Voice Technology for Physician Burnout See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Voice First Health

Saykara in the Office with Dr. Gabe Charbonneau

In this episode, Teri welcomes Eric Sauvé, the Chief of Product and User Experience at Speebly.Eric has been a serial entrepreneur for years and has started and built numerous startups, some of which were acquired by larger companies. He developed an interest in voice technology somewhere along the journey and ended up co-founding Speebly, a voice assistant program that can be used across multiple platforms. Key Points From Eric!How they are using voice technology (Siri) and the Apple Watch to help with handwashing during the current Covid-19 pandemic.Focusing on SiriTheir initial inspiration was using Siri. The fact that Siri gives users a bunch of web results when she can’t answer a question gave him the idea of creating a seamless hand-off from Siri to the different web properties.That would mean that a user could continue searching using their voice.They have also worked with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, but their focus on Siri was informed by the fact that Siri has way more users.Inspiration Behind SpeeblyTheir inspiration is based on the fact that when people are doing anything, they will either want to type or use their voice, and voice is, of course, the best option especially where there is a lot of text input.Siri is a closed ecosystem compared to Alexa and Google on the speaker side of things, but it has a ton of users and an app environment of third-party developers. This is why they focus more on Siri.Their main aim is to make it so that anyone who has an app can take advantage of voice search to drive traffic to their app or so that there can be a seamless handoff where a user asks Siri a question and they can keep talking to the app on their phone.They released a software development toolkit (SDK) that app developers can put in their iPhone or Android projects to serve as the talking interface of their app.The toolkit is also available for Apple watch OS and people can use it without their phones.Helping With the PandemicThey have been aiming at helping people understand that they could use voice in the context of smartphones and the Apple watch.They’ve been working on an in-house app called Handwash Circles to encourage people to not only wash their hands but wash them long enough.It’s a touch-less voice first hand wash timer. A user can say, “Hey Siri, start handwash” and the app will start a countdown timer for the appropriate amount of seconds that one is supposed to wash their hands.They plan on implementing accelerometer and gyroscope features where the app can determine if someone has done a good job washing their hands.The community feature of the app enables circles of people, for example, a person’s workplace to access data on their handwashing activities.Studies have shown that there is an improvement in the quality of hand washing where people have devices on them to monitor their hand washing. They ensure people’s data privacy in different ways.They are currently in the process of onboarding their first 10 organizations that are interested in implementing the use of the app at their workplaces.People can also sign up to be beta testers.Links and Resources in this Episodewww.Speebly.com/circleThe Comprehensive Flash Briefing Formula CourseVoice Technology in Healthcare Bookwww.TheVoiceDen.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Siri for Hand Washing with Eric Sauve of Speebly

In this episode, Teri welcomes Heather Utzig, the Co-Founder and CEO at Pragmatic Voice, a tech innovation company that combines big data, analytics, tech & creativity to drive businesses.Heather has an extensive background in healthcare having worked for companies like Johnson & Johnson and Eli Lilly & Co with her efforts focused on the rapid growth of their sales and sales teams. She was responsible for managing over 130 field sales and sales managers in the area of Brain Health and Sleep efficacy. Her team won the most awards for sales success. She was awarded the Summit Award for outstanding leadership. She has also been a successful entrepreneur and has helped a lot of people launch businesses in catering, construction, healthcare, etc. She has owned and sold successful businesses, and worked with several technological platforms and implementation projects with companies over the past 10 years. Key Points From Heather!The voice applications they have been developing at Pragmatic Voice, specifically the ones geared towards helping surgeons keep track of instruments in the operating room and so much more.Her Introduction Into VoiceShe was developing a technology with one of her companies and she had requested voice to be developed for it because it was around medical instrumentation in general (they worked with medical instrument service providers and were looking at how to prevent infections through the touching of the instruments so voice would ensure that a lot of the processes were hands-free and mobile).In the process of having that voice application developed, she met her co-founder and learned a lot about voice from him.What They’re Doing In The Healthcare SpaceFrom her healthcare background, she has always considered how voice can be applied to solve the problems in healthcare.The fact that there is a lot of human connection in healthcare, especially when it comes to doctor-patient interactions, makes voice very crucial in ensuring that there’s more effectiveness in the delivery of healthcare.Pragmatic works with healthcare companies, facilities, and even physicians to help them place their applications into voice, and advice them on how that is related to HIPAA (privacy) and other areas. They have developed several voice applications in relation to that.One of those applications is Instrument Voice which works inside a hospital, surgery center, or doctor’s office where there is instrumentation that needs to either be repaired, maintained, sterilized, or logged.Anyone working with the instruments within a healthcare setting can look at an instrument’s history, ask questions, pull out manuals, see videos, and even request repairs through the voice app. Pragmatic is streamlining that whole process to make it easier for the healthcare providers.They also have Instrument Wiki, an application that enables doctors, hospitals, and manufacturers to collaborate on information to help each other out in working with their instruments and assets in the hospital.The applications are built on Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, with their own proprietary open-source database technology.Most hospitals have had a problem in unifying their biomed and sterilization departments, and Pragmatic’s applications, because of their ease of use, can help in bringing a couple of departments in the hospitals together to work in an easier way. Their PresenceThey have been working with some hospitals in New York and they are working on refining several things with plans to go to full scale market in the next month.Links and Resources in this EpisodePragmatic Voice WebsiteInstrument VoiceThe Comprehensive Flash Briefing Formula CourseVoice Technology in Healthcare Bookwww.TheVoiceDen.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Voice in the Operating Room with Heather Utzig of Pragmatic Voice

