Voice assistants, uses for health, are they reliable?

Technology is advancing more and more, we all already have at least one smartphone in our pocket and houses are beginning to be automated. An example of this is voice assistants, which are decorating more and more rooms. These artificial intelligence devices have become an essential object in many homes, and it is not for less, since they have great uses that range from solving doubts of all kinds, games or a simple stopwatch to take the cake out of the oven on time. , even telecare service for the elderly.

It is precisely in this elderly group that virtual voice assistants such as Alexa (from Amazon), Siri (from Apple), Google Assistant (Google), Cortana (from Microsoft), Bixby (from Samsung) or Xiao Ai, or Mi Ai (Xiaomi) can contribute to a better quality of life. We must not forget that technologies have advanced by leaps and bounds, so older people do not always get hold of them and for many it is a complicated task that they cannot control, and this is where voice assistants come into play.

What are voice assistants

Virtual voice assistants are intelligent devices that are found on the mobile or in discreet devices such as speakers or small tablets that mimic any other object of home decoration and that are controlled by voice, just say a keyword, which It is usually the name of the assistant (“Hey Siri”, “Alexa”, “OK Google”…) so that the device activates and begins to listen to what we say or ask and interact to give us a solution or execute the action.

The III Study on Voice and Audio in Spain, carried out by Strategic Market Research Solutions (SEIM) and Prodigioso Volcán, have determined that 54.6% of the Spanish Internet population uses this type of device to manage home automation. your home or to solve your doubts of any kind, a figure that is believed to increase considerably in a few years.

More than 56% of the Spanish Internet user population uses this type of device to manage home automation or to solve their doubts

And it is that, these devices can be asked anything, because as they have an Internet connection, they will look for the answer instantly on the network. For example, they are used to know what the weather is going to be like, set alarms, play and control music, search for a recipe, turn lights on or off –if you have compatible bulbs–, make calls without touching the phone, activate or deactivate the heating, raise the blinds automatically, set reminders such as taking medication and endless possibilities.

Advantages and utilities of voice assistants for health

In addition to the comfort of controlling everything with your voice, voice assistants can also do a lot for our health, and as we have already said, especially in the case of older adults. Here are the advantages of these virtual smart devices:

• Voice communication: there is no need to touch anything or have any device nearby, in addition, they can be spoken to in a natural language, which makes them accessible to everyone. This is especially useful for people with reduced mobility, vision problems or for older people who are not good with technology.

• No prior learning is necessary: ​​they are very easy to use devices, you just have to talk to them, give them an order or ask them anything to interact with the device. The person who installs these gadgets at home can start using it from minute one, making it perfect for older people who are not good with technology.

• They have automatic learning: it is curious, the more you interact with these devices, the more data they store and the more intelligent they become, so they will show you results more and more related to you. This has the advantage that the robot can learn the person’s way of speaking to improve its understanding, so there will be fewer and fewer communication errors.

• Useful in cases of emergency: for example, if an elderly person feels ill or falls, they can activate the call to emergencies or to one of their relatives with just an order, this could replace (or be compatible with) telecare systems such as those we know today.

• They help improve mental health: this was indicated by a study by the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, which determined that assistants such as Siri or Alexa managed to help the participants to have a greater personal growth initiative and greater life satisfaction, in addition to declaring that some negative emotions, such as disgust, nervousness, guilt or fear, had been reduced thanks to the use of these devices. “Using coaching models, we programmed a conversational agent based only on voice, which would guide people to achieve their goals in the same way that a human coach guides you to your session through questions”, explained Laura Aymerich-Franch, one of the authors of the study.

• Unlimited information: all the information available on the Internet can be retransmitted by virtual assistants, all you have to do is ask the device by voice so that it immediately responds with the solution. For example, you can ask about symptoms of a disease, the level of pollen in the environment in your area, side effects of medications or about medical appointments that are registered in the device.

