Amazon on Aug. 27 launched its new health tracking device Halo, the retail giant's first move into the wearables market.
Halo is integrated into EHR vendor Cerner's solutions, allowing device users to opt in to share their health data directly into their EHR and with care teams that use Cerner. San Diego-based Sharp Healthcare is the first Cerner client to participate in the collaboration, according to the news release. Cerner partnered with Amazon in July 2019, designating Amazon Web Services as its preferred cloud provider.
Six details:
1. Amazon Halo Band uses advanced sensors to collect user health data including temperature, heart rate, sleep and fitness activity. The wearable is also equipped with two microphones, which can be turned on or off at the user's discretion, to analyze energy and positivity in their voice.
2. Halo Band's Tone feature aims to help users understand how their voice may sound to others; for example, Tone may identify that "a difficult work call leads to less positivity in communication with a customer's family," indicating the effect stress can have on emotional health, according to the news release.
3. The device does not have a screen, and instead works in conjunction with the Amazon Halo app, which shows users their health data collected by the wristband and offers actionable insights.
4. Voice samples collected by the device are analyzed locally on the user's phone and automatically deleted after processing, Amazon said, adding that nobody can access them. Additional health data is encrypted in the cloud, and users can download or delete their data at any time from the app.
5. Because Halo is integrated with Cerner, users can share data such as their body fat percentage, activity and sleep measurements with Cerner's consumer well-being programs.
"Integrating the revolutionary body fat percentage measurement from Amazon Halo directly into the EHR provides physicians an actionable and previously hard to obtain health metric without the need for a doctor’s visit or costly technology," Cerner CEO Brent Shafer said. "We believe our collaboration with Amazon Halo has the potential to improve the health of individuals and populations, reduce healthcare costs, and increase satisfaction for consumers and clinicians alike.”
6. The Halo app also offers a Labs feature, which are health challenges, experiments and workouts designed to help users build healthier habits such as improving sleep quality or finding more effective workouts. In addition to Amazon, Halo features Labs created by the American Heart Association, Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic and Harvard Health Publishing.
Halo is now available as part of an early access period in the U.S. for $64.99 and six free months of app membership.