Amazon One Medical CMO: AI is the front door to care

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Amazon One Medical CMO: AI Is the Front Door to Care

The skinny
This week, Amazon expanded access to an AI-powered health assistant developed with its primary care arm, One Medical. The tool debuted earlier this year for One Medical members, but now anyone can access the chatbot through Amazon's app or website.

The service is designed to answer routine health questions, help patients interpret medical information and guide them to the appropriate level of care when needed. It was trained and tested using hundreds of thousands of synthetic medical conversations based on One Medical's primary care data.

If a user's question requires a licensed clinician, the assistant routes them into One Medical's pay-per-visit channel, which handles about 30 common conditions via message-based care. Prime members can get five of these visits for free.

Soundbite
"People are asking lots of really good questions that would, in many cases, require them to see or message a clinician. And while this by no means replaces a clinical viewpoint, it helps people figure out whether they really do need to see a human clinician. It has the potential to make the more straightforward types of healthcare questions much more accessible to a huge number of people — and simultaneously alleviate what would otherwise be somewhat low-value or even distracting or frustrating work for clinicians," said Andrew Diamond, One Medical's chief medical officer.

Healthcare's new digital front door
Amazon's goal is similar to those expressed by Anthropic and OpenAI, who kicked off this year announcing healthcare-focused large language models for consumers. These pushes into healthcare were inevitable, given hundreds of millions of people per week were turning to these companies' chatbots to answer their health-related inquiries.

In Diamond's view, the trend of people increasingly asking healthcare questions to generative AI models is mostly positive because it encourages people to be engaged in their health and seek care.

Patients are often coming into visits more informed as a result of what they learned from AI. That can make conversations more productive, allowing clinicians to focus more on recommendations and less on basic explanations, Diamond explained.

— By Katie Adams

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How a Movement Disorder Biotech Picked Parkinson's

The startup
Vima Therapeutics aims to treat movement disorders by addressing the underlying cause of the disease and it first tested its drug candidate in isolated dystonia. Phase 1 results were positive. The startup now has an additional $40 million, expanding its Series A round to $100 million total. With the capital, the company will run separate Phase 2 tests in dystonia and Parkinson's disease.

The approach
Dystonia is characterized by involuntary muscle contractions. While excessive signaling of certain receptors in the brain is associated with these contractions in dystonia, this signaling also drives other movement disorders, said Bernard Ravina, who was a practicing neurologist years before becoming Vima's founder and CEO. Vima's drug, VIM0423, combines two molecules that block these receptors but offer improved tolerability compared to older drugs that hit these targets.

Why it matters
Dystonia can be treated with Botox injections that weaken and relax muscles, but these therapies don't work well, if at all, for some patients. Deep brain stimulation is another option, but many patients don't want to undergo the invasive procedure. VIM0423 could give dystonia patients an oral option. Besides Parkinson's, other indications where the drug's approach could apply include cerebral palsy.

Soundbite
"As a movement disorders neurologist going back 25 to 30 years now, it's really gratifying to see this progression," Ravina said.

—By Frank Vinluan

Carrum, Virta Join Forces on Employer Weight Management Solution

The news
Carrum Health and Virta Health launched an exclusive partnership on Tuesday that brings a weight management solution to self-funded employers.

The players
San Francisco-based Carrum Health offers a value-based specialty care Centers of Excellence solution for self-insured employers. Virta Health, based in Denver, is a digital health company that works with payers and employers and offers nutrition support and medication prescribing if necessary.

The partnership
Through the partnership, Virta's weight management services will be integrated with Carrum's surgical care. For example, patients often need to lose weight before a knee replacement or other musculoskeletal surgery. In this case, Carrum members can be referred to Virta for virtual counseling, nutrition coaching and access to GLP-1s when appropriate.

On the flip side, Virta members who are in need of bariatric surgery can also be referred to Carrum for support.

Soundbite
"Employers do not want five point solutions that don't talk to each other. They want coordinated care that actually works for employees. Some members need nutrition coaching, some benefit from medication, while others ultimately need bariatric surgery. The problem is those options often live in silos. Innovation in benefits is not about adding more vendors. It is about designing a system that works. Now, we've created a pathway where members can move from conservative care to surgical evaluation when appropriate, without starting over each time," said Matt Eurey, chief commercial officer at Carrum Health.

— By Marissa Plescia

Why Staff Safety is the Foundation of Clinical Excellence

Provider safety is a prerequisite
The second week of March is dedicated to patient safety awareness, a time for refining clinical protocols and benchmarks for excellence. But when healthcare staff feel unsafe, they are more likely to feel overwhelmed and distracted, increasing their risk of error. This directly links provider safety to patient safety. Patients and their families can also sense when a care team is operating in a state of hypervigilance. When clinicians appear anxious, rushed, or unfocused, that emotional tension erodes the foundation of care and hinders patient experience. These truths show that workplace safety and patient safety are inextricably linked, and healthcare organizations cannot achieve one without the other.

There is no silver bullet
Organizations must move past the idea that there is a "silver bullet" or a one-size-fits-all solution. Instead, leaders must begin with an honest assessment of their facility's unique vulnerabilities. Once gaps are identified, the strategy must be multi-dimensional: combining environmental modifications and robust training with technology that empowers every single employee to take action.

Instead, an umbrella of safety strategies
When leadership demonstrates a visible commitment to staff safety and fosters an environment where concerns can be reported, without fear of retaliation, they aren't just protecting their employees – they are directly driving improvements in patient safety. This "umbrella" of safety strategies is most effective when reinforced by leader-driven communication that explains how and when to use each resource, and why they are essential to protecting everyone on campus – from staff to patients and family members. By layering intentionally selected solutions into their strategy, leaders can ensure safety is felt across the entire campus rather than being misbranded as a patient-only privilege.

For healthcare executives, addressing workplace violence is no longer just a security mandate; it is a clinical and operational necessity.

— By MedCity Influencer Andrea Greco

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Amazon One Medical CMO: AI is the front door to care