Conventional wisdom says that an empowered patient is a better patient. But in an ecosystem where there’s absolutely zero muscle memory for treating patients as consumers, how do physicians, hospitals and payers actually become more consumer-focused? More importantly, how prepared are these businesses for what happens when those empowered consumers decide to fully exercise that power in ways that threaten their business models, and perhaps their entire existence?

It’s hard to attend a healthcare conference without someone extolling the virtues of patient engagement, activation or empowerment. But what do patients want? Given the rising costs of care and the increasing shift of costs directly to patients, do tools even exist to support consumer self service for even the most ‘activated’ among us? As major healthcare businesses look to improve their respective bottom lines, has engagement just become a pleasant euphemism for abandonment?

More than at anytime in recent memory, some healthcare providers (key word: some) are actually starting to see patients as customers. But if these providers expect to find best practices among their peers, they’re in for a major disappointment. For doctors and hospitals to attract and retain their target customers (FYI…this is called marketing), they need to stop erecting artificial barriers — such as holding patient data hostage — and take a page from the hospitality industry to learn what it takes to deliver quality customer experiences. 

For decades, experts have speculated that, “within ten years, [insert latest tech trend here] will fully replace” some healthcare treatment, specialist or process that we assume is indispensable. Today, that latest tech is AI. Whether these predictions are true or not may be less important than whether this is the best use of AI in healthcare. What problems can AI actually solve? More importantly, what problems should it solve? How can healthcare and the tech companies pouring billions into AI work ensure an improved healthcare system and not just a different one.

Wearable sensors helped spawn the digital health explosion with the promise of inexpensive, continuous monitoring that would reveal a wealth of health and wellness insights. To date, dozens of products have been introduced and many have already disappeared. But companies continue their search for that elusive ‘killer application’ and a sustainable business model that comes close to delivering on the promise of the technology. Are we simply in the infancy of the wearable age and the best is yet to come? Or, is this another example of an over-hyped technology in search of a problem?

Early-stage companies obsess about how to make themselves ‘pretty’ for large companies who might partner with, or perhaps even acquire them. Unfortunately, too many of the assumptions and beliefs about the inner workings of large enterprises are just wrong, resulting in delays and dissatisfaction that can be fatal to a small company. Without understanding the true — not necessarily the stated — objectives, operations and incentives underneath the hood of these behemoths, the odds of getting the outcome you want is remote at best.

It’s encouraging that companies such as Amazon, JPMorgan, Google, Apple and others are committing billions of dollars to radically transform (and hopefully improve) healthcare. While labeling these efforts as ‘moonshots’ may reflect the audacity of the undertaking, it also implies an extremely low likelihood of success. Is healthcare so irreparably broken that the only means of improving it are these massively high-risk/high-reward private sector endeavors? And if so, do these companies have the patience and perseverance that the original moonshot required to succeed?