Microsoft, Google and healthcare

Over the years, many information services companies, notably IBM and SAIC have been actively involved in working with the pharmaceutical industry in trying to develop IT solutions to improve business processes and develop the infrastructure for improved data handling in clinical trials, drug discovery, etc. Of course, much of the hardware that provides the computing resources for in silico drug development also comes from the IBMs and HPs of the world. Many of the services being provided include the development of knowledge management solutions for drug discovery and clinical trials.

In recent years some other companies, not historically involved in the healthcare/drug development business, have become actively involved in the field. To an extent this is a natural evolution of a world where knowledge sharing and knowledge mining are driving the development of the information technology industry. And it is for this reason that the future of healthcare information technology may not belong to IBM, but rather to Google, or even Microsoft.

Adam Bosworth has been mentioned in these parts before, and based on a recent post on the official Google blog, the company is very serious about providing solutions for healthcare, notably the ability to search all the health-related information that is out there. One of the questions on Adam’s (and everyone else’s) mind is quality. Search is fine, but quality search in healthcare is essential. Google wants to organize the world’s information. With healthcare, they are facing a tough challenge, one with a social ticket attached to it. I am sure no one at Google wants someone to take the wrong medical decision based on incorrect information that they derived from Google.

Microsoft has probably been the more overtly aggressive company when it comes to healthcare. The BioIT Alliance, which includes a number of biosoftware/bioinformatics/service companies was a start, with goals ranging from the development of information exchange standards to more ambitious goals in biomarker discovery. A recent article in Bioinform (sub reqd) indicates that Microsoft wants to tread into IBM territory as well, by encouraging developers to adopt the Windows CCS platform to develop healthcare and other scientific applications. It will not be trivial for Windows CCS to find wide adoption in the research space (where Linux rules), but in the healthcare industry and hospital environment, the company might find more takers. However, it is more recent activities from Redmond that make their efforts more interesting, and bring them in direct competition with that old nemesis, Google. Read/WriteWeb reported earlier that Microsoft had acquired Medstory, a vertical search engine for health information. The rise of vertical search and its role in healthcare is a subject for another day, but it is clear that Microsoft wants to be a player in this space, and since Google does not have a formal offering in place, the timing is good (Is it a coincidence that the Bosworth piece followed the Microsoft news?). The article also points out, via Mary Jo Foley, that Microsoft’s Health Strategy group is developing solutions as part of the Windows Live family. Add this to their acquisition of Azyxxi, a health intelligence vendor and it is quite clear that Microsoft is very serious about the space.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Hopefully one of these days I will complete a long intended post on healthcare startups and the search space in general.

Further reading:
Semantic web and pharma
Biology, search and Udell
BioIT needs to reinvent itself

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Google, Healthcare, Search