed, Microsoft is toying with similar idea in Microsoft HealthVault.

So, what is the business implication for Google:

- Hospitals are already looking at Partnering with Google to service the patients
- Targeted Adwords that are much more specific to patient's context and needs
- Lock-in to Google Health system
- Analytics possibility on Health Information and gaining intelligence on trends

Wow!

Google is also evaluating the options of integrating this app with other Google apps like Calender, Search, etc. which will make Google apps much more pervasive in our lives. This is much more interesting and captivating!.

Check out the same idea in Google's another new offering http://www.rememberthemilk.com. Simple, but Brilliant offering upto BlackBerry.

Now, some of the lessons for our Enterprise apps space:

1. He who owns the data has more control and influence. Address this layer first, before thinking about anything else.
For example, in banking, the group that owns Customer Profile becomes the backbone of the Information systems.

2. Mashup the apps to generate more value / new opportunities as Google does.

3. Enable Multi-channel access...

4. Even if an idea is simple enough, don't hesitate to try and implement it. If you do that, Google may overtake you! :-)

Also, recently evaluated, Google App Engine recently...will reserve the observations for future posts.