In this episode, Teri welcomes Ilana Meir, a voice designer and mentor in the voice technology space. Ilana is a conversational interface designer and is one of the leading experts in Voice User Interface (VUI) design specifically at the intersection of voice technology and health. Using her immense knowledge and experience, she thinks critically about the future of voice design in ways only few industry experts do, and she encourages her students to do the same. Ilana was a chapter contributor to the recently released book, Voice Technology in Healthcare. Key Points From Ilana!Her expertise in Voice User Interface (VUI) design and some of the tips she can share.How to design a great voice experience.Getting Into Voice DesignShe came into the field of voice design from a prior background in the fields of anthropology, psychology and marketing.During her period in marketing she wanted so badly to make the transition into product design but she found herself falling into voice design which blended perfectly with her background in strategic communications, her creative thinking and her vocal ability in singing.Ilana thinks the landscape of voice design is gradually shifting in relation to how it used to be historically.Voice design is now attracting a variety of people from different fields such as interaction design.Importance of Voice User Interface DesignShe considers design as the last mile logistics, and in regards to that, she feels that it helps in organization and ensuring everything is in perfect condition for patients.The Voice Design FrameworkHer thoughts on the first step into getting into voice design is doing the correct research and having the perfect understanding of the stakeholder’s side and patients side.In terms of the stakeholder’s side, thinking about their customer base, knowing how they are trying to forge relationships with their patients, the legal considerations, understanding the kind of technology available and understanding the downstream effects that might come along the way are key.On the patients side you need to understand how they are receiving this interaction so you can package it perfectly, think about the patient’s day to day interaction so you can know who’s affected.When it comes to voice design in healthcare, one has to think about it as a strategic communication. With every strategic initiative, a lot of efforts and meetings are put into them, and so the same should be applied when designing a voice experience.Best Practices in Designing for the PatientShe advocates for the creation of a culture of participatory medicine which is achieved by creating a dynamic set up where patients and doctors are equal partners in healthcare delivery.How a computer system will communicate with patients is the second consideration, and the focus should be on questions and other things.When it comes to building rapport with patients, one of the main goals should be to mitigate the presumptions a patient might have regarding the healthcare system.A conversational system should be designed to keep interactions with patients brief, precise, and informative.Links and Resources in this EpisodeIlana on LinkedinThe Comprehensive Flash Briefing Formula CourseVoice Technology in Healthcare Bookwww.TheVoiceDen.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Voice User Interface Design for Healthcare with Ilana Meir

In this episode, Teri welcomes Dr. Bob Kolock, a retired physician, executive, and active Amazon Alexa skills developer.Dr. Bob Kolock has over 35 years of experience in healthcare delivery. Since retirement, he has had the opportunity to spend more time on things that really interest him. That led him to begin learning JavaScript and the Amazon Alexa development process. To date, he has 5 Alexa Skills certified by Amazon. He is currently working on 2 more and one of the two is very much aligned with his healthcare career. It’s focused on improving the transition of care of patients who have undergone a medical procedure. He will be looking for partners to make this Alexa Skill a routine way to deliver post-procedure care instructions in health care delivery systems.Key Points from Dr. Kolock!Becoming an extremely prolific Alexa skills developer after retirement from the healthcare space.The healthcare oriented suite of skills that he’s developing.Getting in Voice TechnologyHe retired 6 years ago and he had had an idea to build a smartphone tool to help manage foods in the pantry or refrigerator so someone could identify them before they got spoiled. He therefore started learning iOS, Android, JavaScript, and how to create an Alexa skill.His first skill was Food Manager and he initially thought that a bar code scan would give the necessary information in as far as expiration dates were concerned, but they didn’t, so he had to find another way to import the information.His Skills So FarHe has created a variety of 18 Alexa skills, 3 of which are revised, and a number of them have to do with healthcare and behavior change. They also relate to the website that he built to function with his database.One of his most popular skills is called Our Little Secret, and the concept behind it is that a brother or sister gives the user secrets based on what they hear around the user’s house. This plays on the privacy concern but the secrets are fictitious and are meant to be funny.Another one is Wine Jester where the idea is to hold a glass of wine to the smart speaker and it will say what the taste, fragrance, and components of the wine are.Healthcare SkillsOne of his first healthcare skills was Blood Pressure Check, and it’s based on the American Heart Association guidelines. The user tells the skill what their blood pressure reading is and the skill gives them feedback as to where that blood pressure might fall.Another one is My Weigh Loss Coach that helps users track their weight loss goals, and gives them positive or negative feedback based on their results.On his website, one can set up text messages to themselves to help with behavior change, and hence he has a skill called Healthy Text Scheduler that sends users scheduled healthy eating texts.The other one is Track My Dose, which helps people manage the medication they’re supposed to take on an as-needed basis.He also has Kindness Counts, a skill that was inspired by all the negativity that’s been in the world. It helps people focus on the good things that are happening around us.He also has two other skills that are geared towards helping physicians become more efficient so they can deliver care to more patients, and also help patients with their follow up care after a medical procedure.Links and Resources in this EpisodeThe Comprehensive Flash Briefing Formula CourseVoice Technology in Healthcare Bookwww.TheVoiceDen.comDr. Kolock’s email - rakolock1@gmail.comFood ManagerOur Little SecretWine JesterBlood Pressure CheckMy Weigh Loss CoachHealthy Text SchedulerTrack My DoseKindness Counts See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Alexa Healthcare Skills with Dr. Bob Kolock

