Understanding Voice Technology & Its Impact in Healthcare

By Dr. Matt Cybulsky

I’ve always felt that the human-centered approach to computer science leads to more interesting, more exotic, more wild, and more heroic adventures than the machine-supremacy approach, where information is the highest goal.

Computer scientist, “Father of AR” (Augmented Reality), and pioneer of VR (who also actually invented the term “Virtual Reality”), Jaron Lanier, said that ... This “human-centered approach to computer science”—specifically through voice-first platforms—are not only the future of healthcare, but will revolutionize the healthcare industry in myriad ways that far surpass the “machine-supremacy approach, where information is the highest goal.” Indeed, voice technology in healthcare will place the patient, physician, economy, and system-wide health and well-being at the fore.

The future of voice in healthcare is now.

In the past 20 years alone, we’ve had five waves of disruption in healthcare: the web, search engine, mobile, social media, and now voice and AI. What sets this most recent wave apart is the record-breaking adoption rate of voice-first tech: While the radio took 20 years to reach the majority of the American public and the color TV took about 12 years, the smart speaker took a mere five years, the highest adoption of technology in the history of the US.

The development of voice technology is as impactful to our world as the Internet itself. Voice and AI represents 20 years worth of innovation and provides an exciting new technological pathway to transform healthcare. Using voice technology in healthcare, healthcare and voice AI, and AI health assistants—as well as healthcare solutions and innovations that will be created from these breakthrough technologies—the industry can solve a host of issues that strain the system.

And the technology is here and expanding rapidly. What we’ve learned over the years of The Voice of Healthcare Summit—an annual conference held at Harvard Medical School exploring the emerging dynamic solutions provided through voice-first technology and artificial intelligence in healthcare—is that the prevailing voice-first platforms in healthcare might be lead by Alexa, Google Assistant, Pullstring, Apple, SoundHound, Samsung, and others. Think: A dedicated clinician available to an at-home patient via voice at all times. LifePod tools for in-home connection to patients as well as Suki AI are excellent examples of dedicated support for clinicians and care continuity. Voice technology in healthcare truly has the potential to instigate an industry-wide renaissance.

What we are solving for, exactly?

The goal is, and has always been, to help the patient live a better life. Modern-day issues, however, block us from achieving this goal and seeing patients thrive. Among these issues, the “doctor is not in” phenomenon: the decline of primary care physicians in this country from retirement, fewer residents, and income disparities. Couple that with an increased demand for physicians due to a massive aging population and growing chronic illnesses across all ages. As this gap has widened, we’ve seen the industry movement toward patient engagement, aka the “hallmark drug of the century”: the idea that connecting to patients on a human-to-human level results in positive health outcomes.

Closing the gap of patient-to-physician ratios and strengthening human-centered care will require healthcare ideas that we’re just now waking up to.

We’ll accomplish this with an ever-growing amount of data (seven to nine times more data from voice platforms than from search engines) and a growing shield of protection for personal data collection in the name of privacy and better healthcare continuity. For instance, we haven’t even mentioned the problems of managing our way through the red tape of the healthcare system, delivering quality follow-up care for patients, and providing chronic-condition management. And let’s not forget the possibility of providing impactful preventative wellness care, such as weight loss, healthy diet, exercise, alcohol consumption, mental illness, and more. Voice and AI can accomplish filling gaps in care, caring for more patients with less, collecting passive and active data in ways we never thought possible. And this is just the beginning. The data possibilities are endless, and AI and machine learning must be utilized to make sense of it all and find greater outcomes for the population and satisfaction for clinicians rendering care. Just think: More tech yields more time, better lifestyle, and improved attention and energy to perform their work.

Finding harmony between patient and physician, caregiving and business, human and artificial intelligence …

EMR was built to be a workflow engine and it has failed. It's great for securing billing, accelerating cash, and managing insurance contracts, but it hasn’t lived up to its promise as an effective workflow tool. Don’t believe me? Talk to any MD about their experience with EMR and prepare to be disappointed—and to be there a while.

After enduring any lengthy exhortation stuck in a doctor’s office, you’ll walk away, relieved, and with a clear understanding that EMR is simply a data exchange engine and not a workflow tool. Voice and AI are the tools that we’ll use to pull data out of the EMR as well as push data in—all in the name of a better life for us all, whether you’re a patient, practicing medicine, or benefitting from a healthy population and economy. After all, we’re all an eventual patient and our population’s collective health isn’t disassociated from our economic health. Better systemic workflow when accessing care contributes to the benefit of a robust healthcare system for all.

There are no barriers when it comes to how voice and AI can usher us through a human-centered healthcare renaissance. Who knows? Maybe we can even erase “healthcare” from the political podium as a result. Our work connecting with the impassioned community at large focused on voice, AI, and tech in healthcare is further convincing us that the changes we’re experiencing are here to stay. And rest assured,the enterprising and pioneering minds focused on solving our modern healthcare problems will not cease in wowing us with their solutions.