Uber Aims to Address Social Determinants of Health

Multi-national ride-sharing company, Uber, is planning on leveraging its platform to deliver food and prescriptions to needy patients who can’t get around on their own, Yahoo Finance reported.

Uber Health chief Dan Trigub said at a CB Insights' Future of Health Conference, in New York, earlier this month, that the idea has been cooking for years.

Since Uber Eats was launched in Toronto nearly 4 years ago, more than 1 billion orders have been delivered to customers across 36 countries and in over 500 cities. The company is focused on building more features that address issues important to the communities that it serves. Uber launched drug store delivery platform in 2014

Related: Ford Grows In Medical Transportation Space

Like other consumer-focused companies, Uber is smart to realize that they can leverage their infrastructure and technology to make a difference in the way healthcare is delivered, according to Josh Weiner, president and COO of Solutionreach, a patient relationship management company in Lehi, Utah.

“This is a $3.5 trillion problem in the United States. It’s clear Uber is only beginning to scratch the surface on how the company can make a difference in overcoming one of the single biggest issues facing patients today: Access,” Weiner says.

“In a short period of time, Uber changed the paradigm of how people and goods move around, creating a marketplace of eager on-demand consumers and gig-economy workers,” he says. “There are myriad ways this new paradigm can improve healthcare, and it is incumbent on healthcare executives to think about unlocking the potential.”