Health & Care Transformation (HCT)
Management Institute
Joaquim Cardoso MSc*
Chief Strategy Officer, Researcher and Editor
November 9, 2022
*MSc from London Business School — MIT Sloan Masters Program
Source: The Verge
Executive Summary
What happened?
- As the company prepares to shut down Amazon Care at the end of the year, a video a video published to the company’s YouTube page Tuesday — and then quickly taken down — described “Amazon Clinic,”
- “Amazon Clinic” would be an online care program that would offer treatment for “common conditions” like allergies and acne.
- Amazon spokesperson Christina Smith declined to comment on the video and the program it described.
How would Amazon Clinic work?
- As described in the video, people could fill out a questionnaire about their symptoms and pay a fee.
- Amazon’s leaked “Clinic” would connect patients to telemedicine
- A clinician would review their answers and provide a diagnosis and prescriptions as needed.
- “Telehealth services are offered by third-party healthcare provider groups,” according to the text in the video. The video directs people to amazon.com/clinic, a webpage that is not currently live at publication.
- The video says that prescriptions would be sent to “your pharmacy.” It’s not clear if the program would direct people to Amazon Pharmacy, which is still struggling to take off, according to reporting from Insider in August.
ORIGINAL PUBLICATION (full version)
Amazon’s leaked “Clinic” would connect patients to telemedicine
As the company prepares to shut down Amazon Care at the end of the year, a video describes a new healthcare offering.
The Verge
By NICOLE WETSMAN
Nov 9, 2022
Amazon might have a new healthcare offering coming soon, according to a leaked video.
A video published to the company’s YouTube page Tuesday — and then quickly taken down — described “Amazon Clinic,” an online care program that would offer treatment for “common conditions” like allergies and acne.
A video published to the company’s YouTube page Tuesday — and then quickly taken down — described “Amazon Clinic,” an online care program that would offer treatment for “common conditions” like allergies and acne.
As described in the video, people could fill out a questionnaire about their symptoms and pay a fee.
A clinician would review their answers and provide a diagnosis and prescriptions as needed.
“Telehealth services are offered by third-party healthcare provider groups,” according to the text in the video.
The video directs people to amazon.com/clinic, a webpage that is not currently live at publication.
The video says that prescriptions would be sent to “your pharmacy.”
It’s not clear if the program would direct people to Amazon Pharmacy, which is still struggling to take off, according to reporting from Insider in August.
Amazon spokesperson Christina Smith declined to comment on the video and the program it described.
The described program would be yet another healthcare pivot for Amazon.
Just a few months ago, the company announced it would shutter Amazon Care, its original telehealth service.
That program started as a service for Amazon employees and then was expanded as an offering for any company that wanted to offer it to its employees.
Amazon senior vice president of health Neil Lindsay said in an email announcing the shutdown that it “is not a complete enough offering for the large enterprise customers we have been targeting.”
The move came after Amazon announced it was acquiring primary care provider One Medical.
It’s not clear if the third-party healthcare provider groups described in the Amazon Clinic video would include One Medical.
Tech companies are still figuring out how to best navigate the lucrative — but messy — healthcare industry.
Depending on the form it ends up taking, this Amazon Clinic offering could be a new angle on the problem: focusing on customer experience, which the company is already good at, rather than trying to offer the care itself.
Depending on the form it ends up taking, this Amazon Clinic offering could be a new angle on the problem: focusing on customer experience, which the company is already good at, rather than trying to offer the care itself.
Originally published at https://www.theverge.com on November 9, 2022.
Names mentioned
Amazon spokesperson Christina Smith
Amazon senior vice president of health Neil Lindsay
