Heres how Amazon employees get health care through a new app — a glimpse of the future of medicine
Summary
The program could also help Amazon recruit and retain talent, as many companies will offer telemedicine apps but few -- with the notable exception of Apple -- put their own spin on the service. "Neither the plan nor Oasis will receive financial or in-kind compensation or remuneration in exchange for using or disclosing the PHI (personal health information) as described above," a disclosure form notes. Despite its focus on employees, Amazon Care is viewed by analysts and other health experts as a threat to established telemedicine companies that offer similar services to consumers. One possible indication of greater plans: In October Amazon acquired a small company called Health Navigator, which is known for its expertise in triage — that is, directing patients to the optimal place to get treated, whether its staying at home and waiting for a doctor or heading straight to the emergency room. Some notable folks include Kristi Henderson, a clinical operations leader who previously was a professor of population health at Dell Medical School and a vice president of virtual care at Ascension; Bill Lead, a security leader who hails from AWS; Nicole Coddington, a principal designer for the apps; Christine Henningsgaard, a product and operations specialist formerly of One Medical; and Ram Bhakta, a machine learning expert who previously worked at Microsoft.