Amazon’s Alexa and other so-called virtual assistants increasingly are used by senior living residents either on their own or as technology integrated into other systems used at their communities. Now, through a partnership with First Databank announced last week, residents and others will be able to access drug information through Alexa queries.
A subset of FDB’s drug information, used for more than 40 years by healthcare professionals, now can be accessed by consumers from any Alexa-enabled device.
Individuals will be able to ask about drug interactions, side effects, precautions and a drug’s class in English and Spanish. Examples of some common medication-related queries that Alexa now will answer:
- “Alexa, what type of drug is ibuprofen?”
- “Alexa, what are the side effects of sertraline?”
- “Alexa, does Zoloft interact with Aleve?”
- “Alexa, what’s the difference between Tylenol and Advil?
“People lead busy lives, and voice provides a simple way to get helpful information about medications, including side effects and drug interactions, for themselves and the people they care for,” FDB President Bob Katter said. “This information will complement advice from their medical and pharmacy teams. Ultimately, we believe that more informed consumers will lead to improved medication adherence, the reduction of adverse drug events and better patient outcomes,” he added.
