Note: Activities refer to initiatives by the above companies across industries under SPEEDA Edge’s Health & Wellness and Pharma & Life Sciences verticals

Source: Compiled by SPEEDA Edge

Key takeaways

• Overall activity witnessed a slight dip (30 activities tracked in Q1 2024 vs. 36 tracked in Q4 2023): In particular, after a notable rebound during Q4 2023, activities among retailers slowed during the quarter, accounting for only 10% of all activities tracked (down from 33% during Q4 2023).

• Alphabet continued to dominate activity: The tech giant accounted for 63% of all Big Tech activity and 57% of all healthcare activity. Over two-thirds of its activities were concentrated in primary care, with Hospital Management and Telehealth being the main focuses. After gradually making inroads during previous quarters, Alphabet, through Isomorphic Labs, picked up activity around AI Drug Discovery. In addition, the company showed interest in the Clinical Decision Support Systems, Hospital Interoperability, Digital Wellness, and Beauty Tech domains. 

• As in Q4 2023, CVS Health was the only active company among the retailers. Although at reduced levels compared with the previous quarter (10% of overall activity in Q1 2024 compared with 11% in Q4 2023), the retail giant pursued both partnerships and investments in the healthcare space. 

• Alphabet, through Google Cloud, continued to launch new GenAI solutions tailored for healthcare and life sciences. The latest offering is Vertex AI Search for Healthcare, a search tool aimed at enhancing patient outcomes, improving data interoperability, and establishing a robust data foundation. The tool offers features such as a medically tuned search, configurable APIs, the capability of answering questions, factuality, data platform integration, and deeper medical understanding offered through integration with MedLM tools. Google Cloud also introduced new features to its Healthcare Data Engine (HDE), which include 1) low-code data mapping through HDE Data Mapper for efficient transformation of data into the fast healthcare interoperability resources (FHIR) format and 2) integration with Vertex AI Search to support data analysis to help clinicians manage information and save time. The new offerings and enhancements have the potential to drive Alphabet’s healthcare activities in the future.

• Alphabet’s Google Cloud also enhanced the capabilities of MedLM, which was launched in December 2023. It introduced new features, including 1) MedLM for Chest X-ray, which classifies chest X-rays for different use cases, and 2) Condition Summary API, which provides AI-generated chronological lists and summaries of patient conditions with citations. 

• Meta focused on leveraging its VR headsets to penetrate the healthcare space. During the quarter, the company collaborated with Headspace to launch Headspace XR, an immersive mindfulness and meditation app. At the same time, after a setback following a ban on selling watches with blood oxygen sensors in the US, Apple is focusing on touting Vision Pro as a healthcare tool, igniting competition in this space.

• Investment activity slowed (four investments tracked in Q1 2024 vs. eight in Q4 2023). Alphabet was the only Big Tech player to invest in the healthcare sector, while CVS Health was the only retailer to do the same. As in the previous quarter, CVS Health was able to single-handedly match the number of investments made by Big Tech players, focusing on areas such as primary and holistic care.

• M&A activity remained muted. A year after Amazon acquired One Medical, the tech giant continues to actively integrate its operations by building on existing healthcare networks, introducing new healthcare offerings, and re-organizing business structures.

• Big Tech companies are likely to keep pushing forward with the AI drive. Alphabet, through Google Cloud, is planning to expand MedLM's capabilities to further support healthcare and life science organizations. Amazon and Microsoft are also likely to leverage their product offerings to keep up in the race. Nevertheless, growing demand for accessible and affordable healthcare would result in Big Tech and retailers plotting strategies for a bigger piece of the pie. Expanding reach in primary care would be a focus area for these players to consolidate their presence; in particular, Amazon is aspiring to build a “frictionless” future in healthcare and is focusing on expanding One Medical's partnership network across the US and integrating it with other internal business units.

Number of activities by company during Q1 2024