EIR Healthcare will use Amazon’s Alexa in a “smart” hospital room
“Alexa, please bring a nurse in.”
According to Nathan Ingraham’s article, EIR Healthcare is jumping on the trend of using voice assistant technology. They intend to use Amazon’s Alexa in each of their MedModular hospital rooms.
The basic idea behind MedModular hospital rooms is described as “a hospital room in a box” by EIR Healthcare. The hospital room’s outside appearance resembles a mobile office trailer. On the inside, it is a fully functioning hospital room. This “hospital room in a box” includes a bed, a full bathroom, sinks for doctors, and much more. EIR Healthcare designed the rooms to limit the spread of infection through things like touchless lights and doors.
The MedModular hospital rooms intend to incorporate Alexa with the rest of the IoT tech being used in the room, rather than Alexa just being an extra technological option. Alexa will be used by the patient and hospital rooms to complete various tasks needed in a typical hospital room.
Some examples of the various tasks in hospital rooms would be controlling the room’s lights or setting lighting modes for things like exams. Another one would be the ability to use Alexa to call a nurse. The idea behind integrating Alexa into the MedModular’s hospital room is to allow the patient to use their voice rather than them having to complete these activities physically. The use of Alexa would be particularly helpful for a patient who is immobile.
For now, EIR Healthcare intends for its MedModular rooms to be permanently installed. The company hopes to create a temporary version to transport to places in need, like a third world country that just went through a natural disaster.
EIR Healthcare’s MedModular hospital rooms’ use of Alexa may push for broader use of voice-assistant technology in the healthcare industry. We may soon see the use of Alexa or other voice-assistant technology in most hospital rooms and physician offices.