X
Business

Bezos and partners pick CEO for joint healthcare venture

Surgeon and writer Dr. Atul Gawande will take the helm of the healthcare venture on July 9 in its newly minted Boston headquarters.
Written by Natalie Gagliordi, Contributor

The still-unnamed joint healthcare initiative spearheaded by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JP Morgan Chase has found its CEO.

Dr. Atul Gawande, described as a "surgeon, writer and public health innovator" will take the helm of the healthcare venture on July 9 in its newly minted Boston headquarters.

The company's backers -- Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Berkshire's Warren Buffett and JP Morgan's Jamie Dimon -- have pledged to keep the venture an independent entity "that is free from profit-making incentives and constraints."

Amazon, Berkshire and JPMorgan form joint venture to tackle healthcare costs | Amazon may be going head-to-head with Microsoft in healthcare | Cloud computing: Now hospitals can keep confidential patient records in the public cloud

The trio of business icons first announced plans for the joint venture in January as part of an effort to reduce healthcare costs for their US-based employees. Details of the initiative remain slim, but the companies said the initial focus will be on building the backend technology that's needed to provide health coverage services to a large, disconnected workforce.

Over time, the goal is to incubate new healthcare models that are scalable to the healthcare market as a whole.

TechRepublic: Video: How blockchain could help stamp out counterfeit drugs

"We said at the outset that the degree of difficulty is high and success is going to require an expert's knowledge, a beginner's mind, and a long-term orientation," Bezos said in a statement. "Atul embodies all three, and we're starting strong as we move forward in this challenging and worthwhile endeavor."

More healthcare and tech:

Editorial standards