Health-related activities of Big Tech

Health-related activities of Big Tech

By:

Retiene, Roman

Abstract:

While the German health sector has often been criticised for its slow uptake of novel digital products, other health systems have been significantly faster in adopting these products. In the course of this development, Big Tech companies have entered these health systems, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom. But also in Germany, the involvement of Big Tech companies has become increasingly relevant in recent years. Among these Big Tech companies are the “Big Four” (i.e. Alphabet, Apple, Meta and Amazon) but also companies like Palantir and Oracle which have reinforced their activities in the health sector without much attention of the broader public. In this paper, these health-related activities of Big Tech are described in detail. Also providers of electronic health records and hospital information systems like Epic Systems and Cerner and German companies like the Deutsche Telekom and SAP are taken into account. All in all, fourteen companies are covered and their activities are divided into six categories to facilitate an overview and reveal the different focuses of the companies.