It seems that technology has taken a new, positive direction in the news recently as Amazon's "Alexa" is doing more than just eavesdropping. A small LA hospital has installed these Alexa's in patient rooms to handle tasks such as controlling TV's or calling a nurse.
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center of Los Angeles announced that this was a pilot program and is testing the effectiveness in today's hands-free communication. The Alexa Echo Dot is paired with the virtual health assistant Aiva while commands are routed through an applicable mobile phone provider. Based on what the command is entailing, Aiva codes the message and is sent to the appropriate caregiver.
The Alexa itself creates a more upbeat atmosphere in the room as the device can connect the patient to updated sports scores, weather, or any type of music requested. When asked how the pilot was going, a patient responded, "It rocks...I was lonely in the hospital and I said, 'Alexa, would you be my friend?' The device responded, 'Of course we could be friends. You seem very nice."
The future Alexa in hospitals and other medical centers around the world looks promising and reading this article excited me. I believe that this type of technology being used in this setting is the start of something great.
The observational study is being led by Peachy Hain who is the executive director at Cedars-Senai Medical Center. Her take on the experiment concluded that "patients young and old are now used to voice-activated devices in their homes since it's familiar to them, it helps enhance their hospital experience." She added that this small but meaningful accessory makes a big difference and does the job of taking just a small part of the pain away.
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