Like all symbiotic relationships, the growing partnership between mobile network providers and healthcare organizations is engendering major benefits and invigorating both industries.
And while there will likely be many benefits for healthcare providers, they can bring dangers as well.
Telecoms are already using such strategies as application development contests and investment in startups to give themselves a broad overview of early-stage innovations in mobile health, said Lars Kurkinen, a senior analyst with Berg Insights.
Both AT&T and Verizon, in fact, have innovation centers that work with developers and software companies to design healthcare solutions.
In its annual “Powerful Answers Award,” Verizon hands out more than $3.3 million to mobile healthcare application developers. With more than 1,200 entries, it gives Verizon a better understanding of where the industry is heading, and it's not incorrect to assume that its investment arm, Verizon Ventures, will soon be knocking on the door of many such companies.
[See also: Workplace health and wellness goes digital.]
Where does the telecom industry go from here? It's obvious they aren't going to be content to play a secondary role in healthcare by only providing the invisible wireless link. You don’t need to be an analyst to know that something else is afoot and that they're laying the groundwork for a more essential role in healthcare.
Mobile telecom providers will probably go down a similar road as software giants like Microsoft and Oracle by selling products and then raking in the cash through lucrative maintenance or services contracts.
Indeed, that can be seen in mobile platform development deals with MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators) who offer unique cellphones, healthcare apps and services all built on the mobile platforms offered by the telecoms.
Greatcall is one such MVNO that is built on the Verizon network and Samsung hardware. The company's Jitterbug is billed as an easy-to-use cellphone with enhanced volume, brighter screens, large text with a simple-to-use interface that requires only 'yes' and 'no' answers. Medical services include daily reminders, automatic prescription refill and professional healthcare advice
DayaMed’s MedPod medication adherence device is an automated reminder and dispenser with built-in cellular to monitor patient adherence and send alerts when necessary.
The LifeWatch V looks like any other smartphone. Inside, however, are seven different medical sensors that measure, among other things, blood glucose, blood oxygen level, heart rate, temperature and ECG.
The network platform becomes the backbone for these devices and future mobile healthcare services, connecting hospitals, physicians’ offices and health insurers’ systems.
When embedded into third-party applications, it creates connections among previously siloed mHealth applications and data systems. The platform can be used to support remote patient monitoring, telehealth, secure messaging through portals and secure texting.
As Kurkenin points out, the operators are already offering a broad range of these services, all related to moving and storing personal health data securely. For healthcare entities, an mHealth platform simplifies the tasks of compliance, storage and security while meeting often-complex compliance regulations, including HIPAA.
[See also: Could gamification be a secret to cutting care costs?]
In addition, once the problem of connectivity and interoperability is handled - a major barrier to development - healthcare providers will reap another benefit of telecom’s role in healthcare: The availability of more and better devices and services.
Specifically, telecom platforms like AT&T’s mHealth Platform offer healthcare app developers as well as enterprise-level customers APIs and tools, including a developer portal, a secure database, an identity management system and a mobile client, in order to integrate with other healthcare IT systems and platforms. This is not typically the strong suit for even the largest members of the healthcare community.
There are other benefits to the relationship as well. Telecoms offer delivery of data over networks that can be prioritized above other traffic on the network. And as as telecoms compete, it will drive innovation at a faster pace.
But the industry isn't there yet. As critical services increase network traffic, the FCC or other government agencies may have to allocate spectrum so that end-customers are not affected, according to Stephanie Atkinson, CEO of mobile analyst firm Compass Intelligence. But over time, mobile will become the driving force for improving patient care from the home to the clinician and doctor.
For the telecom companies, their pot of gold will be having as customers the successful vendors, manufacturers, developers and entrepreneurs and the huge community of enterprise-level companies, all of whom will require an enterprise-level platform on which to run. And as the complexities of cross-platform integration and government regulations increase, the telecoms will be there waiting, perhaps with a service contract in hand.
One might predict that once the healthcare providers get in bed with the telecoms, the telecoms will own them. If a healthcare provider’s entire ecosystem is embedded and integrated on a single platform, no matter how big that provider is, it will be extremely difficult and costly to change partners. When Nestle famously switched partners, for instance, and selected SAP for its ERP platform, it cost them $200 million.
There are inherent dangers in relying on a single platform for all of a provider’s applications and services. But what choice does the healthcare community have? A popular business theory states that companies need to focus on what they do best and outsource the rest.
This is what the healthcare industry has the opportunity to do by working with telecoms now.
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