Amazon and Medtech: Is There Free Shipping with That?

By Anastasia Thrift

Following the steps of other Internet juggernauts, Amazon has paid a visit to the FDA. The administration's calendar listed a July 22 meeting at FDA headquarters in Silver Spring, MD, between FDA and Amazon leadership.

No reports have emerged on exactly what was discussed. Various news outlets have suspected the possible discussion topics of marketing health care devices to the public, sparked by the Affordable Care Act's potential new customers, and building mobile health devices.

Forbes pointed out the possibility of Amazon exploring medical device marketing after observing Walgreens taking the novel approach of launching accountable care organizations around their own pharmacies through an Affordable Care Act pilot program. The business magazine also points out that Walmart began rolling out primary-care clinics this year.

MobiMed explores the angle that Amazon's new smartphone, the Amazon Fire Phone, could be a platform for health and fitness aggregate data in future updates. Alternatively, Amazon might investigate technology for a wearable healthcare device; Babak Parviz, who helped develop Google Glass and a new glucose-sensing contact lens project, recently left Google for Amazon and might launch wearable tech for Amazon. Adding to that possibility is the fact that many healthcare startups, particularly cloud-based ones, use Amazon's HIPAA-compliant cloud service Amazon Web Services.

Apple had talked to FDA in December, and experts speculate the two groups discussed mobile health applications. Possible topics of talk also include the iPhone 5's M7 coprocessor for monitoring physical activity, utilizing Apple's patent for a seamlessly embedded heart rate monitor, or devising a health-tracking feature for the iWatch, a product reportedly in development at Apple. With the approach of an iPhone 6 release, the public soon could see what else the meeting possibly entailed.

Only five days after the Apple meeting at FDA headquarters, Google attended its own meeting with the regulatory body. That gathering seems to have been about Google's plans to make a glucose-detecting contact lens. Google has been more open about the meeting than either Amazon or Apple, posting a blog entry about how their meeting transpired and plans for the smart contact lenses.

Anastasia Thrift is a contributor to Qmed and MPMN.

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