SAP chief embarks on health-care mission after losing eye in an accident

San Francisco

On July 6, Bill McDermott, the chief executive of one of the world's largest software companies, fell down the stairs at his brother's house. He awoke in a pool of blood.

He had been holding a drinking glass when he fell, and it shattered and cut his face from above his left eye to below his ear. Glass also entered his left eye, and he lost his vision there, despite going through several operations to save it.

The experience has spurred the 54-year-old to take his company SAP - a firm based in Germany that specializes in large-scale software for manufacturers, retailers and the like - deeper into health care.

When he returned to work in early October, the first thing he did was to talk about how SAP should be working to make health care better, by focusing on more cross-disciplinary work, digitise…