Pillpack: The High Cost Of Entering The Healthcare Industry

The US spends 17% of DGP on healthcare or about $3.6 trillion a year (Ozcan, 2022). Emergency medicine spending has taken up 5% of these costs while increasing 51% over the past two years (Ozcan, 2022). Many of these costs are due to the fact patients cannot access primary care or they are unsure of whether to wait out their symtpoms or visit urgent care. Since the healthcare industry is notoriously inefficient, the Big Tech companies have seen this as an opportunity to use technological innovations to advance the field of medicine. However, entering this field has proved to be far more difficult than expected for certain companies due to the necessity of protecting data privacy, despite the opportunity presented by the notoriously inefficient

The Big Four tech companies have seen the opportunity presented and have lend their technical savviness to attempt to enter the healthcare field. For example, Amazon has been trying to infiltrate the healthcare sectors over the past years. Amazon uses its cloud services, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and voice technology to launch healthcare projects (Insider Intelligence, 2023). Amazon pharmacy has started PillPack, which is a full-service online pharmacy that packages medications and delivers it to the customer’s door every month. When starting, PillPack faced some legal challenges from pharmacy chains and insurers, but it was able to overcome these hurdles and expand its business. In 2018, Amazon acquired PillPack for $753 million (Palmer, 2022). PillPack has expanded its customer base and the service helps customers manage prescriptions, coordinates with healthcare providers and provides 24/7 support (Palmer, 2022). Despite reaching a wide customer base and massive potential, Amazon lost the PillPack founders, Parker and Cohen, after four years of acquisition (Palmer, 2022). Amazon also started AmazonCare, which provides a virtual health clinic

There are many examples of big technology companies attempting to have a transformative effort on the healthcare field. However, majority of companies have failed to leave their mark for a sustainable period. These firms have focused on moving the needle with the primary care and mental health care fields. There is a great amount of uncovered knowledge and application regarding the use of AI and machine learning in the emergency room, especially with diagnostic imaging and triaging. Emergency rooms are notoriously inefficient, costing people’s income and lives. It is imperative that modifications to the current setup of emergency rooms are implemented. Companies have attempted to create solutions using AI and machine learning to ease emergency room triage, but it is not well known if these solutions have been used widespread throughout emergency departments. There is a clear need for technology and AI use in the emergency field; however, the question remains, who can create the lasting change that sustains, and can the technology be disruptive enough to fix our system? Will the large companies take advantage of the opportunity, or will another factor stop