Weymouth, Mass.-based Brewster Ambulance Service is bringing Amazon Alexa to its ambulances to provide medical information assistance, according to Digital Trends.
While the internet-connect voice assistants won't be the only source for EMTs, they will act as back up voice response units. Paramedics can ask Alexa advice on how to perform procedures or to look up reference information.
"Looking through the protocols can sometimes take first responders away from hands-on patient care like taking someone’s blood pressure," Brewster's Director of Clinical Quality Chris DiBona told The Boston Globe. "When you're wearing medical gloves, you don’t want to be combing through a document on a computer."
The first step in the pilot is pairing Amazon Echo Dots with the necessary data. To do this, Brewster will program Alexa's artificial intelligence with the Massachusetts Emergency Medical Services Statewide Treatment Protocols, which is the EMS standard of care reference document.
The company also plans to use Microsoft HoloLens for virtual reality and augmented reality in training.
More articles on health IT:
Black Book: Duplicate patient records cost hospitals almost $2k per inpatient stay
EHR tool prompts patient care for chronic kidney disease: 4 study insights
CarePort Health to manage Allscripts' care management portfolio: 4 things to know