Patients staying at Cedars-Sinai hospital can now call for help in an interesting new way: using Alexa.
The hospital has launched a pilot program to test a new Alexa-powered healthcare platform called Aiva. With it, patients can use an Amazon Echo in their room to do things like controlling their televisions or call a nurse.
When a patient says something like “Alexa, tell my nurse I need to get up to use the restroom,” the request will be routed to the mobile phone of the appropriate caregiver for that task. The hospital says that something like a pain medicine request would be sent to a registered nurse, while a request to use the restroom would go to a clinical partner. If a request goes unanswered, then it will be moved up the chain of command.
And while it seems like a small thing, the ability for patients to control their television using their voice is actually huge.
“Whereas previously nurses were frequently asked to help with the in-room television, Alexa does that job for us, allowing nurses to focus on providing the highest level of patient care,” said Golda Morales, assistant nurse manager of General Surgery
In addition to the Amazon Echo’s Cedar-Sinai also uses iPads to help hospitalized patients check their medical information as well as review the names and photos of their care team.
Aiva was part of the hospital’s accelerator in 2017, and through the accelerator, the hospital was one of the company’s first investors. Aiva has also received funding from the Google Assistant Investment Program and Amazon’s Alexa Fund.
