Apple has gone beyond its original vision in many ways through the years, and one of the most significant is its moves into the healthcare space. CEO Tim Cook recently shared that he believed it will be his company’s “greatest contribution to mankind.” But the fact that it’s moving in this direction now might be exactly what Apple needs to rekindle the spirit of innovation it once had.

Healthcare could be the key to making tech innovation again.

Apple’s newfound pivot toward health is leading to more competition in the wearable health space. Fitbit recently teamed up with Bristol-Myers Squibb-Pfizer Alliance to develop a way to detect irregular heart rhythms in a pursuit to compete with the Apple Watch.

The tech competition in healthcare will certainly lead to exciting innovations.

Apple is seeking to reignite the creativity and disruptive work it was known for in the Steve Jobs era. Unfortunately, too many of its projects just aren’t excelling like they used to. Its driverless car unit, for example, wasn’t great for a number of reasons, including its inability to capitalize on the data being pulled in by Apple Maps. The innovation simply wasn’t there.

Because Apple operates as a publicly-traded company, it doesn’t have total freedom to take bold risks at any point in time. 

Like other tech giants, the company is beholden to the vicissitudes of the markets, hedge funds, pension funds, private equity analysts, and other institutional investors. Innovation is more of a challenge when you have to show shareholders a predictable revenue stream and a regular uptick in profits quarter after quarter to maintain support.

Long-term goals take a backseat to achieve short-term growth that’s easily provable.

Short-term growth prioritization inevitably results in bold, creative ideas taking a back seat as well. While Apple has undoubtedly gotten caught in this cycle, an opportunity is looming for it to move into the healthcare space, where the innovation the company was built on is in high demand.

How Tech Is Transforming Healthcare

As Baby Boomers enter retirement, our society will be increasingly reliant on and powered by high-tech healthcare solutions. People are living longer than ever before, and there aren’t enough caregivers, doctors, nurses, and senior living facilities to take care of the aging population.

More than that, Baby Boomers don’t necessarily want to move into assisted living facilities or rely on other people to take care of them. They’d rather age at home. Thankfully, technology is making it possible for them to do just that.

Because of remote health monitoring tools, wearable devices, and telemedicine, the idea of “aging in place” is becoming more of a reality.

Imagine being in your 70s or 80s and having a blood pressure machine and a smart scale that sends all of your health data to the cloud. AI will track it in real-time to determine whether the data is trending up or down. If it’s the latter or if a new issue is spotted, you’ll be alerted and invited to the hospital where you can receive preventative care.

The Shift

Until the past few years, our healthcare system has been set up in such a way that it provides reactionary care. Hospitals, physicians, insurance companies, and the federal government have been laser-focused on treating illness, disease, and discomfort. Healthcare issues are treated when they occur rather than preventing problems before they become a problem.

Providers are focusing more on prevention.

A paradigm shift among providers to focus on prevention is being bolstered by startups that offer groundbreaking devices, cloud solutions, mobile technology, and more for seamless, personal, and efficient healthcare. 

For instance, in the span of just a few years, we’ve managed to move medical records from paper and carbon to the cloud.

Patient records can now be stored securely, accessed easily, updated when necessary, and shared among providers instantaneously. The claim is that all of the information is leading to better patient experiences and outcomes.

The technology sector is finally undergoing momentous change.

The change in the technology sector creates huge opportunities for Cook and other entrepreneurial spirits who have a desire to innovate and leave a mark on the world.

Solutions need to be addressed now.

They’ll find no shortage of problems that need solving — an aging population, fewer caretakers, rising costs, increased demand. As the healthcare transformation picks up speed, the potential for technology to be a part of that transformation is growing.

The critical need for innovative technology in the healthcare space makes getting back to the creativity of the Steve Jobs era more possible than ever before. Now is the time for technology companies to rise to the challenge.

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Sprint’s recent launch of its 5G network in Kansas City, Missouri; Dallas; Houston; and Atlanta offers consumers and entrepreneurs a glimpse into the future. As rapid download speeds and seamless connectivity take hold in cities around the world, tech entrepreneurs will have more opportunities than ever before to make an impact. With 11.5 million people having access to Sprint’s network already, imagine what will be possible as that number grows.

5G will unlock new opportunities in every space. The healthcare, transportation, agriculture, and manufacturing industries will all be significantly more capable of innovation and growth as these networks take shape.

Data on demand

We all know the frustration that comes from waiting for an app to load, a video to buffer, or an email to send. With an instant connection, 5G will not only eliminate these issues but also radically transform user experiences in several ways.

