The same day Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was raised to the post of 'world's richest person', according to Forbes and Bloomberg, a new report has claimed his company is preparing to join Microsoft and others in the battle for the healthcare sector. Amazon's secret health team is based in Seattle and currently dubbed "1492" - which could be a reference to when Columbus first reached the Americas.
According to a report from CNBC, the secret team is working on both software and hardware projects, including the possibility of "pushing and pulling data from legacy electronic medical record systems". Also, the team is said to be building an online platform for virtual consultation with doctors.
Furthermore, integration with current Amazon hardware offerings is being developed, including Echo and Dash Wand. But, until now, no information was provided about the development of any new health devices by the company, as stated by CNBC's sources.
CNBC also claims to have spotted on July 26 the advertisement of job posts by Amazon on LinkedIn that seems to be related to the secret team. When searching by "a1.492" on the site, positions described as "The Amazon Grand Challenge a.k.a. 'Special Projects' team" were shown, including for a UX Design Manager and for a Machine Learning Director "with experience in healthcare IT and analytics and a knowledge of electronic medical records".
Also, some members of the team had their affiliation with "a1.492" listed on their LinkedIn profiles by the time. However, those job posts are no longer available for search on LinkedIn and the team members no longer list their affiliation, according to CNBC.
Source: CNBC via MIT Technology Review, ZDNet
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