Amazon has hired well-known cardiologist Maulik Majmudar for a new role, as it looks to move into the $3 trillion healthcare sector.
Majmudar announced his new role on his Twitter account on Aug. 20. Before joining the technology company, he worked as a cardiologist and associate director of the healthcare transformation lab at Massachusetts General Hospital and he lectured at MIT. At the lab, he looked at how to incorporate the latest medical technologies into the practice of medicine.
Majmudar did not disclose the specific team he would be joining at Amazon, only that he would be taking on an “exciting and challenging role.” He’s advised technology companies in the past, such as Quanttus, a company that tried to track blood pressure from the wrist but ultimately failed.
Amazon declined to comment. Majmudar did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Amazon currently has a number of different teams working on healthcare and has been on a healthcare hiring spree, bringing on experts including primary care expert Martin Levine and Taha Kass-Hout, former FDA chief health information officer.
Among its many projects: Its business group is looking to sell medical supplies to hospitals and clinics. Its cloud team is selling AI and other advanced technologies to healthcare companies. It has a wellness team within Alexa that is focusing on developing voice applications in healthcare. Its research and development group, dubbed Grand Challenges, is working on everything from medical records to telemedicine. And in June, the company acquired online pharmacy PillPack.
The company also has an interest in bringing down health costs for its employees through its partnership with J.P Morgan and Berkshire Hathaway. CNBC previously reported it has a team working on building out employee health clinics.
Majmudar, with his wide-ranging background in healthcare, could be working with any or all of these groups.
Cardiologists seem to be in high demand for tech companies moving into healthcare. Jessica Mega, chief medical officer of Alphabet’s life sciences arm Verily, is a trained cardiologist. And Freddy Abnousi, Facebook’s most senior healthcare hire, also has a background in heart health.