In this episode, Teri welcomes Israel Krush, the CEO and Co-Founder at Hyro, a voice platform that allows enterprises to easily add voice capabilities to their websites and mobile apps.Israel is based in Israel, and is a former elite intelligence officer in the Israeli Defense Forces. He studied Computer Science and Statistics, has a background in machine learning. He previously worked as a software engineer for Intel and various startup companies. His company Hyro allows customers to have two-way conversations to simplify their access to relevant information. Starting with healthcare, the software enables organizations to better engage with their existing customers and reduce the cost of customer support.Key Points from Israel!What they’re doing in the voice technology and conversational AI space taking data from various places and serving it up via their AI technology for people to incorporate into their websites, businesses, and other entities.The interesting work they’re doing to help with the COVID-19 pandemic.What Hyro DoesIt’s a plug and play conversational AI platform for healthcare providers.The company is focused on both voice and text as long as it’s natural language.They target enterprises and organizations that have massive amounts of data that is hard to navigate.The most important aspect of their solution is the plug and play.While researching the voice assistant and chatbot market, they learned that a lot of the existing solutions are based on a creation platform.Hyro gives their users a creation platform where they can define their intents and build their workflows or conversational flows. They discovered that there was a lot of friction in the deployment and maintenance of their platform for users, so they decided to look for a plug and play approach.  One of the main valuable use cases of their solution for healthcare providers has been helping patients find a physician when they need one. They find a physician based on various attributes of the physician.Another use case is in helping patients find the services that a healthcare provider offers.The patients and other users can interact through various modes and devices. Most traffic comes from mobile devices through typing (texting).Helping Battle COVID-19When the pandemic started, they gathered in conference rooms in all their locations to discuss how they could help with the situation because they knew that patients would have multiple questions regarding the Coronavirus.Based on their technology, they scrapped the certified resources that have answers for questions around COVID-19. They specifically scrapped the WHO and CDC websites, and then constructed a knowledge graph about the virus and released a free chatbot that is also addressing issues around the virus. The chatbot answers frequently asked questions about the virus and gives people a risk assessment based on a short dialogue with a user about their age, where they’re based, whether they’ve interacted with a COVID-19 patient, and other things.Feedback From UsersHyro doesn’t offer a one-fits-all solution. Every healthcare provider has their own unique needs, data sources, and how they handle their patients.With the COVID-19 solution, some healthcare providers have provided additional resources about the virus like their own FAQ webpages.Healthcare providers saw a need for a conversational solution to help patients in getting relevant information. They therefore felt Hyro’s solutions made sense.The Rise of TelemedicinePeople are adopting telemedicine more and more because it has become clear that the old way of healthcare is gone and patients are more willing to use telemedicine.They see the same adoption in the conversational aspect of their solution. Patients are constantly asking how they can schedule a virtual appointment.Links and Resources in this EpisodeThe Comprehensive Flash Briefing Formula CourseVoice Technology in Healthcare BookHyro WebsiteHyro on Linkedinwww.TheVoiceDen.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Conversational AI with Israel Krush of Hyro.ai

Voice First Hearables for Healthcare For information regarding your data privacy, visit Acast.com/privacy

Voice and Wearables with Dave Kemp of Future Ear

Voice First Technology and the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Pandemic For information regarding your data privacy, visit Acast.com/privacy

Healthcare in a Post-Pandemic World with Brian Roemmele

Can Voice First Technology Help with Pandemics? For information regarding your data privacy, visit Acast.com/privacy

COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Pandemic Update

In this episode, Teri welcomes Dr. Randall Williams, the Co-Founder of WellSaid, to talk about the work they are doing to help people age in place with a skill called “My Day”Dr. Williams is a serial digital health technology entrepreneur, physician, founder and CEO. He supports C-suite executives, investors, and boards seeking to refine and implement scalable and engaging healthcare products and go-to-market strategies. He is also a trusted adviser who brings a unique breadth of healthcare market experience and understanding, ranging from reimbursement policy, market strategy, technology development, and executive development. WellSaid connects seniors to Alexa for their healthy independence and so that their loved ones can have peace of mind. Through their MyDay skill, they support healthier behaviors, connects seniors to loved ones and bridges the digital divide for a fuller and happier life.Key Points from Dr. Williams!The aging in place Alexa skills that he is producing to apply voice technology to the challenges of staying healthy, active, and independent as one gets older.The role patients should be taking as the users of the healthcare system versus how much of the responsibility is on the administrators and healthcare providers.BackgroundHe trained as a cardiologist (Heart failure and transplant specialist).Being in healthcare, he saw some of the failings of the healthcare system and how people with chronic diseases really fell through the cracks and lacked the systems and support they needed to stay healthy and out of the hospital.They built a program that provided resources in both a hospital setting and home setting to help people and also stay on top of where the patients were having challenges.They got into voice technology and created an app (interactive voice response) that allowed heart failure patients to report in every morning on how they were feeling and how they were doing.That enabled them to prevent 50% to 60% of hospitalizations in that group of people. That led to an opportunity to look into other chronic diseases and see if the model could apply elsewhere.Between 2000 and 2004 they got the opportunity to commercialize their technology and form their first startup.At some point he had to give up his clinical practice to focus on voice technology.How WellSaid Came AboutAs they were growing their initial company (Pharos Innovations), they started to hear about and see voice assistant technologies starting to emerge.They saw an opportunity in incorporating the voice technology into their platform as another interface.They had a challenge with the fact that smart speakers at the time were not set up for HIPAA Compliance. They also had a disadvantage in the fact that they were often at an arm’s length from the users of their technology.They therefore made the decision to venture into the “Aging in Place” industry and started another company from Pharos. And that’s how WellSaid was created.Their goal was to use voice technology with the older adult population to help them stay healthy, active, and independent.They created a prototype and tested it out with 50 seniors which taught them a lot that helped them improve on the technology.All About MyDayIt promotes healthy and independent aging.It links seniors with their family, friends and caregivers through daily interactions.Seniors use a smart speaker to go through a daily program that looks at and assesses seven different dimensions of well-being that are known to create challenges to their independence like cognitive decline, nutrition status, mobility, and others.Within the program, a senior can learn each day more about those areas, get coaching, or go through exercises or other interventions to help strengthen different areas of their well-being.As a result of all that information, the seniors and their loved ones can understand where there may be risks and vulnerabilities, and where they may need additional support.The back-end of the product is a companion app that allows family members to pair with a senior. The senior gives permission for their data to be shared with others so their loved ones can track how they’re doing.Better Every Day Flash BriefingIt focuses on seniors and has the goal of helping inform, educate, equip and inspire them to stay on top of active healthy aging.Administration of Healthcare Vs Proactivity in Personal CareWhile the healthcare system is great at taking care of patients when they are in healthcare facilities, they do a poor job of helping equip people to stay healthy outside of the healthcare facilities.Dr. Williams and his team aim at supporting consumers who bear the problem of not staying independent.Voice in healthcare technologies are already emerging as HIPAA compliant and many people are taking advantage of that.The Uniqueness of WellSaid/MyDayTheir technology leverages their expertise around the aging population from an ethnographic understanding where they have interacted with hundreds of thousands of seniors. Over 10,000 seniors have so far interacted with WellSaid/MyDay.They are learning very rapidly by leveraging existing technology platforms to bring the competencies of implementation as well as the competencies of implementation, content development, and aging expertise.Other companies in the same space have just chosen to just create devices or their own unique versions of smart speaker software.They also have some continuous learning and optimization advantages with their platform.Links and Resources in this EpisodeThe Comprehensive Flash Briefing Formula CourseBetter Every Day Flash BriefingMyDay WebsiteDr. Williams’ EmailDr. Williams on Linkedin For information regarding your data privacy, visit Acast.com/privacy

