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5Jan, 2018
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2017 – Amazing Year for Digital Health Investments

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We now have quantitative data that 2017 was an amazing year for digital health investments, by the headline, “$5 billion (USD) was invested by venture capital firms into digital health in 2017.”  This was impressive, not just because of the size, but because it was DOUBLE the amount of what was invested in 2016.  Though the majority of these investments were from the U.S., some were from international companies.  These investments were only those made publicly; it excluded private investments, angel investors and those made by strategic relationships. It was […]
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21Dec, 2017
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NEWS ALERT–Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and the Impact on U.S. Healthcare 

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On December 20, 2017, the U.S Congress after material obstacles, passed what is without any doubt a historic legislation, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA). President Donald J. Trump for technical budge reasons, as has been reported, is expected to execute and become law in first few days of 2018. Though the law was intended to cut taxes for U.S. Corporations and individuals, the new law has material impact on healthcare.  The big event on healthcare is the “repeal of the individual mandate” to have health insurance coverage as part of the Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA), […]
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11Dec, 2017
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Silicon Valley and Healthcare (Part 9)

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I’d like to take a small detour with our blog series on Silicon Valley and Healthcare and talk more about Amazon indirectly, and a lot more about the recent announcement of CVS’s acquisition of Aetna. In brief, and as best as I can gather, Aetna has (approximately): 1 million medical members 3 million dental members 3 million pharmacy benefit management services members 609 million group insurance members An estimated 1.2 million healthcare professionals under contract 695,971+ primary care doctors and specialists under contract 5,712 hospitals under contract $63 billion in […]
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6Dec, 2017
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Silicon Valley and Healthcare (Part 8)

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In our last blog, we ended with a question: “Can Amazon use its special skills to transform healthcare?” The answer today is “Certainly, and in a major way!”  This past weekend we were alerted by the headline from the Wall Street Journal “CVS to Buy Aetna for $69 Billion, Combining Major Health-Care Players.” I believe that this action is in direct response to the reports that Amazon is planning to make major moves in healthcare.  In particular, playing to the strengths I noted in our last blog: “logistics, supply chain […]
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30Nov, 2017
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Silicon Valley and Healthcare (Part 7)

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It is the most exciting time ever to be in healthcare! When we made the decision to switch industries from real estate, development and commercial construction, and spend a couple of years learning healthcare from the ground up, today is what I envisioned. The time we live in now is what I believed was an inevitable confluence of tectonic forces – technology, the aging baby boomers and the emergence of an interconnected world.  I could not totally foresee what the internet would become, however the signs were there. A look […]
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6Nov, 2017
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Silicon Valley and Healthcare (Part 6)

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In our ongoing series on Silicon Valley and healthcare, we began with the discussion of Alphabet/Google’s growing interest in healthcare. We continue this series with Google, so that we can discuss Amazon, Inc. next, and then discuss other, much less prominent players, coming into healthcare. We believe that Amazon will have the largest impact on healthcare in 2018. It seems that the news of healthcare technology is clogging not only my email, but also my Twitter feed daily. As a student of healthcare for over 25 years, I have been […]
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18Oct, 2017
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“Trump says ‘there is no such thing as Obamacare’ ”, according to CNBC.

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Once again, we interrupt our series on Silicon Valley and healthcare to discuss the shifting sands on the U.S. healthcare reform. I will point out that the U.S. has not gone through any real healthcare reform; it has been experiencing a poor attempt at insurance reform, with the goal of insuring more Americans. The effort of the Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA), also referred to as ObamaCare, is not healthcare reform. In the last week, the President of the United Sates, Donald J. Trump has executed two Executive Orders […]
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7Oct, 2017
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Silicon Valley and Healthcare (Part 5)

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As we continue our series on Silicon Valley and Healthcare, we move to Mountain View, California; the headquarters of Alphabet, Inc. and its monster subsidiary, Google, Inc. Later in this series, we will discuss what we think is the coming battle between Google and Amazon in healthcare, and possibly in other industries. I don’t think many companies have had the impact that Google has had in our modern world. I was fascinated when I could search what was the emerging web, on Mosaic, one of the first search engines available. […]
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21Sep, 2017
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Graham-Cassidy U.S. Senate Legislation

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We interrupt our series of blogs on “Silicon Valley in Healthcare” to quickly address the pending United States Senate legislation on “ObamaCare repeal.” I do not remember a time where there has been total opposition to a legislation such as this one. I have never been on the same side at the same time with Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, the American Association for Retired Persons (AARP), the American Medical Association (AMA), the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association, the Association for Community Affiliated […]
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14Sep, 2017
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Silicon Valley and Healthcare (Part 4)

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Though Apple continues to advance in healthcare with the announcement on September 12, 2017, of the new Apple Watch, we will close this series with Part 4 for now. Later, in our future blogs, we will spend some time discussing Amazon, IBM, and other companies from Silicon Valley who are advancing into healthcare. As noted above, Apple just announced a new Apple Watch, and CNBC reported that Apple is working with Stanford University, as well as a telemedicine company America Well, to effectively turn the Apple Watch into a full-time […]
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