All We Know So Far About Amazon Healthcare

In 2018 it was announced that Amazon would be making its venture into the healthcare industry. Since then, the online conglomerate has made various moves in the industry to push their plan further. Amazon has been testing its Healthcare plan in different US states in recent months and partnered with a well-known EHR company. So what else is there to know about the Amazon healthcare plan? In this article, we'll be going through what Amazon has been doing to achieve its goals. Keep reading to find out more about what we know.

Rebranding PillPack

CernerEMR In June 2018, Amazon obtained PillPack, which was a virtual pharmacy, as part of the Amazon company. But in 2019, they rebranded PillPack and now display the logo as PillPack by Amazon Pharmacy. The rebranding of PillPack may show that Amazon tends to expand its pharmacy business enterprise further.

Amazon's Healthcare Venture with Haven

Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and J.P Morgan have a non-profit organization called Haven. It was setup to improve healthcare for the participating organization's employees through common sense fixes to the existing system . Amazon is testing the program on workers located in Utah, Connecticut, Wisconsin and North Carolina. The Haven organization has a CEO and a strong team of individuals. Haven hired a new candidate named Sandhya Rao, who is the senior director for Partners Population Health. Sandhya runs clinical strategies to optimize healthcare for employees. Trevor Price, who is the CEO of Oxeon Partners, stated that Haven is most likely in the process of building a risk-based clinically integrated network. This network will help employees select the correct medical assistance for their needs to avoid doctors who overcharge.

What is Amazon's Transcribe Medical?

CernerEMR In December 2019, Amazon announced the launch of a machine learning service that translates speech to text. This service is called Amazon Transcribe Medical. The Transcribe software is for doctors who are on time-sensitive working hours and need to make quick notes about their consultations with patients. You can enter medical terminologies, prescriptions and test results into text format without having to write them out. Amazon Transcribed is said to save practitioners a lot of time, and all speech to text transcriptions are highly accurate. Details can be placed directly into patient medical records fast.

Health Navigator and What They Do for Amazon

 CernerEMR Recently it was announced that Amazon had acquired another digital start-up company called Health Navigator. The Healthcare Navigator corporation is known for providing online tools to check various facilities to help patients find the correct practice for their medical needs. Amazon is offering Health Navigator to its employees as an extension of the Amazon Care Clinics.

Cerner EMR Teamed up with AWS

cernerEMR Cerner EMR and Amazon have teamed up to build on AI (Artificial Intelligence) & machine learning services for the healthcare industry. As part of the agreement between the two corporations, Cerner has named AWS (Amazon Web Service) as its preferred cloud service provider. Since many practitioners experience problems with some EMR companies, Cerner and Amazon Web Services have claimed that their partnership will decrease software problems. It will also optimize patient and practitioner satisfaction with the use of advanced AI systems.

Amazon's Virtual Care App

The Amazon brand has now developed its very own Care app. This app allows patients to chat with doctors through video calling or instant messaging services to eliminate the need to travel to clinics or private practices. If there's an emergency, a doctor may visit a patient's physical address. The patient will be able to see the location of the doctor and the expected time of arrival. It may help patients who are unable to get to doctors because of a lack of transport or those who have physical mobility challenges. The Amazon Care app also allows people to gain professional advice from nurses or doctors without leaving the house or spending money on unnecessary consultation fees.

Partnerships with Giant Eagle

Amazon has now teamed up with Giant Eagle which is a pharmacy chain and supermarket with over 200 locations across Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Maryland & West Virginia. The partnership allows patients with an active Giant Eagle prescription and an Alexa app to receive reminders of when to take their medication. This is done through the management skill option. For example, people who have loved ones on various types of medication can't keep up with what prescriptions to take at certain times. The medical management skill option will help those keep track of their medicinal needs for themselves and others. Amazon and other digital services such as Google are looking for new ways to help people manage their busy lifestyles. But the healthcare industry is complicated because of privacy regulations around sensitive health information being shared through applications. Amazon announced in April 2019 that Alexa is HIPAA compliant, and it will help people with their medical management.

Health Data Alliance Team up with Amazon

In August 2019, Amazon announced its partnership with Health Data Alliance to improve patient care. The two organizations will also be working on machine learning technologies in various areas such as voice activation, medical imaging, precision medication, and cancer diagnostics. Health Data Alliance uses digital information found on healthcare records to change the way major diseases are treated and prevented. The company also uses retrieved healthcare information as a means to educate patients about how they can improve their health. With the Amazon Web Service sponsorship, Health Data Alliance can conduct further research to improve diagnostics and treatments for various diseases. The partnership will provide all the resources scientists need to enhance healthcare software.

Final Thoughts

It's unclear what impact Amazon's new ventures will have on the healthcare industry as a whole. These ventures may have a significant influence on various corporations. But it could also be a positive change in the medical industry to assist with practitioner and patient satisfaction through a variety of newly developed technologies. Only time will tell, but for now, we will keep tabs on all the latest news regarding Amazon’s healthcare venture. It may help EHR, EMR and other medical care vendors with their business decisions going forward.