Content streaming apps like Netflix and YouTube will benefit from faster download speeds. And so will social networks such as Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram, which all use immense amounts of data to load images, video, and chat messages. But consumer-facing mobile apps are just the tip of the iceberg.

The arrival of 5G will drive significant progress in emerging technology.

Think of the power this kind of connectivity can give to things like autonomous vehicles, for instance. Driverless cars have to collect vast amounts of information, process it locally, and send it to the cloud. That data then goes back to the vehicle and enables it to make decisions. Thanks to 5G networks, this process will be nearly instantaneous.

Virtually every connected device will become more reliable and effective because of 5G, too. IoT sensors will be able to process data, send it to the cloud, and act upon it at mind-boggling speeds. In essence, 5G makes the cloud almost instantly accessible and opens countless doors to technological innovation. And it’s increasingly becoming available across the globe.

Emerging opportunities for entrepreneurs

The building blocks of 5G are being put in place in cities all over the world. The U.K. launched its first public high-speed 5G network this spring, and major carriers like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile have stateside deployments planned for later this year. In South Korea, the technology made its debut at the Olympic Village. Since then, a 5G network has been launched in Seoul, as well as in cities throughout China and Japan.

As 5G infrastructures become more widespread, more opportunities will open up for developers to leverage their power.

Tech entrepreneurs will be able to make everyday device experiences seamless and create entirely new ones with technologies such as VR and AR, industrial IoT, autonomous vehicles and drones, medical devices, and other connected hardware.

AI and machine learning tools have already transformed multiple industries. But this disruption will pale in comparison to the near future. With unparalleled speeds and even higher amounts of data to leverage, these technologies will generate more profound insights for the people who need them most.

The impact of 5G will be unprecedented.

For entrepreneurs and investors looking to capitalize on it, here are four ways 5G will transform business:

1. Interpersonal communication

Communication drives business. Because consumers and downstream business operators are going to have access to devices that can send and receive data at lighting-fast speeds, they’ll be able to have better phone calls, higher-quality video meetings, and access to chat apps that don’t experience latency.

When Verizon revealed its Moto Z3 phone, which works with the 5G Moto Mod that attaches to a phone, spectators watched it download a 1GB file in 17 seconds, a download speed that should be even faster on its commercial network. Phone usage and commercial network usage is just one example of the way 5G technology will drive stronger, more seamless business communications. Further, applications like these will directly impact and generate profits.

2. Expanded remote work opportunities

Remote work has already become standard practice at many businesses. With the advent of 5G, it’ll be possible for even more tasks to be accomplished remotely. At the Mobile World Congress, for example, a Spanish surgeon performed an operation from miles away with the help of a connected robotics kit.

However, remote healthcare is just one example of the power of connectivity. Low-latency, high-frequency data transfers will make engineering and many other types of highly skilled work possible from anywhere with a decent connection.

3. Tools driving innovation

Many companies already use innovation labs to explore applications of emerging technologies. Soon, there will be a proliferation of devices and tools specifically designed to cultivate growth with 5G. Case in point: Verizon’s 5G Labs in New York and four other cities show businesses and consumers what’s possible with 5G while also providing startups and entrepreneurs with mentorship and advisory services as they learn to work with it.

Companies will also soon offer DIY kits that enable anyone to build 5G solutions using components already available to them. For developers, these will present limitless opportunities. Organizations like MathWorks, for example, are already launching tools designed to help reduce learning and development time by giving developers a workflow to model after and use to test 5G systems for themselves.

4. Venture capital interest

Venture capital money is flowing into 5G enterprises in Silicon Valley, and those investments will continue to increase exponentially shortly. As just one example, the recent partnership established between Japanese telecom company KDDI and VC firm Global Brain Corp. will fund 5G infrastructure development.

The golden age for enterprises focused on 5G or startups that are leveraging it is quickly approaching. As the marketplace continues to grow with the infrastructure and as the necessary hardware components for building with 5G tools become more ubiquitous, startups will have unimaginable opportunities to transform the world as we know it.

One thing is certain: Nothing about 5G is moving slowly, and the race to harness the technology it makes possible won’t either.

Feature Image attribution: avi-richards-Z3ownETsdNQ-unsplash-1-825×510

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While the Food and Drug Administration has spent decades regulating medicine and pharmaceuticals, the agency is changing with the times. To keep pace with emerging technologies, the FDA now regulates everything from vape pens and wearables to other health-related Internet of Things devices.

That might seem like a leap for the long-standing agency, but it has a history of examining, testing, and approving an array of devices that have medical uses (or seem like they might). Considering how much health innovation is bubbling up from the technology world, it’s no shock that the FDA is venturing into uncharted territory.