Aging in Place with Dr. Randall Williams of WellSaid

In this episode, Teri will give us a preview of the Voice Technology in Healthcare book that he co-wrote with David Metcalf (PhD), Sandhya Pruthi (MD), and Harry Pappas. Teri has made a compilation of a number of different people who contributed to the book which will be officially launched at HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society), a major medical information conference which will take place in Orlando, Florida on March 10th 2020. The book brings together the expertise of 32 thought leaders in different areas at the intersection of voice technology and healthcare.Key Points!The Voice Technology in Healthcare book and how it can be useful to all of us.How the book covers a cross section of the voice technology industry; where the industry is at today, a history of it, what is available right now, and its future.The Voice Technology in Healthcare bookIt’s divided into four main sections. Section one is made up of four different chapters and they serve as an introduction to voice technology. They cover some of the key concepts of voice technology in healthcare. The chapters include:Chapter 1This was written by Teri and includes an overview of why voice is such an important concept when it comes to healthcare and technology. Teri shares why he feels voice will transform healthcare and become the next operating system (Voice Operating System).Chapter 2It was written by Ilana Meir who has spoken at different voice events. She is the world’s most foremost expert on Voice User Interface design (VUI), and how it applies to healthcare. This will help in the design of voice applications because VUI is critical.Chapter 3It was written by Audrey Arbeeny, the founder and CEO of Audiobrain. The chapter is titled, “The Science Behind Sonic Branding: How Audio Can Create Better Patient, Caregiver, and Healthcare Provider Outcomes.” She discussed her 25 years’ experience working in healthcare, how the brain processes music and sound, and why sound is the perfect tool for communicating, helping to heal, and promoting wellness. She discusses some of the projects her company has worked on, the history of the voice industry, and where it’s headed in the future.Chapter 4It was written by Nathan Treloar from Orbita and it’s titled, “Secure Voice”.Section 2This one has seven chapters which look at voice technology and the patient experience. The authors of these chapters are mostly people who have had experience with creating voice applications and how they impact patients. The chapters include:Chapter 5It’s titled, “Automated Virtual Caregiving Using Voice First Services: Proactive, Personalized, Holistic, 24/7, and Affordable” It was written by Stuart Patterson from Lifepod.Chapter 6This is about voice and wearables and was written by Dave Kemp.Chapter 7This was written by Rupal Patel and it’s about synthetic voices for healthcare applications. Rupal has been doing some amazing work looking at how people can create voices for brands, but also for the medical field where a voice can be created for someone who is losing their voice.Chapter 8 & 9These include edited versions of podcast interviews that took place in Voice First Health Podcast. Teri wanted to incorporate the interviews in the book to bring a real personal aspect to the narratives that readers will be reading in the book.Chapter 8 is titled, “Voice First Health Interview: An Diabetes Care Plan” This was with Anne Weiler who actually won an award for her diabetes Alexa skill.Chapter 9 is titled, “Voice First Health Interview: Alexa Skills for Pediatrics” This interview was with Devin Nadar speaking about some of her experiences with creating skills specifically for kids.Chapter 10This one was written by Robin Christopherson, and it’s called “The Rapid Rise of Voice Technology and its Awesome Power to Empower” It’s all about accessibility and he wrote about how the Echo and voice first technology more broadly represents a fantastic opportunity for people with people with disabilities.Chapter 11It’s titled, “An Overview of Voice Technology and Healthcare” and it’s by a team of authors from Macadamian Technologies.Section 3It’s titled, “Voice Technology and the Provider Experience” and it’s all about what the healthcare provider is experiencing with voice technology.Chapter 12It’s titled, “Mayo Clinic: Patient Centered, Innovation Driven” and it’s written by a team at the Mayo Clinic, including Dr. Sandhya Pruthi who is one of the cover authors of the book.Chapter 13This is another Voice First Health interview titled, “Voice Technology for Behavioral Changes” where Teri talked to Dr. Matthew Cybulsky about how we can use voice technology to really influence positive behavioral changes with the hope of positive health outcomes.Chapter 14It’s called “The Laws of Voice” and is written by two lawyers, Heather Deixler and Bianca Phillips.Chapter 15This one is based on a Voice First Health Podcast interview, and is called “Medical Documentation in the Voice First Era” It features Dr. Harjinder Sandhu from Saykara and he talks about medical documentation through voice.Chapter 16It’s written by Yaa Kumah-Crystal and Dan Albert from Vanderbilt University and they are looking at creating a voice enabled EMR (V-EVA). They discuss the considerations for designing a voice user interface like Siri or Alexa, to help doctors ask for information from the electronic health record, and have it summarized back by the computer in words. Chapter 17It’s titled, “The Power of Voice in Western Medical Education” and it was written by Dr. Neel Desai and Dr. Taylor Brana. They are leaders when it comes to using voice to educate the next generation of medical students. They have an Alexa skill, MedFlashGo, that is doing just that.Chapter 18This was written by Michelle Wan and is titled, “Voice First Health Interview: Voice Technology for Educational Simulations”Chapter 19It was written by Ed Chung and is called, “Voice Control of Medical Hardware”. Ed talks about how voice is such a wonderful way to control medical hardware in a number of settings.Section 4Its titled, “Voice Technology and the Future of Healthcare” and has four chapters, namely:Chapter 20It’s titled, “Voice First Health Interview: Voice Applications with Dr. David Metcalf” and is about the fascinating things Dr. Metcalf and his team are doing that incorporate voice technology and healthcare.Chapter 21This is titled, “Voice First Health Interview: Vocal Biomarkers and the Voice Genome Project with Jim Schwoebel” and Jim talks about some fascinating areas of vocal biomarkers and being able to diagnose diseases by listening to someone’s voice.Chapter 22It was written by Suraj Kapa and is called, “Artificial Intelligence and Voice Analysis: Potential for Disease Identification and Monitoring” Suraj talks about how we can use voice to analyze different types of diseases and monitor diseases as well.Chapter 23This is a roundtable discussion amongst Dr. David Metcalf, Dr. Sandhya Pruthi, and Teri. They talk about some of the themes, trends, and aha moments that they noticed in putting the book together.Links and Resources in this EpisodeThe Comprehensive Flash Briefing Formula CourseThe Voice Technology in Healthcare Bookwww.VoiceFirstHealth.com/Live

