Like it or not, our world is constantly changing, as technological advances grow ever more frequent. While some folks may lament the loss of seemingly simpler days past, the fact remains that companies around the globe are working hard to make apositive impact on the the way we live. <\/p>\n
To be sure, in few industries are these changes more apparent than health care, where our very lives are often at stake. Here are three disruptive technologies, then, which are in the process of effectively reshaping health care as we know it: <\/p>\n
Your health is in the cloud(s)First of all, health care companies are currently taking advantage of cloud computingin ways we could have never dreamed only a few decades ago. <\/p>\n
Take athenahealth (NASDAQ: ATHN) , for instance, which focuses entirely on developing cloud-based tools for streamlining medical practice management, electronic health records, patient communications, care coordination, and account collection. <\/p>\n
Unsurprisingly, demand for its services is strong, as athenahealth currently boasts nearly 41,000 medical providers on its network, up from around 38,000 in January. As a result, athenahealth ranked fourth on Forbes' list of America's 25 fastest-growing tech companies in 2012, following 13 straight years of achieving at least 30% top-line growth. <\/p>\n
Or consider Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) , which published a white paper last year outlining how health-care companies can take advantage of Amazon Web Services \"to power information processing systems that facilitate HIPAA and HITECH compliance.\" <\/p>\n
Incidentally, Amazon not only uses AWS to power its own web properties and handle traffic for sites including Netflix, Yelp, reddit, and Pinterest, but also currently counts at least a dozen different health-related organizations among its list of AWS clients. Most notably, these include CloudPrime, Global Data Systems, Nimbus Health, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, Pfizer, the Praekelt Foundation, Toshiba Medical, Harvard Medical School, NYU Langone Medical Center, and Sage Bionetworks. <\/p>\n
Any time, any placeNext, where would cloud computing be without the meteoric rise of mobile apps? <\/p>\n
Remember, in March, athenahealth also finalized its $293 million acquisition of mobile health pioneer Epocrates, whose point-of-care mobile app has been downloaded by more than a million health-care professionals for their iPhones, iPads, Android, or BlackBerrydevices. <\/p>\n
Of course, Epocrates isn't without competition:WebMD's (NASDAQ: WBMD) own Medscape app has also been downloaded more than 3 million times and, according to Medscape, is now used by half of all U.S. physicians, and three out of four U.S. medical students. <\/p>\n
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3 Disruptive Technologies Reshaping Health Care Today<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Like it or not, our world is constantly changing, as technological advances grow ever more frequent. While some folks may lament the loss of seemingly simpler days past, the fact remains that companies around the globe are working hard to make apositive impact on the the way we live. To be sure, in few industries are these changes more apparent than health care, where our very lives are often at stake. Continue reading