Healthcare insiders apparently don’t think much of the venture from Amazon, JPMorgan Chase & Co.  and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. to use digital technology and data to change healthcare delivery.

But a survey by investment firm Venrock on current industry topics of 300 executives at health systems, investment firms that specialize in digital healthcare companies and others does reveal that if any consumer technology companies do have the wherewithal to “disrupt healthcare,” it’s Amazon and Apple Inc.

Each year, Venrock surveys what it calls an influential group of healthcare investors, policy makers and investment executives to get a combined read on high-profile industry issues and trends. In January, Amazon, Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and JPMorgan Chase said they planned to collaborate on a way to offer healthcare services to their U.S. employees with more transparency and at a lower cost. The three companies plan to set up a new independent company “that is free from profit-making incentives and constraints.”

The new venture promises to use lots of big data, telehealth, artificial intelligence and other forms of emerging technology to deliver more efficient and cheaper healthcare. But 73% of respondents believe that the Amazon/Berkshire Hathaway/JPMorgan Chase effort will face substantial challenges and take too much time to develop. Specifically, 25% of Venrock respondents say “Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan have no idea what they are getting into,” and 47% of respondents believe any venture the companies launch in healthcare “will be in for a long haul.”

But if there are companies outside of healthcare with the money, technology and wherewithal to make a big and permanent splash in healthcare delivery, it’s Apple and Amazon. 51% of Venrock survey respondents say Amazon could make the biggest impact, followed by Apple at 27%, Google at 18%, IBM at 3% and Microsoft at 2%.

“Amazon is shaking up industries from retail to entertainment, and the latest sector in its sights is healthcare,” Venrock says. “The majority selected Amazon and Apple as the companies most likely to make progress in healthcare in 2018.”

Other survey findings include:

• 54% of executives say it will be two or three years before artificial intelligence will make a difference in healthcare. “Expectations are high for AI to make a difference in healthcare, but it will be awhile before we see real-world use cases,” the survey says.
• 54% of executives believe analytics and big data are the technologies that will have wide implementation across healthcare this year, followed by telehealth at 41%. “Telemedicine and big data/analytics are expected to grow over the next 12 months, while wearables/consumer sensors and electronic health records (EHRs) are expected to decline,” Venrock says.
• Continued investment in digital healthcare companies is expected to remain strong with 51% of respondents believing the creation of new enterprises will increase somewhat compared with 17% that say it will increase significantly.

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