Health Care Data Markets
On Septemer 9th, Merck announced a partnership with Maccabi which is one of the largest health care providers in Israel. The proposed impetus for this partnership was so that Merck can use their data to track disease histories and the success or failure of medications over a set of patients lifespans. Does Merck have better tools than Maccabi to study and analyze their data? Right now probably and they obviously have the resources, but even small- and middle-tier health care management providers are sitting on large amounts of data and they are just beginning to understand the inherent value of this data. At some point these folks will acquire the technical expertise in-house to study, analyze, and subsequently sell these analyses to others. Very reminiscent of the Content is King debate …