• Pilot programs in the world of health: Cedars-Sinai Hospital (USA) has launched a test with the assistant Alexa (Amazon) that allows hospitalized patients to communicate with nurses and doctors, in addition to taking carry out basic tasks such as calling family members or turning on the television with just your voice. At the Children’s Hospital in Boston (USA), the KidsMD skill has begun to be used, which provides guidance on common symptoms of childhood illnesses to parents, for example, to resolve simple questions such as drug dosage.

Health skills on your smart speakers

Google’s assistant and Amazon’s, Alexa, have several actions or skills functionalities, respectively, related to health, which can be downloaded to the devices for free and range from home workout suggestions to healthy menu tips or information about the on-call pharmacies in your city. One of them is Mediktor, which allows an approximate diagnosis to be obtained based on the symptoms that the person describes to the gadget, all of this taking into account their age, gender and with counter-questions to give the most accurate result possible. Obviously, this type of information can never replace that of your doctor, so it could only serve as a guide.

Other tools or skills offered by this platform are geared towards practicing physical exercise, so by downloading them – many for free – you can start doing sports like Yoga or back exercises guided by voice. This is very useful and will motivate you to exercise at home and be more active.

Finally, Nagusi Bot is a personalized virtual assistance service for the elderly. This program is “capable of interpreting the needs of the elderly person in terms of instrumental activities of daily life, relational aspects and leisure activities, offering the most relevant information for each user, in order to avoid loneliness and to promote as much as possible the independent life of the elderly at home possible for as long as possible”, they explain from Grupo SSI, one of the developers.

Disadvantages of voice assistants

However, the use of these smart devices can also come with certain disadvantages. The main one is that in order for them to react to the keyword that triggers the interaction, they have to be continuously listening, which invades the privacy of the user. Everything that is said or the noises that are generated are recorded and stored on the servers of the device’s company.

This confidential information of what we talk about in our day to day life in many cases is used for commercial purposes, for example, to show us advertisements on the phone related to something we have said, something similar to what happens with the well-known cookies of web pages. This has just been confirmed by a study by several North American universities, which states that “we discovered that Amazon processes voice data to infer the interests of users and uses it to publish targeted ads on the platform (Echo devices) and outside the platform. (Web). Smart speaker interaction leads to up to 30x higher ad bids from advertisers.” Practices on the other hand that are often not clearly described in their privacy policies.

The great disadvantage of voice assistants is that they are constantly listening to what we say, data that can be used for commercial purposes

In addition, when searching for information from the Internet, attendees do not have the ability to know which content is better than another or which is the most reliable source, this is a problem, especially in cases where health-related information is sought. An example of this is given by research published in the journal Annals of Family Medicine, which shows that some voice assistants were not able to provide verbal answers to questions about cancer detection, while others did, but from sources unreliable or whose information was not accurate.

Therefore, it may not be a good way to obtain quality information of this type, and it should always be complemented with a specific search on quality pages such as Webconsultas or directly with your doctor or specialist.

Another problem that is being observed in these devices is that they do not provide the necessary help in some cases. For example, a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine has found major flaws in its operation, and that is that when a person declares their intention to commit suicide to the device or that they are depressed, in many of the tests carried out the gadget understands what is being said. says but they do not provide information on suicide hotlines or other appropriate resources. This is because they do not recognize the concern of what is said or the tone of anguish with which it is narrated.

The future of voice assistants

As with the metaverse, an augmented or virtual reality, voice assistants must continue to develop, as they have great potential. It is predicted that in the field of health, these devices could, for example, be used by a surgeon to listen to information from the patient about their medical history or their daily medication schedule. The same can happen with any health professional, who could quickly receive any data about the patients in the consultation through the sound emitted by one of these voice assistants.

In addition, in the field of health care, work is being done to try to integrate voice assistants into health care systems, and if achieved, it would be possible for people to have their health appointments by conversing with the device. This could help patients get accurate and reliable advice and reduce the chance of readmission.

Finally, another example of what is to come can be seen in the agreement that the United Kingdom’s National Health Service has signed with Amazon, in which they join forces to offer reliable health information through Alexa to chronic patients. There are so many utilities that can be given to these devices that soon we will not be able to live without one of them on our shelves.