Since Amazon launched its Alexa skill store in 2015, developers have created over 10,000 skills that enable users to interact with their Alexa-enabled devices. These skills allow owners of the Amazon Echo, Echo Dot and other connected devices to utilize natural language to interact with the platform in a variety of ways ranging from gaming and shopping to gathering news, weather, travel, health and fitness information.
Amazon Echo is an inbuilt Alexa or Google Home smart speakers which can not only play our favourite songs but can also aid doctors during surgeries. Smart speakers are said to be programmed and can act as an aid to the physicians in operating rooms, researchers said on Saturday during the Society of Interventional Radiology’s annual scientific meeting in Austin, Texas.
Smart home speakers are infused with voice interface allowing Interventional Radiology(IR) physicians to ask questions and retrieve information required for the treatment of their patients without breaking their sterile scrub. During treatments, IRs rely on modulated medical information delivered in a felitious way.
Kevin Seals, MD, a fellow in interventional radiology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) said, ” When you’re in the middle of a procedure, you need to remain sterile, so you lose the ability to use a computer.” Further adding to his statement Seals said, “This smart speaker technology helps us to quickly and intelligently make decisions relevant to a patient’s specific needs.This technology allows physicians to concentrate more closely on the care of their patients, devoting less time and mental energy to device technicalities.”
The application processes questions from a human voice and provides recommendations on the precise sizing of medical devices.
According to the reaserchers , “Further research will look to provide information from electronic health records and patient clinical data, such as allergies or prior surgeries.”