Amazon will end support for a program that allows patients to share information protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act with hospitals and health insurers through a device. powered by artificial intelligence Alexa, the tech giant said on Thursday.
Amazon said it will stop supporting its third-party HIPAA-eligible program for Alexa, and any protected health information in the program will be removed by the end of next week. Artificial intelligence news site voice first reported Amazon’s decision.
Amazon launched the program in April 2019, inviting select hospitals and health insurers to develop HIPAA-compliant apps (internally referred to as skills) that can be used with Alexa. Amazon launched it with six healthcare organizations including Charlotte-based Atrium Health; Boston Children’s Hospital; Renton, Providence is headquartered in Washington; Cigna is headquartered in Bloomfield, Connecticut; digital health company Livongo, which was later sold to Teladoc Health; and pharmaceutical benefit management company Express Scripts.
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Initial capabilities include scheduling appointments, reading blood sugar through connected devices, reading post-surgery progress notes, and managing prescription deliveries. As of Wednesday, three of those organizations—Boston Children’s, Providence, and Express Scripts (owned by Cigna)—had active apps on the Alexa skills store. None of the three immediately responded to a request for comment.
Amazon also announced Alexa capabilities with Teladoc in February. A Teladoc spokesperson said “Teladoc for Alexa” is no longer working.
In a statement, an Amazon spokesperson said the company will continue to support Alexa Smart Properties for Healthcare, a division that sells Alexa devices and voice tools to hospitals and vendors to deploy and manage. centralized management throughout their organization. It is used in Tampa, Florida-based Baycare, and Los Angeles-based Cedars-Sinai and Houston Methodist.
Amazon’s decision to end the Alexa initiative is the latest twist in the tech giant’s frantic push into healthcare. In July, the company announced plans to acquire One Medical, a member-based primary care company, for $3.9 million. The Federal Trade Commission is reviewing the transaction.
In August, Amazon announced it would discontinue its Amazon Care service at the end of the year. A month later, the company laid off 400 workers in connection with the closure of Amazon Care. In November, the company launched Amazon Clinic, a “virtual health store” that gives users access to third-party telemedicine providers.
This story first appeared in Digital Health Business & Technology.
