The doctor is in…your home speaker
As healthcare continues its march into the home, Amazon is stepping up its game. Last week, Amazon announced a partnership with Teladoc that allows Alexa to connect people to doctors from within their homes. People who own an Amazon Echo simply need to say, “Alexa, I want to talk to a doctor” and they will be routed to speak with a Teladoc physician over the phone (and video, eventually). While Teladoc and Amazon Care are technically competing in telehealth, it seems they’re willing to partner in order to get the scale each entity desires. Teladoc now has an entry point into 40M U.S. Alexa-enabled homes, and Amazon’s network of physicians is greatly expanded via Teladoc’s network.
Meanwhile, startups aren’t letting Amazon and Teladoc have all the at-home care fun. Story Health recently raised $22.6M to reimagine specialty care beyond the clinic setting, and Force Therapeutics announced a partnership with Xealth to help clinicians remotely manage patients’ post-op recovery from the EHR. The closer care can get to where people are and need it, the better.
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