Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Technology Advancing Healthcare: Watch GOOGL, AMZN & Others

Read MoreHide Full Article

In a bid to minimize reliance on traditional healthcare management methods, the multi-trillion healthcare industry’s dependence on the technology sector has been increasing in the data-driven world.

Advanced technologies such as AI, Machine Learning (ML), Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, Big Data and data analytics are being largely adopted in the healthcare industry for bringing innovation in various medical equipment and instruments, seamless management of health data and patient records, and pharmacy advancement.

Additionally,the growing proliferation of personal health monitoring devicessuch as smart scales, smartwatches, fitness trackers and other monitoring devices remains noteworthy in this context.

Moreover, the pandemic has increased the dependency of the healthcare industry on tech companies. The need for smart and efficient ways of managing the spread and treatment of the extremely contagious virus via advanced datasets, cloud computing techniques and analytics has increased.

Given the upbeat scenario, tech giants such as Alphabet (GOOGL - Free Report) , Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) , Apple (AAPL - Free Report) and Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) are putting strong efforts to capitalize on the above-mentioned factors. Hence, the tech-driven healthcare battle has been intensifying.

One-Year Price Performance

 

Zacks Investment ResearchImage Source: Zacks Investment Research

 

Alphabet’s Aggressive Stance

Alphabet is continuously ramping up initiatives to bolster its footprint in the healthcare industry.

Recently, the company’s Google division entered a multi-year partnership with the national hospital chain, HCA Healthcare, to bring advancement in clinical decision-making.

Notably, the search giant will aid HCA Healthcare in developing healthcare algorithms, which will likely help in patient monitoring, doctors’ decision-making and boosting operational efficiency. Furthermore, Google Cloud will ensure actionable insights and advanced workflows by building a secured data analytics platform for HCA Healthcare.This, in turn, will likelyaid in the creation of next-generation operational models.

Additionally, per the agreement,Google Cloud will provide its Healthcare API, BigQuery and HIPAA compliance alongwith its data, analytics and artificial intelligence to HCA Healthcare. The latest deal remains a noteworthy step of Alphabet, which sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Apart from this, the company has made notable healthcare efforts in regard to COVID-19 management. The introduction of a suite of fully-managed AI tools —Healthcare Natural Language API and AutoML Entity Extraction for Healthcare— remains a major positive.

Also, the company rolled out Intelligent Vaccine Impact solution powered by Google Cloud. Notably, the solution helps in increasing vaccine availability and ensures equitable access to those who need it. In this regard, the company unveiled Contact Center AI, which helps call center operations with intelligent virtual agents.

In addition to these, Alphabet has been constantly gaining traction in the healthcare industry on the back of its well-performing life science division, Verily. Notably, Verily’s winning healthcare projects remain tailwinds.

Hard to Ignore Amazon

Amazon is constantly revolutionizing the healthcare space. Moreover, this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company’s focus on delivering quality service at affordable costs remains a major positive.

The launch of its cloud-based healthcare service, Amazon HealthLake, is noteworthy. Notably, the service is a HIPAA-eligible one, which helps medical providers, health insurers, and pharmaceutical companies in analyzing their complete data at a petabyte-scale in the cloud.

Further, the e-commerce giant recently started offering its telehealth service — Amazon Care, which was initially developed for its employees,offering them virtual medical consultations, rapid prescription delivery and the ability to schedule a follow-up visit from a medical professional — to other firms.

Apart from these, the company’s foray into the wearable market as well as the personal health monitoring space with the launch ofAmazon Halo and Amazon Halo Band, the fitness tracking service and wearable device, respectively, remains a major positive. Notably, Halo Band comprises a heart rate monitor, a temperature sensor and an accelerometer.

Additionally, the company’s Amazon Comprehend Medical service aids in the seamless extraction of medical information related to health conditions, medications, dosage and treatment from unstructured data. The service has been gaining traction among healthcare providers on the back of its ability to make the healthcare management process hassle-free and time-efficient.

Apple & Microsoft in Race

Apple, currently carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), is constantly gaining momentum in the personal health monitor space with its expanding watch family. Notably, Apple Watch’s adoption rate continues to grow rapidly. More than 75% of customers, who purchased Apple Watch in second-quarter fiscal 2021, were first-time customers.

Further, the introduction of ablood oxygen sensor on Apple Watch 6 remains the company’s noteworthy effort amid the pandemic.

Additionally, the iPhone maker is looking to hire ML scientist for early disease detection. The efforts are likely to strengthen Apple’s position in the promising healthcare industry.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is strengthening its presence in the industry on the back of its well-performing Azure, which is witnessing increasing adoption for supporting healthcare workloads.

Further, the company’s recent agreement to acquire Nuance Communications, which offers conversational AI and cloud-based ambient clinical intelligence for healthcare providers, remains a major tailwind. Moreover, Nuance represents decades of accumulated healthcare and enterprise AI experience, which will aid Microsoft in strengthening its footprint in the healthcare industry.

Furthermore, this Zacks Rank #3 company’s introduction of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare remains a major positive.

5 Stocks Set to Double

Each was hand-picked by a Zacks expert as the #1 favorite stock to gain +100% or more in 2020. Each comes from a different sector and has unique qualities and catalysts that could fuel exceptional growth.

Most of the stocks in this report are flying under Wall Street radar, which provides a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor.

Today, See These 5 Potential Home Runs >>

Published in