Google Cloud, Amwell to partner on telehealth

Google Cloud and Amwell have announced they have established a multi-year strategic partnership aimed at delivering transformative telehealth solutions around the world’s healthcare ecosystem.

According to a news release, together the companies will seek to expand access to virtual care, improve patient and physician experiences, and use their capabilities to deliver new, differentiated healthcare solutions.

“This is a critical partnership for the healthcare industry and has the potential to dramatically transform the telehealth space through the use of modern cloud technologies,” Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, says in the release. “We are thrilled that together we can bring groundbreaking digital health solutions to so many providers, patients, and health plans across the globe. Our joint work will drive innovation in health in a new and powerful way.”

The announcement comes as telehealth has risen to prominence in the American mind due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. The partnership will take advantage of this opportunity to improve the patient and physician telehealth experience through technology, provide automated language translation services, advance population health by making it easier for more patients to receive care, and assisting payers and physicians in routine tasks by triaging cases and reducing physician burnout, the release says.

The partnership will aim to make the healthcare experience simpler and more continuously accessible to underserved populations, and will seek to enable the healthcare industry to serve seniors and patients with chronic illnesses in new ways, without negatively affecting care quality or user trust, the release says.

“We chose Google Cloud as our strategic partner because of their phenomenal people, superior products, and open approach to partnering,” Ido Schoenberg, MD, chairman and CEO of Amwell, says in the release. “Together, we will be able to offer an incredible array of integrated capabilities and help millions of people around the world access better care. Our collaborative work could literally democratize healthcare.”

As part of the partnership Google Cloud will invest $100 million into Amwell to evolve and scale its telehealth portfolio, the release says.