Amazon is going to let patients in the UK ask Alexa for health advice

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The U.Ok.’s National Health Service (NHS) is working with tech large Amazon to present individuals with “reliable health information” through voice assisted expertise.

Authorities mentioned Wednesday that the expertise would allow patients to “get professional, NHS-verified health information in seconds” utilizing easy voice instructions.

An algorithm will use data from the NHS web site to give patients solutions to questions like “Alexa, what are the symptoms of chickenpox?” and “Alexa, how do I treat a migraine?”.

The authorities mentioned that aged and blind patients can be amongst these to profit from the new service.

Matt Hancock, the secretary of state for Health and Social Care, mentioned that the expertise represented “a great example of how people can access reliable, world-leading NHS advice from the comfort of their home, reducing the pressure on our hardworking GPs and pharmacists.”

One of the commitments in the NHS Long Term Plan, which was launched in January 2019, is to make a larger variety of NHS providers obtainable by digital platforms.

Helen Stokes-Lampard, chair of the Royal College of GPs, described utilizing voice assisted expertise to present data to patients as “interesting”, including that it had “the potential to help some patients work out what kind of care they need before considering whether to seek face-to-face medical help.”

She went on to state that it was additionally “vital that independent research is done to ensure that the advice given is safe, otherwise it could prevent people seeking proper medical help and create even more pressure on our overstretched GP service.”

Stokes-Lampard additionally highlighted that, “while some patients might want to use symptom-checkers in this way, not everyone will be happy to do so.”

Many, she defined, wouldn’t give you the chance to afford the tools wanted, which might widen health inequalities and make entry to care “even harder for some of the most vulnerable people in our society.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/10/patients-in-the-uk-are-using-amazons-tech-for-aches-and-pains.html

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