While it ’s hard not to roll your eyes at voice assistants getting total toevery single matter in the smart home , a Los Angeles hospital is actually putting Amazon Alexa to expert manipulation . About 100 patient room at Cedars - Sinai will now beequipped with Amazon Echosto help patient and caregiver interact more efficiently .
The pilot program runs off an Alexa - powered political program called Aiva . Now , patients can well say things like , “ Alexa , vary the duct ” or “ Alexa , secernate my nurse I require to use the restroom . ” Some request , like turn a TV on or off , Alexa can handle on its own . Others will be sent directly to a health professional ’s cellphone . And , probably the most helpful feature for health care providers is that theAivaplatform will be able to send asking to the appropriate character of caregiver . So while a nurse would get any requests for pain pill , a clinical partner would get bathroom requests . agree to Cedars - Sinai , request that take a while to fulfill would then get bumped up the chain of command .
On top of the medical feature article , affected role also get access to all the typical Alexa feature article like weather condition , music , and sports scores . And while this is all well and skillful at home , these features would be way more useful in a infirmary setting . Hospitals can be a misfortunate property for many patient , specially if their mobility is negatively impacted . So say you ’re a lonely patient endeavor to kill some time , you could definitely pass the time trolling your illness tell something like , “ Alexa , I ’m in agony . Play ‘ Despacito ’ follow by ‘ Suga Suga ’ by Baby Bash . ”
But in all sincerity , this is one of the instances where voice helper can solve a problem , as oppose to get modern first - world living more convenient . In general , it ’s a winnings - profits office where patients get some company and a deal - free way to physical contact caregivers , while hospital staff can avoid misdirected requests . “ Whereas antecedently nurses were often asked to help with the in - elbow room tv set , Alexa does that job for us , provide nurse to pore on providing the highest level of patient concern , ” said Golda Morales , an assistant nurse manager at Cedars - Sinai in a program line .
While this might raise concerns about automation stealing jobs from dependant healthcare professionals , I ’d argue it actually does the inverse . It does roleplay into automation ’s narrative of efficiency , but you ’re essentially helping out overworked nurses at alreadyunderstaffed hospital . Arguably , if you ’re a qualified nurse , the last matter you want to spend your time doing is changing telly channels when a patient elsewhere might be in need of painkillers . Plus , there ’s just no elbow room Alexa ’s ever going to be able-bodied to take your blood sample distribution even if you ask it nicely .
Another care with the whole voice - supporter frame-up , however , is privacy . Aiva’sprivacy policy pagesays it does pull together vox requests that patients or caregivers make using voice assistants . That might include sore wellness information if they ’re included in the request itself . It also collect info about a health professional ’s function and responsibilities — like name , schedule , and inter-group communication info . All of this makes sense for the service to work , but what ’s concerning is the want of point on how this information is anonymized . Aiva says it “ de - identifies ” any information that ’s collected , and says it does n’t use figure or patient ID numbers . It also say it encrypts the data “ in transportation and storage , ” but that Aiva may “ hold de - identified information indefinitely . ”
Still , even with measures like encryption in spot , there ’s niggling data on how bulletproof the system of rules ’s intact security actually is . Human computer error sometimes play a major theatrical role in datum leaks , and health data point requires a high level of privacy than say , your godawful medicine listening history . After all , a recent Amazon substance abuser in Germany by chance gotaccess to over a thousand audio frequency recordingsof a complete stranger .
Cedars - Sinai is n’t the only hospital experimenting with spokesperson assistants . Boston Children ’s Hospitalhas also used voice assistants to dictate clinical banknote , and supply phonation - direct walkthroughs for cleaning catheter , collecting specimen , or providing mitt - innocent checklists to medico in real prison term .
[ Cedars - SinaiviaEngadget ]
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