THE GOOGLE PHONE SAGA has turned into an interesting news story. In reading it, I suddenly began wondering if there was a lesson to be found there for the healthcare industry. OK, maybe it’s a stretch, but I couldn’t help finding parallels between the cellular phone and healthcare worlds.
I won’t bore you with a lot of technical details, but Google apparently decided not to go the route of creating its own branded proprietary cell phone to run a variety of Google-friendly applications. Instead, it plans to offer open-source software that will work with other manufacturers’ cell phones and service providers’ systems to enable user-friendly interfaces and applications.
Rather than fostering widespread competition, the Google announcement on November 5 was paired with the news that some 34 mobile phone manufacturers and service providers have signed on to support the Google approach. The hope is that the Google middleware will work with thousands of cell phone models.
If the approach works – and the naysayers are already lining up to say it’s a big IF – the approach could provide a variety of winners. Manufacturers and systems that can accommodate the Google approach will benefit from stronger use from existing customers and perhaps new business. Users get more functionality that’s easier to use, linked to their computing experience and perhaps cheaper – the initiative could drive down the cost of higher-priced phones that can take full advantage of the approach.
And I’m sure Google might get a little bit of mileage (and cash) from taking a collaborative, rather than a competitive, approach.
There are tons of questions and uncertainties surrounding this. All these great promises sound an awful lot like the “vaporware” pitches that we’ve all heard – magical, nonexistent technology that can solve every ailment afflicting healthcare. For example, competitors to Google’s approach won’t just roll over and give up on their investments in different technologies. Customers often don’t get promised trickle-down benefits hyped in press releases. And Google may be overestimating its penetration and popularity, or coalition participants may not be able to deliver needed technology in the next 12 months, as promised.
However, it’s a compelling story that at least seems plausible and could potentially provide benefits for everyone.
As I thought about this story, I thought about the similarities – and differences – in comparing it to data exchange in the healthcare industry. Sharing information, whether clinical, financial or administrative, is a costly problem that will not be cheaply solved. Finding a solution isn’t a magic bullet for reining in healthcare expenses, but it at least gives the industry a fighting chance.
The healthcare industry is ripe for having some kind of coalition serve as a rallying point for standardization and coordination of efforts. There are a number of organizations that are claiming a piece of that role now, in the realm of electronic health record standards, EHR functionality and capabilities, transaction standards, and so on.
Healthcare is extremely complex. It has always relied on a variety of initatives to attempt to coordinate the individual pieces, which are complex in and of themselves. Complicating things further is that many participants, either on the vendor side or the provider side, feel the need, in a tight economy, to protect turf.
I’ve certainly fully bought into the “complexity” argument – the popular retort is, “If you’ve seen one (fill in the blank) in healthcare, you’ve seen one (fill in the blank).” We all laugh at the joke, which implies the person asking it is a simpleton, but does it really – REALLY – have to be that complicated?
With all the technology and technological acumen we have, is there really no easy way to share information? Couldn’t a “space race” initiative be funded to quickly provide the necessary transport system? Couldn’t all the massive effort currently under way be channeled into a simpler, easier, open-source data-sharing model?
I’m just looking at this with fresh eyes today, and wondering out loud. I’ve sipped deeply from the “healthcare is complex” Kool-Aid, so I can easily dismiss simple ideas like these. But perhaps if Google can get a bunch of competitive phone makers and service providers to agree to work together, there’s hope for healthcare.