Amazon's Secretive Health Team Talking With AARP About Making Products for Older People

Amazon has for the past three years been meeting with the AARP to discuss potential collaborations and share research, with interest in designing products for aging populations, reports CNBC . "Something ... we've been building for some period of time and we deeply care about ... relates to what happens to older people," said Amazon Vice President Babak Parviz at a recent event. "We have looked at the older population in the context of health ... and we know this group has a lot of issues and unmet needs." Parviz also noted in spite of "exponential growth" in connected, computational devices, seniors' sense of isolation is increasing. "As part of our mission to be everyday innovators in aging, we meet regularly with other innovators that may be able to improve the lives of older Americans," said the AARP. A source familiar with the AARP/Amazon discussions noted Parviz's team made queries about the size of the market, whether senior populations and their adult caregivers trusted Amazon over other vendors, and the technology needs of this demographic. Amazon also might leverage the knowledge-base of its growing pool of third-party health developers that are putting Alexa skills into the market, including some aimed at aging populations with complex medical conditions.