Tech giants and healthcare software companies have developed more voice-enabled features in recent years to make clinical workflows more efficient and bring greater convenience to at-home care.
Below are eight recent voice technology developments in healthcare announced in the last three months:
- Amazon launched a feature for its Alexa voice assistant that lets users search for places to get a COVID-19 test.
- Amazon also made its new wearable health tracking device Halo available to the general public. It features two microphones, which can be turned off or on at the user's discretion to analyze "peak periods of positivity and energy" in their voice.
- CVS Health launched a new medical alert system called Symphony, which is designed to protect seniors living at home. It is sold in two bundles, the more expensive of which comes with motion sensors and a voice-activated fall censor for the bathroom.
- Allscripts launched its updated EHR platform Sunrise 20.0, which runs on Microsoft's cloud software Azure and includes voice recognition capabilities in the system's mobile platform to assist with clinical documentation.
- Sean Bina, vice president of patient experience at Epic, said that the next iteration of EHRs will include the embedded voice assistant's ability to write the clinician's note and close visits.
- Microsoft's venture fund invested in a machine learning-powered virtual health platform called ThinkAndor, which uses natural language processing for voice-dictated notes and recommends tasks to push into the EHR.
- Mayo Clinic partnered with Israeli company Vocalis to develop new voice-based tools for patient screening and monitoring. The partners will focus on identifying vocal biomarkers for pulmonary hypertension first.
- Providence and Nuance Communications deepened their partnership, with plans to develop a voice-enabled platform that uses ambient sensing technology to document clinician and patient conversations.