Voice-First Use Cases for Healthcare

The Future is Spoken presents Dr. Teri Fisher as this week’s guest. Dr. Fisher, dubbed “The Voice Doctor,” is an award-winning TEDx and keynote performer, physician, podcaster, author, educator, and leading authority on all things voice technology.A doctor by day and voice enthusiast by night is how Dr. Fisher describes himself. After using Amazon’s Alexa and exploring the world of voice technology he realized this new way of interacting with devices would change everything.Dr. Fisher asserts voice technology will be the new operating system for our lives. Using your voice is natural, it is something everyone does. There is no learning curve in voice technology as there is with computers and smartphones. He believes voice technology will be a game-changer and allow people to better multitask. How? It can be explained with the acronym voice, meaning: Versatile, omnipresent, innate, contextual, and efficient.In the healthcare field, voice technology is being used by people to ask health questions without having to sit down and search. The technology also opens doors to hands-free assistance in first aid situations - where questions can be asked and answered without taking the person away from the problem at hand. Voice devices could also help guide people through their at-home postoperative care, assist people with chronic ailments, as well as reminding people of medical appointments. Voice technology could be used as a diagnostic tool. Researchers are working on ways for voice devices to initially diagnose COVD-19 by listening to coughs and analyzing the sounds. Additionally, it could be used to diagnose depression, coronary artery disease as well as dementia. In a hospital setting, says Dr. Fisher, voice-enabled devices could be added to hospital rooms to make a patient’s stay easier. They could also be used to augment nursing tasks and reduce delays. Voice technology could change recordkeeping with healthcare workers’ comments being automatically transcribed into patients’ electronic files.These changes are being investigated, he says, but they have to be weighed against privacy regulations. Implementing large-scale change will take time as the healthcare field is generally cautious about change. Ultimately, believes Dr. Fisher, voice will become another vital sign, just like pulse rate and blood pressure. He also touches on voice-technology being used in operating rooms, for medical training, as well as the possibility of voice-enabled devices being used to take patient histories and other information before a medical appointment. Find Dr Fisher on LinkedIn. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shyamalaprayaga.substack.com