Voice Technology in Healthcare Book Launch

Voice For Medical Education with Drs. Neel Desai and Taylor Brana

In this episode, Teri will share a recording of the presentation he did at Project Voice 2020.Project Voice 2020 was a fantastic event and Teri had the opportunity to participate in a number of different talks including a workshop that he gave with his colleagues Harry Pappas, David Box, and Ilana Meir.Key points from the Presentation!Teri’s ideas around what is the opportunity right now for voice technology specifically in healthcare.Designing for voice in healthcare.The Basics for Voice for HealthcareTeri started the presentation by playing a clip from the movie Elysium where a little girl with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia is put on some futuristic home-based medical machine that completely heals her of the disease.With voice technology and how it’s penetrating the market where we have access to incredible technology, Teri sees it as the primitive version of the technology in that movie scene.Where We Are and What’s Happening NextTeri shares a story about when he was ten and his parents got their first personal computer (a Tandy computer from RadioShack).They showed Teri how to use it and he spent a long time typing on it.Technology evolved and we went from that type of computer to the newer models we have now.12 years ago Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone, and now we have a computer in the palm of our hands.All those technologies have several things in common including the keyboard and an interface.For the first time ever, we don’t need an interface or a device because we can use our voice as the device sits in the background. We can communicate in the most natural way that we know how to communicate using our voices.Voice is extremely efficient and the speed at which we can communicate a message when we are speaking is much faster than if we type.With voice we can multitask, and because of that, voice will be the next operating system.Research on the penetration rates of consumer technologies over the course of history shows that smart speakers are being adopted at a rate more rapid than any consumer technology in our history, including mobile phones.Scenario: What if we could have a physician, dietician, physiotherapist, and nurse living in our homes 24/7 through the kind of technology portrayed in the movie Elysium?That kind is scenario is what gets Teri excited and he believes that we are starting to see the primitive kindlings of that kind of healthcare team in the home.Opportunities for Healthcare in the HomeIt’s often been said that the right healthcare system is when you’re getting the right care, at the right time, and in the right place.The Right Care:If one doesn’t have any medical training and they’re feeling sick, often times they’re not sure what the right care is.They can’t tell whether to see a doctor, take some pills or get some therapy. The way they can figure that out without accessing a healthcare system is through voice. For example, one can talk to their smart assistant which will then tap into AI physicians, nurses, dieticians, etc. who can answer common health questions.Teri believes that will mean voice assistants becoming care providers in the home.The Right Time:If one feels sick, they may not know when to see a doctor.Scenario: What if that person could ask their voice assistant for help and the voice assistant could start to triage and assess the urgency? Once it does that effectively, it could start to direct the resources of the population.The voice assistants will be doing that at an individual level in each home.The Right Place:One of the biggest issues for Canadians and people worldwide, is that there is so much demand on the healthcare system that patients will often go to the emergency department for something like a cold, because they can’t access their family doctor. It can take weeks to see a family doctor.That is a huge issue in the Canadian healthcare system, and so directing people to the right place is critical.The question that lingers is, “How does a person know where to go when they don’t have the medical training?” because there are lots of different options for where a person could get some medical care depending on the issue.Scenario: What if voice assistants acted like a tour guide for a healthcare system helping people to navigate through the system?The Pillars of Creating a Healthcare ApplicationRight now it’s very easy for someone to create a healthcare application that allows one to educate their patients, meaning it’s a one-way communication. A great example is Teri’s health oriented flash briefings.Another great example is how someone can talk to a smart assistant and ask Diabetes related questions which the assistant will answer.The only problem is, there’s very little of a clinical component to that, and so it doesn’t actually provide any diagnosis or treatment.We can’t rely on smart devices to treat a disease but Teri believes in the future we will be relying on the devices to treat us.Aging in PlaceThis refers to, for example, being able to easily and seamlessly connect with family members through a voice assistant or being able to reminisce about events by talking to a voice assistant to remind us about something that happened in the past.Physician NotesThis is one of the biggest pain points for physicians and if somebody can solve it effectively, it’s the holy grail.Having a voice controlled EMR with AI enriched interactions will also be great breakthrough.Vocal BiomarkersIt’s an exciting area. Entities like the Mayo Clinic are studying biomarkers for voice so that a person could just be speaking and the smart speaker could pick up a health condition in the person.They are looking at coronary artery disease and seeing if they can pick it up from a person’s voice. The technology can also be leveraged for other types of diseases like Parkinson’s and others.Patient-Centered HealthcareHealthcare systems are a maze that patients have a difficult time trying to navigate. They’re often times not sure where to go and if they do go somewhere, they don’t know where to go next.Teri thinks we should start having smart speakers in the home where a patient can be in the driver’s seat. Patients can access the voice assistants when they need to, get some advice, and when necessary, have their supporting crew of physicians to tap into when they need them.Links and Resources in this EpisodeThe Comprehensive Flash Briefing Formula CourseLifePodVoice Technology in Healthcare Book

