The Week That Was: You’ve GOAT to be kidding me

Here at TWTW headquarters, we’re loyal fans of many things…like coffee, kale* and Kaiser Family Foundation polls. Football, however, doesn’t show up as often on our list of faves.

But we’re suckers for a good story, and this Super Bowl Sunday has it all: politics, money, romance and even goats. So whether you’re a die-hard Patriot, a newish Rams fan (👋 Syneos Health LA office) or our colleague Miriam - who didn’t know the Super Bowl was this weekend - we hope you have a great SBS.

Until then, we’ve got a prescription for your Saturday: blankets, coffee and a thermostat set above 65 degrees.

An Apple a day keeps the doctor away at your fingertips

A few weeks ago, we included a quote from Apple CEO Tim Cook in a recent CNBC interview. "If you zoom out into the future, and you look back, and you ask the question, 'What was Apple's greatest contribution to mankind?' It will be about health." Truth be told, that sparked our interest and we’ve been digging deeper ever since. We’re talking 76-page-market-research-deck deep, to understand the implications, challenges and potential competition tech may bring to healthcare. Please join us on this nerd-journey.

While Apple isn’t the only tech company that has set its sights on the healthcare industry, they certainly stand out. They’re not just talking the voice-activated talk; they’re making serious moves.

• Apple has been working on Personal Health Records since 2013, and now has numerous partnerships with labs and hospitals to make health data compatible and easily accessible to patients.
• Since 2017, Apple job postings for “health” related positions are up 400%.
• Apple has been steadily increasing their patents for “wearables” and “health informatics” for years (even though they made little noise about health on earnings calls).  

Just this month, Apple announced two big partnerships with key players in healthcare.

• Aetna and Apple, The Attain project: Through this partnership Aetna will help patients pay off the cost of an Apple Watch through achieving certain health goals (think, working out or getting preventative vaccines).
• J&J and Apple tackle aFib: A recently announced study will evaluate the combined use of a J&J medication adherence app and the Apple Watch’s irregular rhythm notification capability, an approach they hope will accelerate diagnosis of atrial fibrillation.

Also on the horizon is a potential deal with the VA to help “modernize” their electronic medical records, and a partnership with Medicare Advantage plans to offer watches to members at a subsidized cost.

So what does Apple bring to an industry that has been mostly dominated by traditional healthcare players?

• An extensive customer base, one that is significantly larger than most healthcare companies’. For example, there are nearly 90MM iPhone users in the U.S., whereas Anthem has about 40MM members.
• Their direct relationship with their customers provides significantly more brand recognition than traditional healthcare players. People may not know the name of the company that makes their medicine, but they definitely know who makes their phone.  
• Apple isn’t working within the same payment model as insurers, health systems or drug makers. This allows Apple significant flexibility, and is something Tim Cook has focused on publicly: “When you look at most of the solutions, whether it’s devices, or things coming up out of Big Pharma…they are done to get the reimbursement…if you don’t care about reimbursement, which we have the privilege of doing, that may even make the smartphone market look small.”

So what's in it for Apple? Patient data, and lots of it.

Our Take: Did you just fall asleep and wake up in the digital health era? Not exactly. But these developments are really important for our industry, whether your company is or isn’t pursuing this type of innovation.

What's next: Companies are finding new ways to collect and monetize patient data, which is a whole new can of worms. We’re tracking these developments closely, and thinking about the sensitive issues associated with data privacy. We'll have more for you on that topic in a few weeks, surrounding the HIMSS health tech conference.

Syneos Spotlight

Our colleague, and former FDA Associate Commissioner, Peter Pitts moderated a panel discussion about expanded access at the National Press Club in Washington last week. Peter shares some of his thoughts about the economics of expanded access in STAT.

 Who wrote this? The managing editors of TWTW are Dana Davis, who was living in Chicago during the last Polar Vortex and Randi Kahn, who can't wait for buffalo wings during the Super Bowl.

Syneos Health Communications' Reputation & Risk Management Practice is a team of healthcare communications consultants, policy-shapers and crisis response specialists. We provide unique solutions to the evolving communications challenges in today’s healthcare industry, using evidence-based approaches to help our clients successfully navigate the most sensitive of situations.

Got thoughts?  Contact Dana

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*RIP Tuck Shop

Image credits: Congress by MRFA from the Noun Project, ban by useiconic.com from the Noun Project, Temperature by Ashley Worobec from the Noun Project, Apple by Arthur Shlain from the Noun Project, Spotlight by Olyn LeRoy from the Noun Project