As cutting-edge companies pilot digital health innovations at an exponential rate, health providers are funding tech startups much like Silicon Valley giants.

Cedars-Sinai, for example, partnered with Techstars to create an incubator that pairs tech startups with key decision makers in hospitals and medical centers. Similarly, Massachusetts General Hospital has launched a program to connect startups, technologists, researchers, and universities with the healthcare world.

These prestigious hospitals are working to accelerate tech development because they have seen the benefits firsthand. Medical technology gives patients and caregivers easy access to more data than ever before, and the real-time connectivity options have never been faster.

Given the shifting demographics of society, this push to spark healthcare innovation is coming at a perfect time.

Baby Boomers are aging and will require more medical attention moving forward, and the U.S. has a shortage of healthcare workers. Countless pundits blame artificial intelligence for displacing human workers, but technology has become the best way to supplement the massive gap of skilled laborers in the healthcare world.

Fitness trackers and other wearables are starting to achieve market penetration.

According to some estimates, nearly 20 percent of the population — about 50 million Americans — is expected to use a wearable at least once a month this year. Part of this growth is because wearable technology is more affordable than ever before. The average American spends $10,739 on healthcare each year, so why not fork over a few hundred dollars for a device that can help lower that cost?

Technology companies like Apple and Samsung are embedding medical-grade sensors into these consumer devices with hopes of making their products a core element of users’ health and wellness.

Many of the services these devices can offer would amount to expensive procedures with time-consuming travel to a traditional hospital. Instead, users can receive these services from the comfort of their own homes.

As the healthcare world sees a wealth of innovations on a daily basis, the FDA has been taking steps to vet these new technologies better. The FDA must determine whether these sensors, along with technologies like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and the IoT, are precise enough for approved medical use.

While the FDA has made a lot of progress in terms of vetting technology, it has not been an easy road.

Even when technology reaches the point that it can benefit consumers, the challenge is far from over. Roadblocks thrown up by healthcare providers and insurance companies threaten to hamper this promising technology, but there are ways to move beyond these lingering issues.

Medicine tends only to benefit those of us who can afford to pay for it.

While society and the government have earned a share of the blame for this problem, insurance companies are also guilty. Insurers do not cover the cost of these devices for their clients, which means many consumers are unable to enjoy the benefits of these technologies.

Worse yet, a lack of insurance coverage ends up pushing physicians to avoid using many cutting-edge technologies. When insurance companies refuse to pay for a treatment or service, doctors lean on the old way of practicing medicine rather than push the field forward.

It isn’t all on insurance companies, though. Healthcare providers also have played a role in holding these devices back by clinging to dated practices.

One study found that healthcare organizations tend to lag behind their counterparts in other industries in terms of digital maturity. Healthcare administrators have been slow to integrate these technologies into their hospital systems, which means physicians are not able to remotely monitor the health and wellness of their patients.

The good news? Over time, these advanced devices and technology will become more affordable as they gain wider adoption and competition leads to downward price pressures. That will undoubtedly fix many problems related to affordability, but we still have a lot of work to do.

Affordable healthcare that works should be a priority for everyone, and the preventative healthcare that modern technology enables is the best way to achieve that.

Stopping heart disease, cancer, and other significant diseases long before they become a problem is far cheaper than treating the symptoms as they surface. A 2010 study suggests we could save more than $3.7 billion in healthcare costs annually by embracing routine preventative services.

Technology is the key to bringing intuitive, preventative healthcare at affordable costs to the masses.

The race is already in full force, and digital health already had a massive presence at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. Technology is ready and able to transform the way our society approaches healthcare — we simply need to change the way medicine operates to make the most of this technology.

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As technology continues its seemingly endless evolution, robots are taking over customer service and back-end data analysis. Combining those functions to create robo-advisors makes perfect sense.

Unconvinced? Look at the financial sector. Experts who weighed in as part of Financial Planning’s survey believe that wealth management firms will continue to invest in robo-advisors and financial mobile app development as the two most impactful technologies. That’s not surprising, considering that robo-advisors are experiencing an estimated annual growth rate of 45.7 percent.

Major questions remain before that growth can happen, however. Anyone operating in the financial field is subject to a slew of regulations — and robots are no different. Banking rules range from onerous to inexplicable, and companies must remain constantly vigilant to stay compliant. Unfortunately, these same regulations are stifling a robot renaissance.

