Amazon Web Services announced the launch of Amazon Connect Health on Thursday. This new platform, powered by AI agents, is designed to help healthcare organizations automate repetitive administrative tasks. These tasks include appointment scheduling, documentation, and patient verification.
Amazon Connect Health is HIPAA-eligible and integrates with existing electronic health record software. The company stated the platform is already partnered with EHR software providers, data integrators, and patient engagement companies.
This move represents a continued expansion by AWS into the healthcare industry, which it values at $5 trillion in the United States. The company previously launched Amazon Comprehend Medical for processing medical text in 2018, Amazon HealthLake for organizing health data in 2021, and HealthOmics for bioinformatics in 2022.
However, Amazon Connect Health is its first major product offering AI agents—software that completes complex tasks—within a regulatory compliant platform. It works with clinician software to manage administrative workflows like medical history reviews, medical coding, and clinical documentation.
Currently, the platform offers patient verification and ambient documentation. Appointment scheduling and patient insights are available in preview, with medical coding and other features scheduled for release later.
The software is priced at $99 per user per month for up to 600 patient encounters monthly. AWS noted that most primary care physicians have up to 300 encounters per month. A request for additional information regarding testing and timeline was not immediately answered.
Outside of its cloud business, Amazon has made significant moves into healthcare in recent years. This includes the acquisition of online pharmacy PillPack in 2018 for approximately $1 billion and primary care company One Medical in 2022 for $3.9 billion. The company has integrated services from these acquisitions, such as same-day prescription delivery and pay-per-visit virtual doctor visits for children.
Using AI to reduce administrative burden in healthcare has been a target for startups for years. For example, Regard, founded in 2017, uses AI to assist with clinical notes and data review. Another startup, Notable, also founded in 2017, automates intake and scheduling.
Larger AI companies have recently entered this space as well. In January, OpenAI released ChatGPT Health, a consumer-facing chatbot tailored for health questions. Anthropic announced Claude for Healthcare just one week later. While Claude for Healthcare and OpenAI’s enterprise services offer tools for medical professionals and are built for HIPAA-compliant products, ChatGPT Health is a consumer product and is not HIPAA-compliant.