Amazon appears to quietly be reshaping itself from a mere retail giant into a potential healthcare innovator, leveraging its wide-reaching logistics network and expanding medical offerings to possibly become a critical resource in emergency health care—right on customers’ doorsteps.
In 2023, Amazon launched an experimental initiative named Project Pulse, which sought to equip its fleet of delivery vehicles with defibrillators and trained drivers to perform CPR. Over several months, more than 100 drivers in major European cities including London, Amsterdam, and Bologna participated in the pilot. These drivers responded to alerts from citizen response apps and arrived rapidly at emergency sites, although local emergency services had typically reached patients earlier.
The program is currently halted, pending careful evaluation of feedback and consideration of potential next steps, according to Amazon representatives.
Such initiatives could significantly enhance Amazon’s public image while also advancing its considerable ambitions in healthcare. The company’s healthcare investments already include its $3.9 billion acquisition in early 2023 of primary-care provider One Medical.
Meanwhile, Amazon’s competitors are stepping back from the primary healthcare sphere. Walmart terminated its health initiative in April of last year, shutting down 51 locations, and Walgreens recently agreed to be acquired by Sycamore Partners in a deal valuing the pharmacy chain at $10 billion. These shifts potentially give Amazon a clearer runway to distinguish itself, attempting what its rivals have struggled with—transforming healthcare delivery and cementing itself as a trusted provider at the very doorsteps where it currently leaves packages.
