AMAZON LAUNCHES TRANSCRIBE MEDICAL
Amazon propels Automatic Speech Recognition technology innovation in healthcare
- Amazon expands healthcare business, advances lead in automatic speech recognition (ASR)
- Transcribe Medical a collaboration of Amazon, Cerner and Suki
- The new application accurately converts patient and physician conversation into digital text format, including advanced clinical terminology, in real-time
- EHR and medical data resources can be enriched with precise information generated by Transcribe Medical
- Voice and speech recognition attributes of Transcribe Medical readily transferrable to Alexa and Echo applications in the future
Conversation Accurately Converted To Digital Text Data
Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has introduced a new healthcare application that interfaces with electronic health records and significantly improves patient and clinician interaction. Amazon Transcribe Medical digitally converts speech (patient and medical professional conversations) via a microphone feed to text for inclusion within clinical documentation and other healthcare data records.
Amazon Transcribe Medical can accurately process spoken dialogue plus medical and pharmacological descriptions and clinical terminology aligned with the medical professional and patient discussions. The application can populate electronic health records (EHR) that is also referred to as electronic medical record (EMR) which healthcare professionals and their provider organizations use to record and manage patient data.
ASR And Medical Transcription Advantages For Medical Professionals
In healthcare and an array of other industries, advances in voice recognition and transcription technology are widely welcomed and highly anticipated. These solutions speed processes, streamline recording and retrieval of information and bypass the keyboard interface which slows down processes and contributes to errors.
As we have seen with smartphones, digital assistants, various remote control apparatuses and other uses of digital technology, the ability to control technical interfaces and collect store, share data via voice is becoming the new technology standard in healthcare, businesses and homes.
Amazon Strategically Deploys Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning Technology As A Resource For Daily Patient Care
The Transcribe Medical application applies machine learning technology to generate precise accurate automatic speech recognition (ASR) for use in a variety of point-of-care settings. It enables clinicians and patients to freely communicate without the distraction of notes having to be entered into an EHR or require the use of a transcription recording device or employ a medical transcribing assistant to take notes covering their dialogue. The burden of data entry, memory recall or awkward deciphering of notes is drastically reduced.
Amazon In Partnership With EHR leader Cerner and AI Voice Technology Enterprise Suki Formulate An Innovative And Practical Solution
Amazon developed the application by collaborating with Cerner ( NASDAQ: CERN ), one of the world’s largest EHR companies based in North Kansas City, Missouri and a startup company known as Suki. Based in Redwood City, California, Suki specializes in artificial intelligence focused on medical data, transcription technology and EHR applications.
Amazon began working with Cerner in 2017 and the two organizations along with Suki have admirably covered a great deal of ground in a short time. Currently, the Amazon Transcribe Medical program can only be used by those healthcare provider organizations and EHR platforms aligned with Amazon Web Services ( AWS or “Amazon Cloud”).
A Strategic Counterpart To Amazon Comprehend Medical
Amazon Transcribe Medical was designed to work with Amazon Comprehend Medical. Amazon Comprehend Medical is an application that enables developers to work with unstructured medical text rhetoric related to patient symptoms and associated clinical details including drug therapy doses, diagnoses and other finite detail essential for a well-fortified EHR patient file. The Comprehend Medical solution was launched in late 2018.
Amazon’s Transcribe Medical Accounts For Patient Information HIPAA Compliance And Data Accuracy
Transcribe Medical meets HIPAA requirements which are pivotal in all things related to patient data, privacy and security. In addition to working with Cerner and Suki, Amazon has wide experience with other healthcare enterprises and government agencies that has fortified its knowledge of healthcare information technology and its pivotal demands for accurate and solidly protected data resources.
Amazon Building Healthcare Enterprise Through These And Other Initiatives
Amazon has clearly committed itself to the healthcare marketplace. Its business partnerships, acquisitions and organic growth in the sector are strategically intertwined. Here are some examples:
- Acquisition and operation of Health Navigator
- Launch of employee healthcare program Amazon Care
- Partnership with University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and PHDA
- Joint-venture with JPMorgan Chase and Apple in Haven Healthcare
- Collaboration with healthcare AI technology company Nimblr
- Research work with the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
- Partnership with Change Healthcare,
- Acquisition and operation of online mail order pharmacy PillPack
Amazon’s ASR Leadership Is Advancing Through Transcribe Medical, Comprehend Medical and Alexa Experience
Besides Transcribe Medical and Comprehend Medical, Amazon’s Alexa platform is rapidly outpacing its competitors as a healthcare resource. Besides being a consumer digital assistant, Alexa has found its way into business and healthcare applications.
