As someone who keeps up with technology, I may have underestimated the power of voice technology. This as I am a few day removed from watching my 5 and 9 year old son’s play with a Google Dot. They couldn’t tear themselves away asking Google the above question in the title” and many more like…
“Hey Google… What’s Your Phone Number?”
“Hey Google… What’s 10 + 1?”
“Hey Google… What’s 72 x 95?”
“Hey Google… Tell me a Joke?”
… They were completely captivated and it was difficult to tear them away. Of course this made me rethink voice technology in the realm of healthcare and mental health. This year Luminary Labs (a consulting firm that develops strategies and innovation systems to help organizations thrive in the face of change) had a contest to fund a company using Voice technology to assist with diabetes care. I followed this for a bit, was bit skeptical if anyone would actually use it, and kind of wrote it off.
Inspired by my children playing with it, I took a look back at the 5 finalists and the winner to the see design elements that may apply to other areas (especially mental health care).
Some of the common elements included…
Teacher:
All 5 finalists had some sort of forward facing, audio book style teaching about diabetes. This was a different way to engage with diagnosis education. Going to patient preference, somebody may prefer to hear education this way.
Symptom Tracking/Journaling:
All of the 5 finalists incorporated a way to track symptoms and journal. The winner even attached to a scale to monitor weight and foot size. One of them mentioned the use of wearable tech.
Care Coordination:
A way to push this data to family, diabetes specialists, or anyone else from the care team.
Coaching/Learning Patterns:
Here is where things get a little tricky. Based on some questions in the teaching components, symptom tracking, and journalism; these apps can give feedback. They use technology like Natural Language Processing (quickly going through words and language to pick up patterns). A good example of this in mental health is researchers using voice pattern recognition look at speech for schizophrenia. Also Machine Learning technology can be used to turn those patterns in to actionable items.
A lot of these design elements are not all that dissimilar to text apps. But watching my children interact with Google Dot made me think if others would others find voice technology an engaging experience? More importantly would they also find voice an engaging experience for a healthcare encounter?
A quick Google scholar search yielded a study in rural Africa that found voice technology a powerful interface for families caring for their children. But barriers such as access were noted. Another study indicated that interactive voice calls to assist with Smoking Cessation was an effective intervention. That people who engaged the longest had higher success rates. It doesn’t mention the factors that kept people engaged. That is probably the large question.
It made me ponder how voice technology can assist with symptom education for a teenager with ADHD? Can someone engage with voice to better track their symptoms of depression? It what other ways can voice be another aide to mental health treatment?
My interest in voice technology as an aide to healthcare has been peaked a bit. I look forward to seeing how this evolves but also interested in other people’s thoughts. Please feel free to comment below or give me a shout on twitter at @stuckonsw.
