NYU Langone Health patients in the New York metropolitan area will soon be able to use Amazon’s palm-scanning technology, Amazon One, for appointment check-ins, starting next week, as announced on Monday. This marks the largest third-party deployment of Amazon One to date.
The contactless service, which can identify patients “securely and quickly,” according to a press release, aims to speed up the sign-in process, reduce wait times, and ease administrative workloads at NYU Langone. The health system handles over 10 million patient visits annually. Amazon One is expected to reduce the time patients spend at front desks from two to three minutes to less than a minute, according to Andrew Rubin, NYU Langone’s senior vice president of clinical affairs. “That’s both a positive experience for the patient to be able to actually get in faster, and requires less work on our part having to authenticate who the patient is,” Rubin said.
NYU Langone emphasized that Amazon will not store or access patient health or personal information beyond their palm prints. Participation is voluntary, and patients can opt out at any time.
This collaboration, which has been in development for about nine months, will see the technology initially deployed at NYU Langone sites in the New York metro area, with expansion planned to other locations later this year. Nader Mherabi, NYU Langone’s chief digital and information officer, noted the significance of the partnership. Amazon also indicated plans to explore additional applications for Amazon One in healthcare, such as credentialing for access to secure areas and shared computer systems.
Amazon introduced Amazon One in its Go cashierless stores in 2020 and expanded it to all Whole Foods Market locations in 2023. The financial terms of the deal between Amazon and NYU Langone were not disclosed.
– CNBC’s Annie Palmer contributed to this report.
