Amazon names 10 finalists in its first digital health accelerator
Amazon's push into healthcare takes many forms, and one is decidedly biotech-like – running an accelerator to identify and support startups with promising technology platforms.
The online commerce giant's first accelerator kicked off in June, focusing on digital health companies, and 427 applications from 31 countries around the world have now been winnowed down to 10 finalists.
The 10 startups – all from the US – will now embark on a four-week programme of assessment, training and development to ensure their technologies are ready for widespread deployment in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud.
The finalists are:
- AIVA, a startup that has developed a voice operating system for patient care. It offers a voice-powered care assistant for hospital patient rooms and senior living communities;
- b.well, which has developed an integrated solution for consumer engagement, holistic health management, and cost containment that uses data to paint a picture of health for a consumer and aggregate data to show population health;
- Ejenta, a company that automates remote monitoring and remote care delivery using artificial intelligence (AI) exclusively licensed from NASA that learns from connected devices and electronic health record (EHR) data and is used to monitor patients, predict health, and connect with care teams;
- Giblib, which has created an on-demand streaming educational experience for healthcare providers, including surgical videos and medical lectures from subject matter experts at leading medical institutions;
- Gyant, and its 24/7 AI virtual assistant and digital front door solution for health systems that navigates patients to the right care setting and resources, and provides appointment scheduling;
- Kaizen Health, a healthcare logistics platform that connects healthcare and transportation to reduce the barriers for access in healthcare;
- Medical Informatics Corp, which has developed an FDA-approved virtual care and analytics platform – Sickbay – which helps hospitals to reduce costs, enhance clinical workflows and improve operational efficiencies;
- Neuro Rehab VR, which provides training exercises for physical and cognitive therapy using virtual reality (VR) and neuroplasticity for recovery, and allows specialists to track their patients in real;
- OneRecord, , an app that helps patients build a consolidated health record of their entire medical history in a single location; and
- Pieces, which uses AI to assess and connect patients and health systems with solutions that address social determinants of health.
The winners will get mentorship from experts at AWS as well as KidsX, a digital health accelerator owned by Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, and also get $25,000 in credit for free usage of AWS, said Amazon in a blog post.
The credits can be used to perform proof-of-concept or benchmark testing of migrating applications to the cloud.
Amazon is advancing into healthcare on multiple fronts, launching its own pharmacy business for medicines delivery in the US last year, whilst also entering the health wearables market with its own Halo device, and bolstering the health-related capabilities of its Alexa virtual assistant.
In 2019, it acquired Health Navigator, a startup providing technology and services to digital health companies, to help power Amazon Care, a primary care programme offering employees virtual consultations.
