Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1479669
82 CIO / HEALTH IT What CIOs, digital execs expect from Amazon in healthcare By Giles Bruce, Naomi Diaz, Laura Dyrda A mazon revealed plans to shutter Amazon Care in an Aug. 24 letter to Amazon Health Services employees. But that doesn't mean the end of healthcare services from the nearly $470 billion technology behemoth. "Organizations as large as Amazon and Alphabet can afford to try things in many different ways," said Saad Chaudhry, CIO of Luminis Health in Annapolis, Md. "ey do not have to buy into the fallacy of sunk cost due to their scale and resources. If their foray does not yield results that could be channeled into something bigger or aligned with a larger plan, it can be wrapped-up and its data analyzed to garner lessons and knowledge for other activities in that industry." Citi analysts shared a similar message, saying in an Aug. 24 flash note that Amazon Care's closing "is far from the death knell for [Ama- zon's] healthcare ambitions" and could be "more like just the begin- ning," according to Seeking Alpha. "is may strengthen Amazon's resolve for it, if they would rather provide care through an established provider network instead of something in-house," said Mr. Chaudhry. "Or, this may reset Ama- zon's approach as to which focused area within healthcare they are interested in." Amazon built its first foray into telehealth with Amazon Care from the ground up, but the company is now looking for outside expertise to iterate and improve upon its offerings. Amazon reached an agree- ment to buy virtual and in-person primary care company One Med- ical for $3.9 billion in a cash transaction announced July 20 and has placed a bid on home health and technology company Signify Health, which was valued at $5 billion in mid-August. Executives outside of Amazon may have been surprised by the an- nouncement, but internally there have been signs. One of Amazon Care's top leaders went on a leave of absence in early August, and e Washington Post published an article quoting nurses and other staff members outlining issues with the company's business model. "It comes as a shock to those on the outside, of course, but I have to imagine that those in the boardroom at Amazon arrived at the con- clusion aer evaluating and weighing outcomes from the initiative," said Mr. Chaudhry. "And I imagine that the learnings from it will be applied directly to other healthcare ventures at Amazon. Whether this impacts the One Medical acquisition, of course, remains to be seen." Health system tech executives are watching Amazon's moves closely, alongside other disruptors like Google and Walmart, to meet patient needs. "At [University of California San Francisco], we believe that patient care and experience are better with a broad spectrum of patient choic- es including convenient, on-demand care in addition to chronic, lon- gitudinal care, so Amazon's statement and conclusions resonate," said Aaron Neinstein, MD, vice president of digital health at UCSF Health and senior director of the UCSF Center for Digital Health Innovation. "I remain interested in seeing what investments Amazon makes in building the One Medical practice network and rationalizing it with its other healthcare products and services." is isn't the first time Amazon has pivoted away from a healthcare venture with lessons learned. Amazon was part of a three-way joint venture with JP MorganChase and Berkshire Hathaway to revolution- ize healthcare coverage and delivery. e venture, Haven, folded in 2021 aer nearly four years of existence. West Virginia health systems to cut ties over EHR vendor choice By Ayla Ellison D avis Health System began a clinical affiliation with WVU Medicine in 2019. The health systems are ending the partnership Aug. 8, according to The Inter-Mountain. The systems entered into the affiliation to help Elkins, W.Va.-based Davis Health System advance its specialty care, including urology and neurology. The affiliation also helped the system strengthen its telemedicine network by providing immediate access to WVU Medicine specialists. Morgantown, W.Va.-based WVU Medicine is ending the affiliation over Davis Health System's EHR vendor choice, a spokesperson for Davis Health System told The Inter-Mountain. "We just could not afford the Epic system so we signed on to go with Cerner," the spokesperson told The Inter-Mountain. "Then shortly after we did, we got a letter from WVU Health Systems saying that they were ending the clinical affiliation based on the grounds of not having an integrated medical records system." WVU Medicine was going to allow Davis Health System to tag into its Epic EMR, but cost was the deciding factor. "It was a substantial difference of millions of dollars and our administration and board looked at the two systems and felt there was only one way to go," the Davis Health System spokesperson told The Inter-Mountain. WVU Medicine declined to comment to The Inter-Mountain about the partnership ending. n