Apple-IBM Alliance: How Will It Affect Healthcare?
By Jof Enriquez,
Follow me on Twitter @jofenriq
Apple and IBM recently announced a pact to develop enterprise solutions centered on the iOS operating system — uniting the complementary strengths of the two erstwhile rivals that could impact many industries, including healthcare.
The two companies are reportedly building “more than 100 business software programs exclusively for Apple’s iOS operating system and for use on iPhones and iPads,” according to the New York Times. The plan would allow the devices to be sold to and used by more corporate clients in the healthcare, transportation, financial, and telecommunication sectors, rather than the traditional consumer market.
In the NYT article, Apple CEO Tim Cook described the deal as a “landmark partnership” that would bring IBM’s expertise in “big data analytics down to the fingertips” of iPad and iPhone business users. IBM CEO Virginia M. Rometty said that the agreement will “combine data analysis, cloud and mobile technology with Apple’s smartphones and tablets, turning the devices into decision-making tools rather than ones used mainly for email, text-messaging and contacts.”
In healthcare, the two tech titans “can use the mobile environment to reach the consumer, the patient, the member — and back into the enterprise,” Dan Pelino, general manager of IBM’s business with the public sector and health systems, told Information Week. He said that there is a “significant amount of work under way already with Apple with the iPhone and iPad” for healthcare applications, citing its recently unveiled IBM MobileFirst application for the iOS platform.
The partnership could enable the integration of health data between Apple devices and electronic health records (EHRs). That information could then be manipulated securely by providers “in a number of ways, such as upgraded alerts and monitoring systems,” Pelino said in an interview with Modern Healthcare.
Moreover, the potential integration of Apple’s Siri and IBM’s Watson bodes well for healthcare, considering “physician interest in hands-free computing and health data analysis as one of the prime applications of IBM’s cognitive computing system,” Information Week noted. The article also cites another key player, the leading healthcare software company Epic Systems — already a partner of both companies — as crucial in helping the plan succeed.
As Apple readies its wearable device lineup, the deal with IBM could convince users to entrust their healthcare data to the cloud, given IBM’s credibility in this regard, according to another Information Week article. Also, the Apple-IBM alliance could spell trouble for Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows phone, as they could find it tougher to establish a niche in the business sector.
While Apple and IBM are describing their agreement as a “game changer” in healthcare, some observers are not as optimistic on its impact. In a Forbes article, Haydn Shaughnessy writes, “IBM is deluded it if thinks it can standardize healthcare around iOS, even if 67% of healthcare professionals make use of an Apple device. The whole point about standards today is to make them device-neutral so that they are inclusive.”
Image Credit: “Apple and IBM Announce Global Partnership to Develop Business Apps for iPhone, iPad.” IBM. 2015. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/