Fierce Healthcare July 11, 2019
The U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS) has partnered with tech giant Amazon to enable patients to access verified health information using Alexa devices.
The NHS touts the initiative as particularly helpful for elderly patients, blind patients and those who cannot access the internet. By using Amazon’s voice-assisted technology, patients can use simple voice commands to get NHS-verified information in answer to their health-related questions.
Amazon’s algorithm uses information from the NHS website to provide answers to voice questions such as how to treat a migraine and how to identify symptoms of flu or chickenpox.
The technology has the potential to reduce the pressure on the NHS and physicians by providing information for common illnesses and enabling physicians to focus on...