Amazon Moves into Healthtech

We’ve written before about the rise of healthtech — such as some doctors starting to practice “telemedicine,” meaning they can offer medical consultations via the web or mobile phone apps.

Now Amazon is getting into the virtual medicine game, this week launching its Amazon Care app, which provides health advice, virtual medical visits, and in-person support to the company’s Seattle-area employees. CNBC reports that tech giants like Amazon are moving into primary care to clamp down on rising healthcare costs, hoping to reduce costly emergency visits by catching health problems sooner. 

Will Amazon’s employees adopt Amazon Care in droves? And surely this is only the first phase in whatever plans Bezos’ empire has for getting into the world of healthcare technology.