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6Feb, 2018
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Amazon, Berkshire and JP Morgan Chase

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I am writing this blog from the San Francisco International (SFO) Airport, after spending a few days visiting investors in technology, venture capital, and private equity firms from Silicon Valley – known for technology innovation (more on what I learned from my visit in future installments). Nearly the minute I landed, news hit that three behemoths of industry, and with legendary leadership as Bezos, Diamond and Buffet, were effectively joining forces to change healthcare first for their employees, and some hope potentially for America. For the last three days, it […]
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19Jan, 2018
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Healthcare Price Transparency Comes to America (Part 2)

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In our previous blog, Healthcare Price Transparency Comes to America (Part 1), we started a conversation on price transparency.  Today, we will discuss the findings of a recent report from Health Affairs.  The report, by the researchers from Harvard and UCLA, noted that they cannot find a previous report or research on this subject, making it potentially the first in the space.  I can confirm I have seen nothing like it.  I will add that I am sure this will not be the last time this subject is published. The […]
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18Jan, 2018
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Healthcare Price Transparency Comes to America (Part 1)

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The Internet, and its natural progression to e-commerce, has transformed how we buy everything from groceries, apparel, and attaining an education, to how we purchase cars and even homes over the last 20 years. One industry has been only slightly impacted by the Internet; that industry is healthcare.  Let us be clear, we are very aware that we live in a world where Google is most of Americans’ first step in the self-diagnosis of a symptom or disease.  It is also our second step, once our physicians tell us what […]
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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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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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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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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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