Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant … Voice assistants have not only come to stay in our lives, but are progressively being integrated into our homes and also into the world of work. A tool that makes life much easier for us, since interacting through voice provides the immediacy required by new technologies.
We are used to asking Alexa for our favorite music, to turn the lights on or off, or to remind us of our daily tasks. Maybe it had not crossed your mind, but the Amazon assistant can activate different games to combat those moments of boredom or for the little ones in the house to have a good time.
Applications in the healthcare field
Virtual assistants are one of the many utilities that Artificial Intelligence has incorporated into our daily lives. As we already mentioned, although the trend of the majority use is the resolution of basic tasks, virtual assistants are also within the future plans of companies in all areas.
Amazon, through its well-known assistant Alexa, has become one of the first companies to introduce this technology in the healthcare field. It has done so through a pilot program in collaboration with Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles (USA). The experience consisted of installing a voice assistance software called Aiva on an Alexa device (Amazon Echo). An assistant developed specifically for the health sector that among its functions allows patients to communicate with medical personnel, contact their families or perform basic tasks in the hospital room such as turning on the television.
When the program started in 2018, this system began to be implemented in 6 rooms of the hospital and a year later it had already been extended to 102 rooms belonging to four units of the center. As those in charge of developing the project explain, when a patient interacts with Alexa, the request for that request is redirected to the mobile phone of the most appropriate healthcare professional in each case. For example, a request for some medication would be sent directly to a nurse and a request to go to the bathroom would go to an aide.
Advantages of voice assistants
Jeff Bezos’ company has obtained approval from the North American authorities that the Alexa Skills Kit can be used in the creation of products and solutions that enable the transmission and reception of health data from patients. Due to this approval, health institutions such as Boston Hospital are developing Alexa applications and functionalities for different purposes. Among them the organization of pharmaceutical services, contacting the medical center through Alexa, requesting a medical appointment, etc.
Some of the advantages that stand out within the implementation of voice assistants such as Alexa in the healthcare field are the following:
- Better patient care.
- Speed and information in real time.
- A good solution for dependent people.
- Optimization of the work of health personnel.
- We are currently working on automating orders in surgical interventions.
