Amazon develops ‘health and wellness team within Alexa division’

Amazon has reportedly built a team within its Alexa voice-assistant division called ‘health and wellness’ in a bid to disrupt the digital health care market.

Internal documents, obtained by CNBC in the US, reveal that a group of around ‘a dozen people’ are being led by Rachel Jiang, who has worked at Amazon for the last five years.

The group will be tasked with making Alexa ‘more useful in the health-care field’, specifically targeting diabetes management, care for mothers and infants as well as the older generation.

The use of the voice-assistant technology is on the rise.

In March, Digital Health News reported on the launch of a new service from Public Health England (PHE) that delivers approved breastfeeding advice via Alexa.

Through Start4Life’s ‘Breastfeeding Friend’, users can ask the cloud-based platform a variety of questions about breastfeeding and receive answers tailored to the age of the baby.

According to PHE, the service is the first time parents have been able to receive NHS-approved breastfeeding advice via a hands-free digital platform.

Breastfeeding Friend is built for Amazon’s full range of Alexa devices including the Amazon Echo, Echo Dot or Echo Plus.

It is also available via the Facebook Messenger chatbot.