- Amazon has announced that it has expanded its telehealth services nationwide.
- This program, called Amazon Care, can connect healthcare professionals and customers via video chat.
- If further care is needed, nurses can be sent to people’s homes in several places.
- According to experts, Amazon Care can confuse the healthcare industry, but it’s too early to know how big the impact is.
In 2017, Amazon entered the grocery business with the acquisition of Whole Foods.
The following year, Amazon purchased the online pharmacy PillPack.
If you’re asking yourself what’s next to the e-commerce giant, the answer is telemedicine.
Amazon recently announced that its virtual medical service, Amazon Care, will be available nationwide.
The company also said that Amazon Care’s accompanying face-to-face service will be rolled out in 20 more cities this year, including major metropolitan areas such as San Francisco, Miami, Chicago and New York City.
According to company officials, Amazon Care can quickly connect customers and healthcare professionals from home comfort through video chat.
If the video visit does not solve the problem, or if further evaluation is needed, the company will send a nurse to your home.
But so far, the nurse’s visit is only available in eight cities that provide home care. Seattle, Baltimore, Boston, Dallas, Austin, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Arlington.
To use the service, your employer must be signed up for the service.
Amazon says it serves Whole Foods workers.
The company launched a pilot telemedicine service for its employees and their families in Seattle in 2019.
According to the company, there are also new customers such as Silicon Labs and TrueBlue.
“We like anything that improves patients’ access to healthcare providers,” said Caitlin Donovan, a health policy expert and spokesman for the National Patient Advocate Foundation.
“Telehealth is a great resource for patients, not only for viruses, but also for people with low mobility, transportation problems, and parents working,” Donovan told Healthline.
“There are many people who have telemedicine a great option … and I like what extends it,” she said.
Amazon is already growing rapidly and is entering the telemedicine field, which is being spurred by multiple players by the COVID-19 pandemic.
One research firm estimates that growth has settled at 38 times the pre-pandemic level. He also predicted that up to $ 250 billion in healthcare costs could be shifted to virtual care.
However, Donovan said Amazon’s home visit with a telemedicine session could set it apart from other services. Home care may be something other healthcare companies are considering offering.
“It’s like we go around completely in the best possible way,” she said. “If we could combine these two things … what we really have is the ability to reach the many people who were left behind.”
Can Amazon’s telemedicine services make a big difference in the medical industry?
Experts are still uncertain.
“I don’t think it will be very effective in the short term. It will have a very gradual effect, but in the long term there is some potential,” said Santa Clara University, California. Kirthi Kalyanam, Executive Director of the Retail Management Institute, said.
He has extensively studied and written about the “Amazon effect”.
Kalyanam said the first Amazon needs to get more employers to sign up for services for workers.
“It’s not like a retail service where they can stick it on a shelf and offer it to their prime members,” he told Healthline.
But Kalyanam said the company has deep pockets, patience and long-term investment.
“The Amazon guide is that they are chasing a simple part of the medical system … and they are using technology to solve the problem,” he said.
“You can get immediate access to your doctor via phone or mobile device. And if you want, they send a nurse to your home. It’s the friction they’re solving and it’s very important. So far, the healthcare system hasn’t solved that problem for us, “he explained.
“I think it could really strain some of the existing healthcare companies.” Kalyanam has been added.
Some investors may be nervous as Amazon announces the expansion of telemedicine. Shares in Teladoc, a virtual doctor-visiting company, fell 6% on the same day.
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