When Jobs met Wozniak: partnerships as the catalyst for healthcare 3.0

Sept. 12, 2016 / By JaeLynn Williams

We all know the story. It was 1976, and Steve Wozniak was dabbling in computer design in his garage.

He created a new machine that he shared with his friend and co-worker Steve Jobs. Wozniak wanted to build something for himself – a computer that he could use for work and also just for fun. Jobs, on the other hand, saw a technology that could change the way people lived and worked. Unlike the massive mainframes of the day, Wozniak’s computer was something that Jobs knew could and should be made available to everyone.

The Jobs and Wozniak partnership was the catalyst that created the company, Apple Inc., and that computer eventually became the Apple II, the first computer with color graphics. This was just the beginning. Apple re-invented personal technology and our personal lives with the iPod, the iPad and the iPhone. Today everyone from the MIT professor to the toddler sitting next to you on the plane is browsing music, photos and video with a tap on a screen. The combination of Steve Wozniak’s technical genius with Steve Job’s future vision literally changed the world and made it better, easier and more equitable.

Partnerships that bring together unique and complementary strengths like those of Jobs and Wozniak will be the catalyst that moves healthcare innovation from incremental improvements to breakthrough innovation, simplifying healthcare access, delivery, payment and efficacy in ways we have only imagined in science fiction.

Read the rest of the commentary at Beckers Hospital Review.