Amazon Leads into Telemedicine with New Acquisition

Amazon has acquired Health Navigator, a Chicago-based start-up that provides online symptom checking and that triages tools to companies looking to route patients to the right healthcare organization. Amazon will add Health Navigator to the company’s Amazon Care group, launched in September, according to a report by CNBC.¹

According to its website, Health Navigator boasts “a one-of-a-kind, digital, diagnostic system” which “improves the eHealth experience by providing accurate and efficient symptom checking.” They report a 98% accuracy with their more than 1.5 million encounters with patients through tools such as natural language processing, care advice, diagnosis, triage, clinical documentation support and more resources that culminate to capture the chief compliant and make recommendations.²

“In the short-term, the acquisition of Health Navigator should help Amazon provide more cost-effective, automatic care to their workers,” said Tom Kiesau, director with consulting firm The Chartis Group and leader of Chartis Digital, in an interview withTheChicago Tribune.³

Amazon Care is set to serve as a medical benefit for employees and to help provide care virtually, through a video visit, and with home visits if additional care is needed. The company is also beginning its plans to build out clinics in its headquarters in Seattle. Later this year, they plan to hire a small number of doctors to start a pilot clinic for a select group of employees and then expand it to more workers in early 2019, according to reports.⁴

“It just puts a stake in the ground that Amazon is interested in being involved in care delivery in a different way,” Kieasu added, in speaking withThe Chicago Tribune.³

The report follows Amazon’s other health-related acquisition, known as PillPack, which they bought for $753 million in June 2018. That New Hampshire-based company delivers most of the medications that consumers would normally find at their drugstore.⁵

The Health Navigator website has not yet referenced the acquisition.

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• Amazon Reportedly Names Head of PillPack

Reference

1. Farr, C. Amazon acquires start-up Health Navigator, its first health-related purchase since PillPack. CNBC website. Published on October 23, 2019.https://www-cnbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/10/23/amazon-acquires-digital-health-start-up-health-navigator.html. Accessed October 25, 2019.
2. Solutions Overview. Health Navigator website.https://www.healthnavigator.com/index.html@p=5349.html. Accessed October 25, 2019.
3. Schencker, L. Amazon acquires health care company led by Chicago doctor.Chicago Tribune.https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-amazon-health-navigator-david-thompson-20191024-gpmr3qs5sjf3bdsytpb7kr6njy-story.html. Published October 24, 2019. Accessed October 25, 2019.
4. Farr, C. Amazon has plans to open its own health clinics for Seattle employees. CNBC website. Published August 9, 2019.https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/09/amazon-plans-primary-care-clinics-employees.html. Accessed October 25, 2019.
5. Farr, C. Amazon’s PillPack is battling with CVS and Walgreens over getting patient prescriptions. CNBC website. Published August 6, 2019.https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/06/amazons-pillpack-expansion-faces-resistance-from-cvs-and-walgreens.html. Accessed October 25, 2019.