Numerous Obstacles to Ubiquity

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) remains opaque regarding many of its rules. Between navigating an endless sea of regulations and reporting requirements, would-be FinTech disruptors must clear plenty of hurdles to achieve any success.

Startups might be used to breaking rules and moving quickly, but established institutions and regulators prefer the profitable status quo. When the status quo shifts, they find creative ways to retain market dominance via half-steps.

Wells Fargo, for instance, recently launched its own robo-advisor platform. While the progress is positive, the company requires users to deposit at least $10,000 to open an account with that service. The high cost to open and the associated fees for the service — which do not exist in human-managed options — indicate that Wells Fargo and other large banks would prefer to keep their customers in traditional relationships for now.

As robots work to catch their big break in the financial services industry, regulatory red tape and slow industry progress present the biggest obstacles to adoption. As robo-advisors reach more audiences, the utility of the technology will encourage the market to invest further and force regulators and big banks to accept the new robotic reality.

The Natural Evolution of FinTech

While they seem like recent disruptors, machine learning and artificial intelligence have operated behind the scenes in finance for several decades. Black box trading, common on Wall Street, describes how software engineers program algorithms that complete trades in fractions of seconds (earning massive sums on thousands of lightning-fast trades). High-frequency trading is a great example.

An algorithm that skips the line on the trading floor has a steep advantage. If someone can buy shares of a stock for $19.95 and then sell those same shares for $20 a few minutes later, that profit doesn’t mean much — unless that buyer makes thousands of those transactions on a daily basis.

In this way, traders already use AI to pick stocks for their portfolios. Similar to analysts, machine learning and AI gauge factors like dividend growth ratios to make smarter decisions. These algorithms even account for tendencies in management teams and other soft variables.

FinTech companies can’t just crash the scene and expect a warm welcome, though, even if their products would make people wealthy. FinTech startup Ripple Labs got hit with a $700,000 fine in 2015 for skirting regulations in the name of progress, for instance.

Fortunately, most companies are doing things the right way — and the big banks are hedging their bets. Wells Fargo’s first foray might not be perfect, but it’s a start. Fifth Third Bancorp and Fidelity recently started working together on an automated investment service. Ally Bank, an online-only financial institution, offers automated investing to its clients. Betterment is the largest robo-advisor firm with $13.5 billion in assets.

Whether regulators and industry titans like it, the robots are coming. Before these cutting-edge tools can have the most positive impact, though, a few things need to change.

How to Prepare for the Robot-Focused Future

Robo-advisors are here to stay. As the technology powering them improves, they will continue to refine their offerings to entice customers with better service, higher returns, fewer fees, and superior service.

Estimates from Deloitte suggest that “assets under automated management” could reach a staggering $7 trillion by 2025 (up from $2 billion in 2016). As the amount of money that robo-advisors manage continues to grow, the financial services sector must make changes in the following areas:

1. Corporate Strategy

If customers can lean on robo-advisors to manage their personal portfolios, large firms could realistically use automation to manage trillions of dollars in corporate accounts. Modern companies continue to rely more heavily on data every year, and they recognize the importance of data in their investment strategies. It’s only natural that these companies should also prefer an AI-powered, data-fueled approach to their investments.

2. Low Barriers to Entry

At this point, Goldman Sachs won’t take a private wealth management account worth less than $5 million. Robo-advisors democratize that personal touch, lowering the barrier to entry for less affluent people who still want individualized financial help. This race toward lower fees will force financial services companies to diversify their income streams if they want to remain profitable.

3. Retirement Management

Robots can do more than help people save for retirement. Once customers reach retirement, AI can help those users optimize their withdrawal strategies. Bucket Bliss recently debuted a robo-advisor to help its clients reach their post-retirement goals and keep their income streams consistent and sustainable. As more people are willing to put their money in the hands of robots, this type of retirement management will become more common — meaning retirees will expect banks to offer comparable services.

The robo-advisor revolution has already begun to disrupt the way investors engage with their accounts. From small-time savers to billionaires, more investors at all levels will continue to lean on automated assistance as time passes. If the FinTech industry hopes to meet that consumer demand, regulators and major players must clear the way for disruption.

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Is it better to treat an illness or prevent it altogether? While most people would prefer to never get sick in the first place, today’s healthcare system focuses its attention on treatment-based care.

And who can blame doctors? Prevention is far more difficult than treatment. While the medical field is beginning to understand the importance of preventative care, this shift is moving at a glacial pace. Considering most hospitals still use fax machines to transmit patient records from one hospital wing to another, this slow progress perhaps should not come as a shock.

