Marc Andreessen wrote a terrific piece appearing in the WSJ Saturday about how software has become relied upon in nearly every industry for its functioning. The entire way down, until I arrived at the paragraph about healthcare and education, I was thinking this hasn’t happened yet.
But it will. The two industries are linked and the disruption has begun in education (Khan Academy, this Stanford engineering class on Artificial Intelligence has taken sign-ups numbering close–maybe surpassing–100,000 students). Andreessen himself notes his healthcare investment in the essay.
This “eat the world” mentality will not stop once it reaches the healthcare gates (it’s already beginning, think eICU). The disruptors are unlikely to be traditional health IT vendors–unless they decide to start understanding usability and value, like now.
No closing thought. More of an ellipsis. Who knows where this is going?
