Less than two months after MedCity speculated whether Amazon would release a HIPAA-compliant Echo device, the tech giant announced that select skills for Alexa — the voice-activated personal assistant service powering those devices — are indeed HIPAA-compliant.
Alexa skills can transmit and receive patients’ protected health information, according to a blog post from the tech giant.
As part of the announcement, Amazon has put together an invite-only program in which developers can access the HIPAA-compliant capability to build skills. Thus far, the company has only invited six organizations to participate, though it said it plans to let more developers join in the future.
The six select organizations are:
- Atrium Health. Headquartered in North Carolina, the system has locations in South Carolina and Georgia as well. It has created a program that lets patients in North and South Carolina find an urgent care center or hospital location and schedule an appointment.
- Boston Children’s Hospital. The hospital has a program called Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS), which helps parents and caregivers of kids who have undergone heart surgery. Its new Alexa skill allows individuals in the ERAS program to provide their care teams with updates on recovery progress and get information about post-op appointments.
- Cigna. Through the insurer’s skill, eligible employees with one of Cigna’s large national accounts can manage their health improvement goals, listen to wellness tips and track their incentive program status.
- Express Scripts. The pharmacy benefits manager has developed a program for members to check the status of their home delivery prescription. They can also request notifications for their orders.
- Livongo. The chronic disease management company’s Alexa skill lets patients keep track of their blood sugar checks and get insights and personalized health nudges.
- Providence St. Joseph Health. Similar to Atrium Health’s skill, patients can use PSJH’s program to locate an urgent care center nearby and schedule an appointment.
“These skills are just the first step in making it easier for customers to manage their healthcare needs using just their voice – we’re excited to see what developers build next,” the Amazon blog post reads.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Photo: Amazon