All hope is not lost, though. Several coalitions of physicians, medical administrators, and technologists are working together to find creative solutions to the problems plaguing healthcare. Whether it relates to the diagnosis of illness or more routine administrative tasks, medical professionals are working to improve the full range of patient care.

The medical world might seem riddled with regulatory roadblocks, but there’s still room for innovation from healthcare-focused entrepreneurs. This is particularly true as it relates to wearable technology, which consumers have embraced but would-be entrepreneurs have neglected.

Healthcare: An Industry of Untapped Potential

One of the biggest shifts in our medical system that has not received much attention relates to remote monitoring. Recent changes in Medicare rules now incentivize doctors who spend extra time keeping an eye on patient health between visits.

Imagine a diabetic patient whose glucose monitor connects to the cloud. That patient’s glucose data transmits to a secure system that a doctor can monitor to ensure the patient’s health is on point at all times. By allowing doctors to be reimbursed for this type of ongoing preventative care, patients receive better treatment and require fewer in-office visits.

This advancement is particularly helpful for patients and doctors in rural areas. Preventative care results from reinforced positive behaviors and behavioral changes, proper adherence to medications, and staying away from certain habits and dangerous activities. All of these become exponentially more difficult when a patient lives an hour or more away from the nearest hospital.

Most medical professionals would love nothing more than to improve patient outcomes in a way that takes up fewer resources. This is where wearable devices and remote monitoring through Internet of Things medical devices come into play. Using the right technology, doctors can unlock scads of data from a distance and create actionable alerts so patients who need medical attention get treatment without delay. Say an elderly patient has a heart attack in his sleep — the system could automatically alert EMS, caregivers, and family members as quickly as possible to provide the patient with his best chance of survival.

It might sound like the far-flung future, but this technology is already available today. Cloud-based glucose monitors are hitting the market this year, and more advanced monitors — including sensors that can detect sleep apnea — are not far behind them. Time is of the essence in emergency situations, and these valuable tools can make a world of difference when it comes to preventative care.

The Next Leaps in Wearable Tech

While wearable tech is certain to make a big difference in healthcare moving forward, it’s an incredibly broad sector. Here are a few areas of the larger industry that will likely take center stage in the near future:

1. Miniaturized hardware

Some of the biggest innovations will involve health tech hardware itself. We have already seen a transition from bulky, intrusive devices with poor user experiences to more miniaturized equipment. Just look at PillCam, a potential replacement for endoscopic equipment designed as a pill-sized camera. Patients simply swallow the pill, which medical professionals can then use to review the status of the entire digestive tract.

As a result, doctors will be able to easily detect issues like colon cancer without invasive mechanisms.Companies will soon be able to seamlessly integrate wearable tech into clothing such as shoes, jeans, shirts, and even socks. If that isn’t enough, the further miniaturization of chips that can monitor our health will allow us to discreetly implant them beneath the surface of our skin. It might sound a little creepy, but this minuscule chip could provide us with the best healthcare imaginable. This could be particularly useful for outpatient care, where patients routinely forget to wear medical patches of monitoring mechanisms after heading home from a procedure.

2. Hearables

Hearing aids might seem like old news, but the latest developments in the “hearable” realm constitute a massive leap into the future. Companies are pairing hearing devices with machine learning capabilities and artificial intelligence to adjust and modulate audio for users.

A device might be able to automatically dampen the noise of a jet engine but accentuate a nearby whisper. This technology should be able to focus a muddled conversation in a busy restaurant until it sounds as clear as an intimate living room chat.

This technology can also be combined with haptic feedback to remind us to take medications or to check our blood pressure, for example. According to research by Juniper, the hearable market is predicted to grow by as much as 500 percent in the coming years. While existing hearables are prohibitively expensive — often costing at least $1,500 a pop — new advents in technology and rising consumer expectations should help reduce the costs of these devices in no time.

3. Language translation

Medical emergencies can occur at any time and any place. This might not seem problematic when you’re tooling around town, but what happens when you’re in an area where you don’t speak the same language as those around you?With new devices like the Google Pixel Buds, the language barrier need not prevent you from securing high-quality medical care.

These wireless headphones are able to translate in real time, helping users communicate with strangers on the street in case of a medical emergency. The devices can also aid doctors in discussing treatment options with patients who might otherwise need a translator.

We’re seeing a convergence of the IoT, connected devices that can monitor our vitals in real time, and a mountain of data that AI can analyze to detect patterns. This seamless monitoring of patient health will undoubtedly have a massive range of potential applications. Whether we’re talking about wearables, hearables, or consumables, this technology will be transformative for home healthcare, outpatient services, and preventative care.

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