One Medical Group’s Dr. Stephanie Long (right) measures the blood pressure of Danielle Green (left), who is 20 weeks pregnant, during a prenatal appointment on Thursday, February 4, 2016 in San Francisco, California.
Ria Suzuki | San Francisco Chronicle | Getty Images
Amazon On Wednesday, the company rolled out an artificial intelligence-powered healthcare assistant for members of its One Medical primary care chain, joining the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic, which have recently launched similar capabilities.
The tool, called Health AI, uses a large-scale language model from Amazon’s Bedrock service to answer questions and provide personalized advice to members based on their medical records, test results, and current medications.
It can also help manage medications and schedule appointments with the user’s One Medical provider.
Amazon says the tool pulls answers from a variety of sources, including accredited proprietary data, knowledge verified by medical experts, and in some cases publicly available data.
Health AI is coming to the app from One Medical, the healthcare company that Amazon acquired in 2023 for $3.9 billion. One Medical operates brick-and-mortar clinics and also offers some telehealth services to members who pay between $99 and $199 annually for the service.
Amazon said Health AI is not intended to provide diagnosis or treatment and should not replace a doctor’s visit. The tool is “programmed with clinical protocols” that identify when symptoms or conditions require escalation or an in-person visit to a health care provider, the company said.
Conversations with the Health AI will not be added to a patient’s medical record, Amazon said.
The company began testing Health AI with some One Medical members last spring before rolling out the tool more broadly.
Other AI providers are also entering the lucrative healthcare market.
Earlier this month, OpenAI launched ChatGPT Health, a feature within its chatbot that allows users to upload their medical records and receive personalized advice. Shortly after, Anthropic released the Claude for Healthcare feature.
Amazon said Health AI is easier for patients to use and “more practical” than other products because it does not require uploading documents or connecting to external apps.
“In short, other AI health chatbots are providing general health information,” Neil Lindsay, senior vice president of Amazon Health Services, told CNBC in a statement. “One Medical’s Health AI assistant knows your health status, takes actions based on patient requests, and keeps your trusted healthcare providers in the lead. There’s a difference between getting answers and being cared for.”
Amazon has expanded further into healthcare over the past decade. In addition to acquiring One Medical, Amazon also acquired online pharmacy PillPack in 2018 for approximately $750 million. Two years later, the company launched its own service called Amazon Pharmacy.
The company said its Health AI may direct users to One Medical or Amazon Pharmacy services “where useful,” but that protected health information will not be used to sell or promote general merchandise on its extensive web store.
