F125 Amazon in Healthcare, AI Related Disparities and the Microbiome Challenges (Erin Brodwin)

This episode explores Amazon’s efforts in healthcare, the challenges of increasing transparency in AI development in healthcare, and a little bit about the state of turning microbiome research into business. 

There were many doubts that Amazon could succeed because healthcare and drug management are complex etc. It’s 2021 and Amazon is offering a competitive online Pharmacy and expanding its Amazon Care and telehealth offer. 

Microbiome space is a hot investment area but a shadow was cast upon it because of the downfall of the startup call uBiome. uBiome first offered a direct-to-consumer gut analysis for wellness. Later they turned it into a clinical test reimbursable by health insurance, which ended in problematic billing practices. In March this year, the Co-Founders were charged with multiple federal crimes including conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit health care fraud, money laundering, and related offenses.

Erin Brodwin is a health tech reporter at STAT News. In her career so far, Erin covered the promise and peril of AI in health care, broken news about health tech companies, and written comprehensively about wearables and their impact on digital health. Before joining STAT Erin was a senior health and tech reporter at Business Insider.  

Episode Summary

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