Amazon Hires Star Cardiologist as it Continues to Venture Into the Health Industry

Amazon has announced they have hired well-known cardiologist Maulik Majmudar for a new role as the company looks to enter the multi-trillion health-care sector. Majmudar has a dense list of accomplishments, previously working as a cardiologist and associate director of the health-care transformation lab at Massachusetts General Hospital in addition to lecturing at MIT.

While Majmudar’s job is unclear, according to a tweet he sent out yesterday, he would be taking on an “exciting and challenging role.” This is right on the heels of Amazon announcing their purchase of Pill Pack, an online pharmacy company that delivers drugs to customers’ doorstep in pre-sorted doses designed to make it easier for people who require multiple doses per day.

1/ Very emotional day: After decade of medical training (@NorthwesternMed @HopkinsMedicine @BrighamWomens), five years on the faculty @MGHMedicine and @harvardmed, leading #digitalhealth @mgh_htl, I have decided to leave academia to take on an exciting & challenging role @amazon

— Maulik Majmudar, MD (@mdmajmudar) August 20, 2018

Majmudar has long been at the forefront of healthcare and technology. He previously served as founding member and chief clinical officer at Quantus, a company that attempted but ultimately failed to develop a wrist-based app that monitors blood pressure.

Along with Majmudar, Amazon is looking to get into a variety of fields within the healthcare industry. Its business group is looking to develop ventures that will be the main point of contact for supplying hospitals and clinics. Its cloud-based group is looking towards implementing AI and other cutting-edge technologies that will be paired with Alexa to develop voice application in healthcare.

Amazon is also working with J.P. Morgan and Berkshire Hathaway in a partnership to bring down healthcare costs for its employees by building health clinics around the world. This could translate into health clinics for its hundreds of millions of customers. With Majmudar’s extensive background in health care, he could potentially have his hand behind any number of these projects.

Cardiologists have been a hot ticket for big tech companies, with Apple and Google following suit by hiring highly trained and accomplished personnel for projects of their own. Vic Gundotra, CEO of AliveCor, a heart-health tech company, told CNBC, “This is a fascinating move that signals how all the big tech players, like Amazon, Google, and Apple, understand that the most prevalent disease in the world is heart disease. It’s one of the greatest places where technology can have an impact, in diagnosing and screening for these diseases.”