Derek Wells
Mar 18, 2023
Amazon Clinic Details
Nov. 30, 2022 – Amazon is encouraging patients to “skip the waiting room” with the launch of Amazon Clinic, a virtual health care service that aims to offer treatment for nearly 2 dozen common health conditions.Taking a step beyond a typical telehealth visit, the service promises personalized treatment with no appointments, video calls, or live chat. Patients can answer questions about their symptoms and health history to receive a treatment plan and prescription medication through a messaging platform.
The new service could fill the gap for people who want a quick answer, have history of a condition, or need to address common issues such as seasonal allergies or dandruff.“During the pandemic, the use of telehealth accelerated throughout the country. Although face-to-face visits are returning, telehealth certainly still has a role, especially in areas with less medical care, and can enable faster diagnosis and help with tracking disease progression,” says Edwin Takahashi, MD, a radiologist at the Mayo Clinic who has studied recent telehealth benefits and challenges. “I think Amazon Clinic is an innovative approach to health care delivery,” he says. “I’m interested to see its impact in society and on patients. It’s so new that we need to see what its role will be in the future of health care.
”How It Works
To start, patients select one of the common conditions – such as acne, heartburn, or sinusitis – and then pick an online clinic that will review their case. After completing a questionnaire, patients receive a treatment plan from a U.S.-licensed health care provider, which may include a prescription or recommendations for over-the-counter treatments and self-care strategies. Users can message the provider with follow-up questions after receiving the treatment plan at no additional cost for up to 14 days. Based on the information provided, the provider may also recommend seeing a health care professional in person. For now, most conditions appear to be serviced by two clinics – HealthTap and SteadyMD – for $30 to $40. Depending on the day and time, the clinics have a listed response time of 1 hour to several hours.
What to Consider: The Benefits
The service allows users to start a visit quickly and discreetly, at whatever time works best for them, with no need to speak to anyone. Amazon promises that the health data is secure and protected by law.Amazon Clinic also offers prescription renewals for common medications that treat asthma, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, hypothyroidism, and migraine. The health care provider can’t prescribe new medications, change medication doses, or order lab testing, but this option may be useful for people who simply want to re-up their current regimen.“Every telehealth provider on Amazon Clinic has gone through rigorous clinical quality and customer experience evaluations by Amazon’s clinical leadership team,” Nworah Ayogu, MD, chief medical officer and general manager for Amazon Clinic, said in an announcement.