Recognizing that many Internet searches are related to health care, Google and Microsoft are working to build a presence in the health care industry, Government Technology reports. The move could significantly impact health care professionals and medical device manufacturers, according the Wireless Healthcare, an analyst group in the United Kingdom.
Google's recent investment in the genetic profiling company 23andMe and Microsoft's purchase of the medical search company Medstory could result in new services that are disruptive to the industry, according to Wireless Healthcare.
"We are seeing the emergence of a new e-health model that challenges some the assumptions made by existing online health care providers and medical device manufacturers," Peter Kruger, an analyst with Wireless Healthcare, said. He added, "This new model impacts not only on how diseases are diagnosed but also the way health care is delivered and e-health services are funded."
Kruger noted that Internet search engines currently profit mostly from advertising, which is unlikely to be the funding model used for online health. "Advertising and health care do not mix well and this issue is already proving to be controversial," he said, adding, "I am sure that regulators would be unhappy if banner advertisements started to appear on a patient's online medical record or diagnosis."
Wireless Healthcare in a report details a number of funding models already used by companies marketing health care devices and services to the growing demographic of consumers ages 40 to 59 years old. Kruger in September will present research on new models for online health care at a conference in San Francisco (Government Technology, 7/10).