- During this 2022, the closure of Amazon Care, the company’s flagship program to offer home health care, was announced.
- In parallel, Jeff Bezos’s company acquired the One Medical health group in a transaction that had an estimated value of 3,490 million dollars.
- A video published by mistake on YouTube would be the key to knowing how the new program called Amazon Clinic will work.
The last couple of years have seen an acceleration in the digitization of health. With current tools it is already possible to provide medical care without the need for the doctor and the patient to be in the same place. It is a format that is constantly evolving and now it could take a new step forward with the arrival of Amazon Clinic.
The path from telemedicine to internet medical consultations
It was during the 1970s that the first teams of telemedicine. At that time the main objective was to bring basic health services to the most remote areas. The idea materialized and various countries gradually integrated it into their medical care models.
For its part, at the beginning of the 21st century progress was made towards medical consultations online. Connectivity made it possible to access a doctor anywhere on the planet with just a phone or tablet. It is the model that prevails today and during the pandemic it saw an exponential increase.
In 2020, with the fear of a large part of the population of going to hospitals, the service through the internet became an everyday thing. To date there are several companies that offer this modality that is not only safe but also comfortable because there is no need to go to hospitals.
Similarly, health has become a priority for the world’s large technology companies. Since Apple and Amazon to Microsoft they already have work divisions to develop tools within this area. It is a very valuable market and no one wants to be left out.
Although one of the biggest surprises occurred in the middle of this 2022 when the closure of Amazon Care was announced. It was one of the flagship programs of the top leader in internet sales in the world. But giving up health is not an option and the evolution of this model would be a new modality that plans revolutionize telemedicine.
According to the portal TheVergea video mistakenly posted on Amazon’s YouTube channel and removed after a few hours is the key to learning about this new program called Amazon Clinic.
How will you match patients with doctors?
The same publication offers a summary of how it would work. First, it is stated that it would be a replacement for all general first contact inquiries but now everything will be virtually.
At the time a patient requests the service, they must answer a questionnaire to find out their symptoms. Upon completion of this stage, the device’s camera is used to link the person with a doctor and start the virtual consultation.
The rest of the service would be the same as the way in which medical consultations are carried out online today. While at the end the doctor not only offers a diagnosis but the prescription is issued through amazon-pharmacy so that patients can receive drugs directly at home.
In order to complete the transition to this new model, it will be key One Medical. Just a few months ago, the acquisition of Amazon by this group, which has 188 medical offices in 25 markets throughout the United States, became official. The transaction had an estimated value of $3.49 billion.
For now, it is indicated that the url to access Amazon Clinic will be amazon.com/clinic although until now the site is not active yet.
Also read:
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