Yes, you read it right. Amazon has tied with NHS to make UK Healthy. Alexa will use the NHS health information repository to create its own algorithm and answer to questions related to easier diseases.
Questions like
- “Alexa, how do I treat a migraine?”
- “Alexa, what are the symptoms of flu?”
- “Alexa, what are the symptoms of chickenpox”
Will be answered now through Alexa.
This is a great step by NHS to make itself digital friendly. This is also a part of the NHS long term plan to make health services digitally available for it’s public.
This is a highly helpful step because this will help old age patients, differently abled and also blind patients. Plus, this will immensely reduce the workload on GPs and nurses.
Voice search is the next big thing. And by 2020 it is estimated that half of the searches will be through voice-assisted technology.
Matt Hancock who is the Secretary of state for health and social care said
We want to empower every patient to take better control of their healthcare and technology like this is 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.
Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we want to embrace the advances in technology to build a health and care system that is fit for the future and NHSX will drive this revolution to bring the benefits to every patient, clinician and carer.
CEO of NHS, Matthew Gould, said:
The public need to be able to get reliable information about their health easily and in ways they actually use. By working closely with Amazon and other tech companies, big and small, we can ensure that the millions of users looking for health information every day can get simple, validated advice at the touch of a button or voice command.
Part of our mission at NHSX is to give citizens the tools to access services and information directly, and partnerships such as this are an important part of achieving this.