Here are 11 recent partnerships between healthcare organizations and big tech companies including Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft.
1. Oregon and Washington joined California's pilot project of Google and Apple's jointly developed COVID-19 exposure notification system Sept. 16. The states will participate with California in testing the COVID-19 exposure notification mobile app, which aims to reduce the spread of COVID-19 by confidentially notifying individuals who may have been exposed to someone who tested positive for the virus.
2. BestBuy Health on Sept. 24 launched a new flip phone equipped with Amazon Alexa voice assistance and telehealth capabilities that help connect older adults to healthcare services.
3. The Health Equity and Access Leadership Coalition, an initiative aimed at tackling health disparities via technology, formed Sept. 30.
4. Trade group Consumer Technology Association and innovation coalition Connected Health Initiative formed a new initiative Sept. 30 aimed at tackling health disparities via technology. The Health Equity and Access Leadership Coalition has garnered partnerships from Google, Microsoft, Best Buy Health, AT&T, the American Medical Association, Boston Children's Hospital and Validic.
5. The Pittsburgh Health Data Alliance expanded its partnership with Amazon Web Services to develop new machine learning models for earlier breast cancer and depression detection.
6. University of California San Francisco teamed up with Microsoft Azure, Intel and Fortanix to establish a confidential computing platform that will accelerate the development and validation of clinical algorithms.
7. Apple partnered with five health systems in the U.K. and Canada in October to make its Health Records app available to patients. The five new providers using Apple's Health Records app are: Oxford (U.K.) University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; Milton Keynes (U.K.) University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; Women's College Hospital (Toronto, Ontario); St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton (Ontario); and Mackenzie Health (Richmond Hill, Ontario).
8. Amazon teamed up with Carrier Global Corp., a refrigeration and cold chain company, Oct. 12 to improve how medicine, vaccines and other goods are moved and monitored globally.
9. Amazon Web Services, Accenture and Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. entered into a strategic agreement Oct. 13 to modernize Takeda's digital platforms and grow the company's data services.
10. Children's Mercy Kansas City partnered with biotechnology company Pacific Biosciences of California and Microsoft Oct. 15 on a genomic research and tech development project to combat rare diseases.
11. Newark, Del.-based ChristianaCare developed an Alexa skill for home health, dubbed Home Care Coach. It is a care plan delivered as a voice-driven capability, or skill, via Amazon's digital assistant Alexa. Providers can customize a patient's care plan, and then the patient can ask Alexa questions about the plan and prescriptions.