Prime Highlights:
- Amazon’s Health Assistant helps One Medical members manage medications, schedule appointments, and get guidance based on their health history.
- The service simplifies care by removing the need for uploading documents or linking other apps, making it easier for members to get help.
Key Facts:
- One Medical, acquired by Amazon for $3.9 billion in 2023, operates both physical clinics and telehealth services.
- Members pay $99 to $199 a year for full access to primary care services.
Background:
Amazon has launched a new health-care service for One Medical members to make patient care easier and more convenient. Called Health Assistant, which gives guidance based on a person’s medical history, test results, and current medications.
The service helps members with tasks like answering health questions, keeping track of medications, and booking appointments with their One Medical doctor. Amazon emphasized that the service is not intended to replace medical consultations or provide diagnoses. The tool helps spot when a patient should visit a doctor in person. Chats with the service are not added to medical records, keeping user information private.
Health Assistant gathers information from multiple sources, including licensed and proprietary databases, expert-reviewed knowledge, and select publicly available information. The tool has been tested with a subset of One Medical members since last spring, before being made widely available.
One Medical, which Amazon bought for $3.9 billion in 2023, runs both physical clinics and online telehealth services. Members pay $99 to $199 a year for full access to primary care. Health Assistant makes it easier for members to get help by removing the need to upload documents or connect to other apps.
Neil Lindsay, senior vice president of Amazon Health Services, said the tool is designed to provide practical assistance while keeping health providers central to care decisions. “Other health tools may give general advice, but this service knows your health history and can help you take meaningful steps while keeping your providers informed,” he noted.
Amazon has steadily expanded its health-care presence over the past decade, acquiring the online pharmacy PillPack in 2018 and launching Amazon Pharmacy in 2020. Health Assistant may also guide users to One Medical and Amazon Pharmacy services where relevant, though the company confirmed that personal health information is not used for marketing or unrelated commercial purposes.
With this launch, Amazon shows its commitment to making health care easier to access and more convenient, while staying competitive in both online and in-person medical services.
