After many months of ongoing development and testing, Our mobile app development team here at Lowaire based in Leicestershire, have officially submitted our first skill for Amazon Echo. The voice app gives the voice-powered home appliance a new “skill”, it will allow the device to give life-saving CPR advice to the end-user. With Virtual Nurse, it’s just the first step in a plan to bring CPR & emergency medical advice to the consumer space through artificial intelligence (AI).
“We’re trying to create something, more than just your average Alexa app, we want to create AI which can help in everyday lives and this is the first step towards that”
Right now, any Alexa-enabled device, including the Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Amazon Tap and Amazon Fire TV, can download the app. Once the Virtual Nurse has been installed, users will be able to ask Alexa for CPR instructions by saying “Alexa, ask Virtual Nurse for CPR” or anything similar to this
“In my role at Lowaire, I really think about the huge amount of advice available today however in an emergency it’s not always practical to search Google. I’ve been very interested in the use of voice, especially as Amazon launched their Echo product.”
It’s taken hold, and in my family, there’s been a lot of love for the Alexa tool from most people I introduce it to. So it occurred to me, Alexa can give information about the weather, the news, play music, tell jokes and even give you facts about Birmingham or Glasgow. But in the context of healthcare, there’s got to be an opportunity to engage with consumers in a quick way when they need it most.”
The app description, and the language of Alexa itself, make it clear that the product isn’t a substitute for medical care and you should call 999 or your countries alternative emergency number. But the hope is for it to get smarter with future updates and address a wider and wider range of medical concerns including providing specific, tailored treatment for burns and how to stop a child from choking etc.
“There are other areas, of course. “when we think about things like poisonings and allergies. These are common outcomes where there’s a lot of confusion in the parent population and little understanding of evidence. We’ll start to tackle some of these topics over time and try to build up the Virtual Nurse product to something much broader than it is now.”
The news follows shortly after Amazon announced an integration with Fitbit, which allows Alexa to tell a user how they’re doing on steps and offer some motivation. Both skills reflect a trend toward making the voice control hub more than an entertainment device, something that not only helps you choose music and movies but also helps you to manage your health and the health of your friends, family and your co-workers.
You can download our Virtual Nurse to most Amazon devices completely free by clicking here.