The Opportunity for Voice in Healthcare by Dr Teri Fisher

In this episode, Teri welcomes Sandeep Konam, the Co-Founder and CTO at Abridge, a healthcare and machine learning company.Abridge creates AI-powered tools that empower patients to take control of their health stories. Sandeep is always excited to build products that positively impact the lives of people. He has great experience working at the intersection of machine learning and health. In the past, he has worked on enhancing perception capabilities of UAVs on multi-robot coordination, and was involved with several health-tech projects. Most recently, he worked on deep-learning-based autonomy for UAVs and developed techniques to make deep-learning algorithms interpretable. He is also the founder at KONAM Foundation where they build tech interventions to address challenges in agriculture and education.Key points from Sandeep!How Abridge enables patients to record their conversations with their healthcare providers, and then have a log of what the encounter was about, using their own speech language and machine learning tech.Getting into VoiceHe has been working at the intersection of machine learning and health for about seven years.Around 2016, he got interested in creating an oncology clinical trial matching platform, where oncologists and patients can easily find a list of clinical trials for eligible patients. Doctors, clinicians, and patients loved the idea, but data liquidity and integrations with EHR systems turned out to be an uphill battle.The fact that patients have no access or right to their data challenged Sandeep, and that is what formed the basis for the creation of Abridge’s technology.Abridge works towards helping patients capture, create, and curate their own healthcare data via audio recording.How their Technology WorksPatients use the Abridge platform to securely record, review, and share their clinical data.They tap a button in the app, and then record audio which is then encrypted and uploaded to the cloud for further machine learning processing.Once the audio is processed, they can quickly review it using clinical concepts that are highlighted by Abridge's machine learning pipeline. A patient can also keep their loved ones in the loop by sharing the recordings with them.Everything is powered by Abridge's in-house machine learning tech that has been built over time.They use different machine learning platforms in addition to their own to parse all the information being captured and synthesize it into a way that is succinct and summarized in a way that patients can benefit from.Feedback from Patients and CliniciansThey get very positive feedback from caregivers, doctors, clinicians, and patients. They have come forward and showed their appreciation for the app and talked about how it’s been transformational to them.Some clinicians appreciate that the patients can handle the recording part of their conversations where all they have to do is review the recordings. Doctor-Patient relationships have also improved because of this.He sees this form of recording healthcare data becoming the future trend.Physicians will sometimes request the recordings to put in their medical charts, but the decision lies solely on the patients.Plans for a Clinician-focused PlatformThey believe they can provide value to clinicians, but in the short term, patients are their only focus.Privacy and SecurityPrivacy is a core principal that they abide by with their platform. Users own and control their data. If they deleted the data it’s deleted for good, and if they share it it’s shared. Abridge doesn’t sell any data.They use a state of the art encryption technique for security when a patient records audio all the way to the point where they get a summary of their recording.HIPAA ComplianceThey have not necessarily altered the app for HIPAA Compliance, but they have checked off all the necessary boxes because they go above HIPAA Compliance in their data privacy and security processes.The fact that their app is patient-focused also means that they’re not necessarily required to have HIPAA Compliance.The Future for AbridgeThey are constantly working on improving privacy and security.They’re also continuously enhancing their machine learning capabilities.The Meaning of Voice First Health to SandeepWith the ongoing talk about voice as a biomarker that can be used to detect health issues, and talk about doctor burn out, he believes the right approach is working on giving patients a voice centered experience where they can capture the audio of their interactions with their doctors.Links and Resources in this EpisodeThe Comprehensive Flash Briefing Formula CourseAbridge’s WebsiteSandeep’s Email – San@Abridge.com

