This tweet seems to have hit a nerve with me:
Get ready for Apple #EMR 😉
Apple Acquires #Healthcare Tracking Co. @GliimpseHealthhttps://t.co/Aid53L9hiZ#hcldr pic.twitter.com/Nx3YAXE9zG— james edwards (@jameyedwards) August 22, 2016
I realize that James Edwards was just being funny on Twitter, but I guess I’ve had too many people who seriously thought that Apple would get into the EMR business. They won’t. They never will. And I think it’s funny to think that just because Apple touches it, people think it will be all better.
Apple could pour its billions of dollars of cash into the EHR market and doctors would still complain about their solution. More and more I’m realizing that an EHR can only be so good because of the reimbursement and regulatory requirements that the EMR has to meet. Certainly, EHR software should be better than it is today, but it won’t be perfect until we see a sea change in the technology available (see my Video EHR idea) and/or the regulatory and reimbursement environment. Not even Apple can solve those.
However, beyond the fact that I don’t think Apple could make a beautiful EHR, I also think that Apple has no interest in being in the enterprise business. Yes, EHR software is an enterprise software and becoming more so every day. That’s not in Apple’s wheelhouse and they’re not going to get there either.
There are plenty of opportunities for Apple in healthcare. Consumer health devices and consumer health applications are the sweet spot for Apple and I could see them being a major player there. There’s so much opportunity there with their iPhone and iPad footprint. I think all of that is just a matter of time. Just stop talking about Apple entering the EHR space. It’s not going to happen.
Do you think Apple or Google or Microsoft, or any of the big players would be in EHR if there was room to innovate? They do not want to spend countless hours trying to figure out a constant regulatory changes. They know when the market stinks. And the EHR market is very similar to the military market, policy market, a few big players, that spend all day learning the 8 billion rules to make money on us that are just trying to get through our day. Apple is WAY too smart to get into EHRs.
That’s a good question. I think they’d do more if healthcare wasn’t so regulated. I think only Microsoft would be interested in EHR though because it’s enterprise software and Google and Apple haven’t done much Enterprise work. They would do more in other healthcare software though, but don’t because of all the regulatory hoop jumping that’s required.