Taking Bids on the Hospital of the Future

Leo, a 68-year-old retiree, is out shopping when his heart rate becomes irregular. He doesn’t notice, but his wrist monitor does, and it notifies a distant team of doctors. They dispatch a driverless car packed with sensors and medical gear to get a closer look at him and, if necessary, bring him to the pharmacy or emergency room.

This is the future as imagined by Kaiser Permanente, which has built a mock-up of Leo’s home in a test facility not far from its Oakland, Calif., headquarters, and is looking for equipment makers who can help fill the rooms’ empty spaces. As Silicon Valley’s principal hospital system and insurer, Kaiser has a history of focusing on advances rooted in technology, but in the past few years, instead of forcing its 10.6 million patients to use the systems on offer, it’s begun pushing hardware and software makers to respond to patient demands, and supply what it thinks they’ll want in 10 years. “It frees us up so we don’t get so stuck on the realities of today,” says Chief Executive Officer Bernard J. Tyson.