Amazon shuts down health tech division Halo

Amazon has closed down its health-tech branch Halo. The online retail giant has stopped selling its three Halo products and also plans to make layoffs over the coming months.

The shut down will see the end of its health-tech wearables, Amazon Halo View, Halo Band, Halo Rise among many other accessories, and will end subscriptions, refunding those that are prepaid.

“At Amazon, we think big, experiment, and invest in new ideas like Amazon Halo in our efforts to delight customers,” Amazon said in a letter addressed to its customers.

However, at the beginning of August, its products will no longer function – Amazon has also included information for recycling hardware and saving the images on the products.

Employees impacted by the layoffs were told of the news on the same day as its customers: “We notified impacted employees in the US and Canada today,” the blogpost read. “For employees who are impacted by this decision, we are providing packages that include a separation payment, transitional health insurance benefits, and external job placement support.”

The announcement of the shutdown comes at a curious time when many healthcare services are looking to technology solutions to help ease the strain of waiting lists.

Companies such as BT have announced just this week “Virtual Wards” to help the UK’s NHS – a health monitoring service that would take advantage of data collected by wearables to keep track of patients at home.