Large technology companies are likely going to continue to affect EHR use in healthcare, especially as they file healthcare patents and develop innovative ways to improve patient care.
Google, Apple, and Microsoft are just three of the increasingly key players in healthcare, a recent Kalorama report noted, with the three companies filing over 300 healthcare patents combined between 2013 and 2017.
Google is focusing on artificial intelligence (AI) and its healthcare and disease research entity Verily. The company has 186 patents, the report stated.
“Apple has filed 54 patents to turn its iPhone into a medical device that can monitor biometric data such as blood pressure and body fat levels and to develop algorithms to predict abnormal heart rates,” Kalorama said. “Microsoft filed 73 patents based on expanding its AI capabilities and developing monitoring devices for chronic diseases.”
Nearly all US non-federal acute care hospitals – 97 percent – had a certified EHR as of 2017, the Kalorama EMR 2018 report stated. Approximately 84 percent of US hospitals had adopted an EHR system by the same time. ….more