By applying its mission statement of being the world’s most customer-centric company, Amazon has now entered into the healthcare industry. For the past few years, telehealth has been a topic of discussion at Amazon’s annual meeting. Amazon has already transformed everyday life, serving customers by helping them order and receive almost anything in two days or less with Amazon Prime — and in some areas deliveries maybe done in under two hours. Amazon’s virtual personal assistant, Alexa; smart speaker, Echo; and ordering button, Dash, allow consumers to place order without a computer, access the news, listen to music, set alarms, control smart home devices, make phone calls and send text messages. By integrating these technologies into healthcare, the way customers access healthcare will also be altered. Amazon would thus be capable of offering services at a minimal cost and at patient’s preferable time and place.
Amazon-tapping-into-healthcare-market-infographicAmazon Care:
Launched in September 2019, Amazon Care provided Amazon employees and their families immediate access to quality medical care and avoid lengthy wait and travel times to get medical attention. By providing these services, Amazon was investing in the well-being of arguably their most important asset: their employees. Until March 2021, the services were exclusively available to the employees and their families in Amazon’s home town Seattle, but Amazon is now quietly expanding into the $3.8 trillion medical sector. The tech giant has filed paperwork to operate in all 50 states across the US.
Amazon Pharmacy:
The company has announced pharmacy services delivering medicines door-to-door. To place an order, users mandatorily have to first set up an account entering primary details and clearly specifying if they are allergic to any sort of medication. They will also have to submit their health conditions. Doctors can then directly send prescriptions to Amazon Pharmacy and patients can also convey transfers from their existing retailers. Amazon Prime members can enjoy special benefits and discounts on medication. Amazon Pharmacy has been launched in the United States and is supposed to go live in 45 states. It will not be available in states including Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Minnesota. There has been no announcement until now to know if Amazon will launch this feature in other countries including India as well.
Impact on healthcare market:
With zeal to become a global player in the healthcare market, Amazon is receiving mixed reactions on their initiative, some say that Amazon is disrupting the complex prevailing healthcare system in multiple different ways, others say it will open employment opportunities for physicians. Nonetheless, doctors and private clinics all over the world will have to fear the competition with Alexa’s home diagnosis systems. However, the other players should think of how to take advantage of the digitalization by digital business innovation leveraging their core competencies, rather than pushing themselves back.
Features of the Amazon telehealth:
Telehealth is a growing sector, and Amazon promises far more than one-off visits with remote physicians. It will not be a standard clinic which we know of today. Rather, Amazon will apply its data driven mechanics which will permit an effortless management of connected healthcare databases for quick application development. According to an industry study, before COVID-19, around 11% of US consumers were using telehealth appointments which have now risen to 46%. Some advantages of telehealth services are listed below:
- Order-tracking potential
- Scheduling appointments in no time
- Ease of setting up a new user
- Price transparency
- Freedom of choice for packaging
- Fast medicine deliveries at home
- On demand vehicles for patients
- Online web chat
- Shared account security
- Analytics to prevent adverse drug events (ADR)
The Road Ahead
The road ahead is not devoid of potential hurdles for the company. Walgreens, Walmart and other companies have earned a loyal consumer base over past many years and earning customer trust will hence, be challenging. Consumers will be concerned about data security and privacy although Amazon has potentially built necessary reassurances. Amazon Pharmacy does not presently provide same-day delivery and hence can cause a problem in situations where the consumers will require the medications same day itself. There can also be a fear of package theft and Amazon must assure reliability of delivery.
With Amazon’s excellent adaption to their core capabilities to collect, analyse and interpret data and the company’s expertise in speed, building consumer loyalty, and scalability, we at ‘Untapped Markets’ expect a significant traction for Amazon in this segment. The multi-pronged approach will soon scale up and Amazon will emerge as a leading telehealth operator and will offer innovative data driven treatment options.
