Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic is offering first aid advice through Amazon's digital voice assistant, Alexa, reports the Star Tribune.
The free Mayo Clinic First Aid program is designed to help users with non-life-threatening medical problems — like how to care for a spider bite or treat a cut — although it can provide information in emergency situations, such as how to do CPR, according to Amazon's product description.
"We provide health information in a print newsletter, digital newsletter, desktop web, mobile web, Mayo Clinic app. We view this voice interface, specifically the Amazon Alexa application, as basically a new channel to provide that information," Jay Maxwell, a senior director in health information with the Mayo Clinic Global Business Solutions, told the Star Tribune.
Mayo Clinic Global Business Solutions developed the first aid service with the Alexa Skills Kit, a collection of self-service tools to help developers build skills for the voice assistant. Amazon is not paying Mayo for its first-aid content.
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