Voice-Enabled Virtual Assistant Targets Healthcare Market

A secure voice controlled virtual assistant enables consumers to personally manage their health from the comfort of their own home.

The HandsFree Health (Wayne, PA, USA) WellBe is an interactive health platform that provides a fully personalized, comprehensive health and security service in one seamless solution, designed especially for seniors and the disabled, including visually impaired individuals. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant device blends in with other smart home accessories, and utilizes advanced speech recognition, natural language processing, and speech synthesis to deliver information and answers 24/7. Color-coded bands and pendants aid recognition of each member of the household.

Among the advantages WellBe provides are a reduction in healthcare costs by increasing compliance and providing easy access to personalized and preventive health information; tailored programs specific to a patient/employee/plan member's needs; integration with medical and prescription information, plan information (including pricing), and national directories of providers, assisted living facilities, long term care facilities, and urgent care; answering commonly asked benefit questions; providing help with medication adherence through reminders and non-compliance alerts and appointment reminders; and tracking blood pressure, blood glucose levels, and weight.

“HandsFree Health makes it easier for consumers to integrate healthcare into their daily lives with WellBe,”said Mike Cardillo, co-founder and president of HandsFree Health. “As more people add voice assistant technology to their homes, HandsFree Health empowers users to take control of their health in a secure and HIPAA compliant environment 24/7.”

Virtual assistants perform tasks or services for an individual based on verbal commands. Some virtual assistants are able to interpret human speech and respond via synthesized voices. Users can ask their assistants questions, control home automation devices and media playback via voice, and manage other basic tasks such as email, to-do lists, and calendars with verbal commands. Several security and privacy concerns associated with virtual assistants have been raised, such as malicious voice commands by an impersonator (for example, to unlock a smart door), ordering items online without the user's consent or knowledge, and voice recording.

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