PWeR Blog

Sign up today for the latest PWeR development announcement!

5Jan, 2018

2017 – Amazing Year for Digital Health Investments

By: | Tags: , , , , , , , ,

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 […]
READ MORE

6Nov, 2017

Silicon Valley and Healthcare (Part 6)

By: | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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 […]
READ MORE

7Oct, 2017

Silicon Valley and Healthcare (Part 5)

By: | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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. […]
READ MORE

14Sep, 2017

Silicon Valley and Healthcare (Part 4)

By: | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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 […]
READ MORE

24Aug, 2017

Silicon Valley and Healthcare (Part 3)

By: | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

In 2008, I gave a speech at a Florida International University conference, and I discussed the view that we were entering a new renaissance in healthcare. I must say, I am still amazed and saddened how so little has changed in the last nine years. As an optimist, I believe that change is around the corner, and the rest of this blog shows that hope. We have always advocated the need of transformation in healthcare, and more utilization of technologies that have already transformed nearly every other industry in the […]
READ MORE

8Aug, 2017

Silicon Valley and Healthcare (Part 2)

By: | Tags: , , , , , , , ,

In our last blog, we began the conversation on Silicon Valley’s “new” interest in healthcare; let’s continue with Apple Inc. Recent reports from CNBC continue to refer to Apple’s interest in healthcare. Apple is seeking to be the “central bank for healthcare information,” “looking to host clinical information,” and is “talking to hospitals, researching potential acquisitions, and attending healthcare IT meetings.” WOW!! CNBC broke the story back in June 2017, and we have been following closely since. It would appear that Apple is trying to use applications, new processes and […]
READ MORE

25Jul, 2017

Silicon Valley and Healthcare (Part 1)

By: | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

The inspiration for this series of blogs was a recent report on CNBC that Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook had worn a device that tracked his blood sugar, hinting at Apple’s interest in the space. Over the last 12 months we have had many conversations, that effectively started with a question: why is Silicon Valley not having an impact on healthcare? The answers I have given, both in our home state of Florida, and in a recent visit to Silicon Valley were the same. First, healthcare is not only “complicated” […]
READ MORE

7Jul, 2017

The GOP Healthcare Bill – The U.S. Senate Version (Part 2)

By: | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Why can’t we fix U.S. Healthcare? The biggest problem with the healthcare bill submitted by the Republicans in the U.S. Senate is that they have not tried to fix the same problems the Democrats were unable to fix in Obamacare. They have all focused-on insurance – not cost, quality of care and/or price transparency. We in the U.S have only begun to scratch the surface on the use of technology. Plus, there is no patient or consumer influence in the healthcare marketplace – NONE! Sky-high prices are what makes dealing […]
READ MORE

9Jun, 2017

Healthcare’s Disruptive Transition – Part 2

By: | Tags: , , , , , ,

We began this series discussing how the second wave of Baby Boomers or the “trailing edge,” will likely change healthcare materially and permanently. In our last blog, we suggested that this “trailing edge” will change healthcare by being the first generation to take a more active role in their healthcare, be materially more demanding of technology, and more questioning of their caregivers. After all, this is the generation that has witnessed the emergence and mainstreaming of revolutionary technology: the color television, fax machines, pagers, cell phones, the Internet, social media, […]
READ MORE

8Jun, 2017

Healthcare’s Disruptive Transition – Part 1

By: | Tags: , , , , , ,

Over the next 10 years, we will see more profound transformations in healthcare than the last 30 years. As we will discuss in our new series of blogs, the transformations will be driven by consumer demands and changes in the use of technology, as well as the pressure by the government to drive changes to payments to providers over the next five years. This process will require changes in all providers and hospitals, it will force modernization of payers systems (CMS, HMOs and other private insurance), and lastly the intensive […]
READ MORE