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Amazon, Google And Microsoft Aim To Fix Healthcare Problem

Release time:  2018-08-20 Release source:  Forbes author:  ADNose browse:  401


Here are five things in technology that happened this past week and how they affect your business. Did you miss them?


1 - Amazon, Google, Microsoft and others make health data pledge.


This week, Alphabet (the parent company of Google), Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, and Salesforce announced a joint effort to fix the lack of open standards around health data—which is a huge barrier for them to get into the $3 trillion health system. To address the problem, these tech companies have pledged to build tools for the health community around a set of common standards for exchanging health information electronically. (Source: CNBC)


Why this is important for your business:


One of the biggest struggles since The Affordable Care Act became law in 2010 has been the healthcare industry’s ability to share patient data among various providers.  Although much has been invested, little progress has been made. Now the big tech companies are getting involved. You can be sure that they’ll be looking to partner and invest with other, smaller tech companies like yours to help them accomplish this goal. But regardless if you’re in the tech business or not, anything that will improve the productivity of our healthcare providers will not only help patient care, but hopefully keep costs – our costs – under control.



2 – Money is pouring into a robot-centered pizza startup.


Founded in 2015, Zume Pizza of Mountain View, California uses robotics and AI to make pizza more quickly. Machines press mounds of dough, squirt and spread sauce, and lift pizzas in and out of the oven, in a fraction of the time it takes human workers to do the same. Now Japan’s SoftBank is in talks to invest up to $750 million in Zume, which could help ramp up the pizza delivery company’s sideline venture, which is creating technology for others who want to get into the automated food truck business. (Source: ZDNet)


Why this is important for your business:


Automation is hitting the food industry in a big way and now large venture capital and investment firms are pouring money into companies that are developing technologies that enable food to be processed, prepared, cooked and delivered faster and cheaper – whether in a restaurant or a food truck.  Yes, that even means pizza.


3 - Protecting your data on the web is about to get faster.


The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) recently finished a years-long process of modernizing the technology used to secure website communications. Version 1.3 of Transport Layer Security (TLS) is now ready for websites, browsers, and other parts of the internet that rely on its security. Nowadays, TLS is more important than ever because Google, Mozilla, Cloudflare, and others are pushing to encrypt every webpage, not just sensitive ones like login pages, in order to thwart surveillance, hackers, and companies that want to inject advertisements. (Source: CNET)


Why this is important for your business:


The latest TLS will soon be incorporated in just about every way you use to access the internet and with its new enhancements should make browsing for you and your employees faster and more secure.


4 – Nine ways the Galaxy Note 9 it beats the iPhone.


According to one blogger on ZDNet, Samsung’s Galaxy Note 9 is not only a lot better than last year’s Note, but also beats Apple’s iPhone in many ways. For example, it has a better-performing 6.4-inch screen, a smarter S Pen stylus, a bigger battery, and lots of extra storage. And its price starts at just $999.  (Source: ZDNet)



Why this is important for your business:


My take: the Galaxy 8 that I own now is great but my only complaint is the battery life, particularly when I’m running a few apps. As I – like so many other business people – rely significantly on this device for my work, I hate having to worry about charging my battery all the time.  With all that’s great about the Galaxy 9, I’m still not sure that problem is fully addressed.


5 - Facebook administrators need to prepare for stricter security with 2FA for business pages.  


Facebook just announced new security measures that will require Page managers to complete an authorization process before posting—a measure that should prevent fake accounts from accessing shared spaces. The new authorization asks Page managers to secure their accounts via two-factor authentication and to confirm the location of their primary country. Facebook is trying out this process first with admins of Pages that have a large US audience. (Source: Tech Republic)


Why this is important for your business:


This is yet another step in Facebook’s endless battle to minimize hacks and data breaches. 2FA is common and doesn’t take much additional time. It’s benefits, however, are significant.