Facebook.
Google.
IBM.
Microsoft.
Apple.
Amazon.
Physicians: Start getting your digital resume together and start looking at purchasing a skateboard, because in the next few years chances are high that many of you are going to be working for one of these companies.
Look, like it or not, since the ubiquitous implementation of electronic health records healthcare – at least in the corporate psyche – has become equivalent to big data.
And guess what?
The companies listed above are the big data companies.
Now, none have publicly fully entered the healthcare arena yet.
No one is getting their sore throat treated on Amazon’s website, and we aren’t taking Grandpa to the local Apple hospital quite yet.
But all of these companies are investing billions of dollars in healthcare, and they all have investors who understand what the “R” stands for in “ROI”.
The good news. When this shift occurs, there will be some upside.
For example, who doesn’t want to see what Apple can do with our electronic health record interface!
The bad news? It’s going to be rough sailing for patients, physicians, and companies.
This stems from a fundamental flaw. These companies equate healthcare with data and therefore, they feel that their expertise in artificial intelligence will gain them new insights, which will subsequently allow them to be more competitive.
To some extent that is true.
However, in my experience I have found that the best doctors think of healthcare as an opportunity to help and care for patients. They don’t look at patients as data sets to be mined, but rather as human beings who, with compassion and patience, they can help with their health concerns (or, at a minimum, relieve their suffering).
Physicians need to recognize one of their most valuable assets is their experience-tempered insight into the human condition in times of immense stress. This is something no 20-something software engineer with expertise in deep learning and voice recognition software could possibly understand.
Anyway the Big Data/AI train is coming down the healthcare track. There is no stopping it.
So get ready to jump on board.
But remember, your real value as a physician will not just be your technical medical knowledge. Instead, it’s your understanding of the human condition – earned one patient at a time.