Amazon lures ex-FDA chief health informatics officer for healthcare skunkworks

Amazon (NSDQ:AMZN) is continuing to build its healthcare team, this time picking up former FDA chief health informatics officer Taha Kass-Hout, according to a report from CNBC.

Kass-Hout is slated to take up a business development role with Amazon’s Grand Challenge team, a moonshot technology program similar to Google‘s (NSDQ:GOOG) Google X lab, according to the report.

Amazon has not yet released details on the hire, or what projects in specific that Kass-Hout will work on as the company stays hush-hush on its healthcare endeavors.

Kass-Hout will reportedly be working alongside Amazon Grand Challenge chief Babak Parviz, who previously acted as a director at Google X but jumped ship to Amazon in 2014 as a VP, CNBC reports.

Amazon may be looking to use Kass-Hout’s expertise in healthcare informatics in a project aiming to improve consumer access to healthcare records, CNBC theorizes. The move would be in line with Kass-Hout’s previous work, as he led the openFDA initiative while at the Agency in 2013.

Most recently, Kass-Hout worked at Michigan’s Trinity Health, departing last May according to his LinkedIn profile.

In February, the Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon was looking to revamp its medical supplies business and turn the unit into a major supplier to US hospitals and clinics.

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