Becker's Healthcare June 21, 2024
“Alexa, what are the side effects of amoxicillin?”
This question is one of many addressed by hundreds of Amazon Echo Dots across Houston Methodist, according to Ghalib Abbasi, PharmD, the system’s director of pharmacy informatics.
When the eight-hospital system installed Echo Dots in patient rooms and its central pharmacy in late 2020, the initial goal was to digitally connect patients and pharmacists. After a patient asked the smart speaker about a medication, the inquiry was sent to a pharmacist, who then accessed the patient’s chart and called the room to provide an answer.
Houston Methodist realized most of these Q&As could be automated, so the project evolved to create a database of the top three side effects for...