wp-plugin-hostgator domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home4/scienrds/scienceandnerds/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114ol-scrapes domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home4/scienrds/scienceandnerds/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114Source: https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/8\/25\/23321851\/amazon-care-tech-health-google-apple<\/a> It was only last year that Amazon\u2019s CEO, Andy Jassy, called Amazon Care one of the most exciting innovations<\/a> at the company. But on Wednesday, employees learned that Amazon Care would shut down at the end of the year, an abrupt end to a program once central<\/a> to its plans to reshape healthcare.<\/p>\n The abrupt shutdown doesn\u2019t mean Amazon is getting out of healthcare \u2014 it might just mean a reframing. It recently bought<\/a> the subscription-based primary care company One Medical, which offers similar services to Amazon Care. Reports<\/a> indicate Amazon is also interested in at-home healthcare technology company Signify Health. Amazon still wants to take on healthcare, but it\u2019s clarifying its approach: instead of building from scratch, it\u2019s taking over things that already work. <\/p>\n Other tech giants are going through a similar process of honing their healthcare strategies. When companies like Amazon, Google, and Apple first started forecasting their health-related ambitions around five years ago, the goals were lofty \u2014 disrupt and redefine the multi-trillion-dollar healthcare industry in the United States. <\/p>\n Early attempts to swing big were less than successful. Amazon partnered with Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase to try to create its own healthcare company<\/a> for employees from scratch, and that venture collapsed in 2021<\/a>. Apple tried to create its own primary care service, but data integrity issues raised by employees derailed the project<\/a>. Google disbanded its Health division<\/a> last summer and redistributed its health efforts across other teams. Many Big Tech efforts to contribute to COVID-19 response efforts fell flat<\/a>.<\/p>\n Until recently, Amazon Care seemed to be moving in a positive direction \u2014 it expanded nationwide and had customers like Hilton and Silicon Labs. But according to a memo from Amazon senior vice president of health Neil Lindsay, it wasn\u2019t a \u201ccomplete enough offering\u201d that big customers wanted to see in a healthcare product. Health professionals working with Amazon Care told The Washington Post<\/em> that they were concerned about patient safety<\/a>. <\/p>\n With the deal to acquire One Medical, they\u2019d have another issue with Amazon Care \u2014 combining two different data systems, says Brendan Keeler, a product manager at health technology company Zus Health and expert on healthcare data systems. Looking at both, it makes sense that they\u2019d focus on One Medical rather than trying to build a new primary care service from the ground up, he says. The process of building Amazon Care gave Amazon a better understanding of what healthcare solutions should look like, Lindsay said in his memo. One Medical might fit that picture better \u2014 and it comes off the shelf as a complete offering. <\/p>\n Amazon is good at the customer experience side of things but doesn\u2019t have as much expertise with the service that\u2019s actually being delivered in this case: healthcare. \u201cHealthcare is hard, and they\u2019re smart enough to see the right strategy for them,\u201d Keeler says. \u201cIt\u2019s them looking at their bets and saying, buying proven solutions, Amazon-fying them, and scaling them is how we get where we want to go.\u201d <\/p>\n It\u2019s a similar approach to the one Amazon took with its pharmacy programs. It bought pharmacy startup PillPack in 2018. Then, in 2020, it launched Amazon Pharmacy, which also offers home delivery for prescriptions \u2014 and was built on top of PillPack.<\/a><\/p>\n Like Amazon, Google and Apple are looking to carve out the parts of healthcare that actually make sense for them. For Google, maybe that\u2019s developing<\/a> algorithms<\/a> and backend tools that it could then pass off to health organizations to use. Apple is good at consumer tech \u2014 delivering care itself might not be its approach, but smartwatch features and easy-to-use personal health records are more in its zone. \u201cIt makes more sense that the inroads they make is bringing their particular expertise in a way that they can only do because of their scale,\u201d Keller says. <\/p>\n Tech expertise was never going to be a magic cure-all to the many, many problems plaguing the American healthcare system. It\u2019s an unwieldy, inequitable, tentacled beast held together by fax machines and taken to its breaking point by the pandemic. The early failures and growing pains weren\u2019t a surprise to people who work in healthcare and understand its sheer complexity. But tech interest in health isn\u2019t new or shiny anymore, and if the companies want to keep pushing into the space, they\u2019re going to have to find the corner of it that makes sense for them. <\/p>\n Finding it, though, doesn\u2019t guarantee success, and only time will tell if these companies are able to make the types of big changes to the areas they target \u2014 again, healthcare is hard. But if they\u2019re able to figure out ways to map the things they\u2019re already good at onto health products, they might find a path forward. \u201cIf they\u2019re not, it\u2019s gonna lead to failure,\u201d Keller says. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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