Can healthcare be the future for telecos?
MADRID: Spain’s largest telco is working on technology-centred solutions to problems that affect billions such as alcoholism and electricity shortage.
It’s Alpha unit, experimenting with radically new lines of business, where the future of Telefonica is going to be written,” according to Pablo Rodriguez, the division’s CEO. “We are going to do things that are meaningful.”
Alpha projects must ultimately have commercial applications and some of the most advanced are in healthcare.
Its firs app was developed to treat alcoholism. It’s second, to treat body dysmorphic disorder, is in testing ahead of submission to the US Food and Drug Administration for approval for commercial use. However, Mr Rodriguez cautions, “doing things that are meaningful… will require patience and take probably five to 10 years to mature.”