Putting Patients First with Sandeep Konam of Abridge

In this episode, Teri welcomes Rana Gujral, the CEO of Behavioral Signals, a company that allows developers to add speech emotion and behavioral recognition AI to their products.Rana is also an entrepreneur, speaker, and investor, and has been awarded the ‘Entrepreneur of the Month’ by CIO Magazine, and the ‘US China Pioneer’ Award by IEIE. He was also listed in Inc. Magazine as an “AI Entrepreneur to Watch”. He has extensive experience in enterprise software, product development, strategy, business-building, and emerging markets. Rana previously served as an Executive Vice President at Cricut Inc where he headed engineering, strategy, technology and IT, and also held leadership positions at Logitech S.A., Kronos Inc., and Deutsche Bank AG, where he was responsible for the development of best-in-class products and contributed towards several award-winning engineering innovations.Key points from Rana!The many reasons why it’s important that machines can recognize and express human emotion, including improving human computer interaction and boosting business KPIs.Looking at the intention behind the words that somebody is speaking and how that is being used in the financial and health sectors.Suicide risk and the ethics behind what happens when an AI is showing the meaning of what a person is saying.Developing an Interest in Voice and Joining Behavioral SignalsHe had been following the voice space and fascinated by AI.In the last decade, the voice technology industry has really progressed. Five to seven years ago we were speaking to NLP or speech-to-text as cutting edge technology, but fast forward to now, it’s no longer considered cutting edge even though it’s very accurate with brilliant business models built on top of it.Voice technology has been directed towards creating a wide range of solutions in different domains, and what Behavioral Signals focuses on is how words are said, and what that says to the state of mind of a speaker. Rana believes this is the aspect of voice interactions that’s going to be a game changer.He also believes that it is the aspect of voice interaction that has been holding the whole interaction piece of voice technology back.How the Technology Tells the DifferenceAt the core of Behavioral Signals’ engine processes, is the variety of outputs when an interaction is being recorded. They go after who spoke when (diarisation) where they deduce basic emotions like anger, sadness, happiness, and frustration. They also go after specific aspects of tone change which is the trend of positivity within the duration of a conversation.They are less hang up on what is being said, and are focused more on the emphasis behind the words. That tells them a lot.An example is a study that was done at Yale University where they took a piece of content from YouTube and just took the audio out of it. They then deduced the emotional behavioral signals from it and mapped it out. Then they turned the video on and analyzed both the audio and the video, looking at the facial expressions and body language of the people in the video, and added that to the emotional and behavioral map that they were piecing together.The natural expectation there was that when adding those additional data points, in addition to just processing the audio piece, they could get more accurate, but what they found was that they actually became less accurate.That meant that when they were mapping based on audio only; there was a higher score than when they were also looking at the video. What they realized is that we as humans are fairly adept at masking our emotions through our facial expressions, but we can’t do that with our tone of voice.Scientists have proven that if one can accurately create an emotional behavioral map of an interaction, or decipher the cognitive state of mind of a participant, and understand the context of that interaction, they can predict what that person will do in the near future, and in some ways predict intent.For example, Behavioral Signals is working with collections and banks to predict if a debt holder is going to pay their debt or not, simply by listening to a voice conversation. They have been able to do that with a very high level of accuracy.They are also working with another company that is building a software platform to cater to patients with depression. The company using Behavioral Signals’ technology to predict a propensity for suicidal behavior.The EthicsThe technology could be misused and so people must be careful when using it. He believes companies like Behavioral Signals have a responsibility to protect the data.We are going to rely more and more on inanimate systems and machines, and the systems/machines will become more intelligent than humans.Links and Resources in this EpisodeThe Comprehensive Flash Briefing Formula CourseRana on Twitter and LinkedinRana’s WebsiteBehavioral Signals Website

Emotion Recognition by Voice with Rana Gujral of Behavioral Signals

Voice-first technology is becoming the operating system of healthcare, and it is poised to completely disrupt the way we experience everything in health and medicine. We are entering the era of ambient computing – smart speakers around us that are ready to carry out our commands through the most natural interfaces known to us – our voices. In this podcast, we discuss the latest news, projects, research, and breakthroughs about the rapidly expanding intersection of Healthcare and VoiceFirst technologies. We cover Amazon Echo and Alexa devices, Google Assistant, Microsoft Cortana, Apple Siri, and other smart speakers, in addition to voice recognition, natural language understanding, artificial intelligence (AI), and everything that works (and doesn’t work) to help you better understand where our healthcare system is headed.Dr Teri Fisher is a Sport & Exercise Physician and Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. He is an experienced keynote speaker, educator, consultant, and podcaster, who loves sharing his excitement and passion for artificial intelligence and voice-first technology. He has a passion for e-health innovation and the intersection of voice technology and healthcare.

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