Microsoft Corporation (MSFT): Is Google Inc (GOOG) Health 2.0 Inevitable?

Last quarter, CEO Steve Ballmer dramatically restructured the company’s business segments, creating a new cloud and enterprise group to oversee its enterprise operations, including health care. That big reorganization came before it reported its disastrous fourth-quarter earnings in July, when it took a $900 million charge related to the doomed Surface RT.

Google Glass could still be a game changer
While it’s unlikely that Google will get back into the EHR business, it’s likely that Google Glass and the Android ecosystem will play a key role in point-of-care services. Nuance Communications, through 360 products, has already shown the health care IT industry that voice-recognition is a viable future for clinical documentation improvement and EHR software. Small start-ups like Augmedix are building entire businesses around new medical apps for Google Glass.

Although those prospects sound exciting and conjure up visions of the sickbay on the U.S.S. Enterprise, the reality is more mundane. The farthest that physicians have gone so far with Google Glass is to stream surgeries for educational purposes. Drchrono, the creator of the leading native iPad EHR app in the United States, has made a few mock-ups of how its service will look on Google Glass.

However, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) remains the biggest challenge for Google Glass. The iPad is the most widely used piece of mobile hardware in health care facilities in the United States, according to a recent survey from Manhattan Research. Some 72% of physicians currently use tablets at work, and more than half of them prefer the iPad over other devices.

Leading EHR companies like Allscripts are also focusing on their native iPad apps, which are tethered to the cloud rather than desktop-based EHR programs. Using the iPad’s large touchscreen is also far more practical than using Glass’ voice and movement-based commands.

The Foolish bottom line
Will Google Health 2.0 appear in the near future? It might, but it probably won’t be the game-changing service that some health care IT industry watchers are hoping for. If Google gets back into the health care game, it will likely be via health care information or fitness-tracking apps, and not through the fragmented jungle of EHR services.

Google Glass has plenty of potential uses in patient care, but it remains to be seen if it can achieve widespread acceptance from medical practices, especially after the iPad has already saturated the market by displacing traditional computers on wheels.

The article Is Google Health 2.0 Inevitable? originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Leo Sun.

Leo Sun owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool recommends Apple and Google. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple, Google, and Microsoft.

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