“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”
The famous saying seems to be the motto at Amazon, which has launched and shuttered several health solutions over the years. This includes Amazon Halo, its line of wearable health and fitness devices; Amazon Care, its employer-sponsored hybrid primary care and urgent care business: and Haven, its joint venture with JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway.
“There are always lessons learned,” Dr. Nworah Ayogu, general manager and chief medical officer of Amazon Clinic, said in an interview last week at the AHIP 2023 conference in Portland. “I think anytime you’re trying to do big things, you’re trying to do things differently, you’re not going to have a 100% hit rate. That is the nature of what happens when you’re trying to step out and really change the way things are done. But the pluses are there are a lot of learnings.”
While the company has shuttered several businesses, it has also launched a few more.
In 2020, the company formed Amazon Pharmacy, which in January launched RxPass, a solution for Prime members that gives access to more than 50 generic drugs for $5 a month. In November, Amazon also launched Amazon Clinic, a virtual direct-to-consumer platform that connects patients with clinicians to treat more than 30 common health conditions. It also tapped into the primary care market by acquiring One Medical in a $3.9 billion deal.
When asked what will make these newly launched solutions more successful than its predecessors, Dr. Vin Gupta, chief medical officer of Amazon Pharmacy, responded, “We’re approaching this humbly. … We’ve seen certain things we’ve had to learn from, but we’re still early. It’s still early days for us.”
What are those lessons? Forming partnerships and understanding what the customer wants, Ayogu said.
“Customer obsession is right,” he stated, referring to the guiding mantra of Amazon from its inception. “When you build back from the customer and their problems, that is where to start and you want to stay focused there. There are a lot of stakeholders that matter in the healthcare system, so you have to keep all of their needs in mind, but your North Star should always be the customer. The other [lesson learned] is that there are a lot of areas in which you need to partner. My uncle loves to speak in proverbs and he always says, ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.’”
In the case of Amazon Clinic, the company chose to act as a marketplace that outsources to other clinicians for treatment. It differs from the now-shuttered Amazon Care, which attempted to build its own network of providers. Several industry experts previously told MedCity News that Amazon Clinic’s model will likely be the more successful one, which Ayogu seems to agree with.
“I think we’ve seen on Amazon that customers like having choice,” he said. “This lets you have choice, you can choose based on the factors that matter to you. … Some of the provider groups specialize in certain areas like women’s health. The speed, some will get back to you faster than others. They have different prices.”
In RxPass’ case, the solution is enticing for Amazon Prime consumers, particularly those with multiple chronic conditions, due to its access to more than 50 generics at the low cost of $5 a month, some believe. However, the solution seems to fall short of supporting older adults, a population where “Prime penetration is lowest,” according to Marissa Moore, health tech investor at OMERS Ventures.
Gupta pushed back against this criticism, declaring that RxPass is being used by a variety of consumers, though he didn’t provide specific data on usage by age.
“[Ages] 45 and up is probably the bullseye of being at risk for some of these chronic conditions,” he said. “We have not necessarily seen a strong bend in terms of demographics and less uptake amongst an older demographic, which has been interesting to see because I think that means that they’re engaged.”
In other words, older age groups are still showing interest in RxPass, according to Gupta.
While Gupta and Ayogu lead efforts with Amazon Pharmacy and Amazon Clinic whose market adoption is being watched by industry observers, there’s deep interest in how One Medical fares.
The companies function as separate businesses, Ayogu said. But Gupta added that there is one common thread between One Medical, Amazon Pharmacy and Amazon Clinic: a focus on “better patient engagement.”
“We really feel like we could be the primary medical home — whether it’s through Clinic or One Medical — for a patient and their journey throughout life,” Gupta said.
While Gupta believes that these solutions seem to be “working per early signals,” only time will tell whether they can capture market share in the complex and deeply fragmented world of healthcare.
Photo: Flickr, Cerillion Skyline