The Alexa product franchise supports a HIPAA eligible environment for use by skill developers in the United States which presently is an invite-only program. The progress made based on the acquisition of Health Navigator will clearly drive the development of other Alexa-based applications in the future.
Healthcare Participants Of The Amazon Alexa Skills Kit Platform
The Alexa Skills Kit is being thoroughly vetted by various healthcare enterprises. They include healthcare provider organizations, managed care organizations (MCOs), home healthcare service firms and medical device companies:
- Atrium Health
- Boston Children’s Hospital
- Cigna / Express Scripts
- Libertana Home Health
- Omron
- Providence St. Joseph Health
Microsoft, Google, Other Competitors In AI, ASR, VRT And Medical Transcription
ASR and voice recognition technology (VRT)is being pursued by numerous healthcare software and technology companies. Being aligned with Cerner, one of the world’s largest EHR companies gives Amazon critical insights into patient data records plus strong credibility with medical professionals and healthcare provider organizations.
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While Microsoft and Google have collaborations underway with various partners in this regard, there are many other companies developing solutions that could compete with Amazon, Microsoft and Google. They may remain independent or be acquired to accelerate the development of a marketable commercial product accepted for use by hospitals, health systems, medical practice groups or other healthcare provider organizations.
Leading Contenders In Healthcare Voice And Medical Transcription Technology
Healthcare VRT is a hot technology sector. Amazon has competition from big and small companies focused on creating breakthrough VRT healthcare applications. They include:
- Dolbey
- Entrada
- Nuance
- Radekal
- Sonix
- SpeechRite
- WebChartMD
- Zydoc
Dolbey, Entrada and Nuance already interface with some EHRs but having a complete clinical and commercial solution to be utilized by an entire hospital or health system is something on an entirely different scale. Amazon, Cerner and Suki, with Amazon Cloud as an integral resource, have the clinical, financial and technical bandwidth necessary to provide enterprise-wide voice recognition medical transcription technology that will have a wide impact on large-scale healthcare provider organizations.
Demands Of Clinicians And Healthcare Provider Organizations
As Amazon Transcribe Medical’s launch plans unfold, doctors, nurses and other clinicians, as well as healthcare administrative staff, will be eager to learn more. Amazon will be busy educating the market about it while incorporating the application with additional attributes it develops based on active point-of-care use and feedback.
The ASR and VRT companies listed above plus Microsoft, Google and others will spur their efforts to develop their solutions to blunt the momentum Amazon attempts to establish.
Amazon’s Initiatives Setting New Innovation Standard In Healthcare Information Technology
Amazon Transcribe Medical is also going to foster significant investment by Allscripts, Epic, Meditech and other EHR / EMR companies to readily accommodate ASR and VRT applications or develop their own. It will drive further development to align with interoperability opportunities throughout healthcare including medical devices, diagnostic instrumentation, telehealth/telemedicine and other platforms.
Amazon’s ability to organically develop and effectively partner with other healthcare data enterprises accelerate their investigational, product development and launch capabilities.
Unique Opportunities, English-Speaking And Non-English Speaking Nations And Communities
For all players in the ASR / VRT medical transcription space, there will be a race to develop solutions that accommodate multiple languages including regional dialects. Healthcare is a global industry and a great way to drive user adoption and sales revenue is to be able to market solutions in primary and secondary markets as well as emerging markets and third world nations by overcoming language barriers.
Amazon Has Multiple Commitments In Healthcare
Amazon has gone beyond dabbling in healthcare through its partnerships, cloud services and acquisitions of Health Navigator and PillPack. Targeting healthcare application development with Alexa then following up the introduction of Comprehend Medical with Transcribe Medical demonstrates their commitment and ability to build and commercialize advanced healthcare data solutions.
Amazon is steadily building a robust healthcare enterprise that engages multiple customer stakeholders and disrupts numerous competitors as they move forward.
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