Sharecare is integrating its library of more than 80,000 questions and answers on various health and well-being topics into the Alexa voice service, the company has announced.
The collaboration between the two companies builds upon Sharecare’s commitment to democratize the availability of trusted health information and engage consumers in improving their well-being through innovations in voice technology.
Why it matters?
Sharecare’s vast content is meant to empower people to navigate their well-being by helping them understand different aspects of their health. Curated in collaboration with its partners — including leading healthcare providers, non-profit organizations, and academic institutions — Sharecare’s medically vetted content is created by its deep bench of health journalists and digital producers.
Further, through its collaboration with the Boston University School of Public Health on the Community Well-Being Index (CWBI), Sharecare measures well-being through the lens of social determinants of health, providing people with detailed rankings and deeper context on how their own health is impacted by where they work, live, and play. And now, when Alexa responds to customers’ questions about health topics, Sharecare is among the roster of trusted health information sources to which the voice service attributes answers. Try asking:
- “Alexa, when should I get screened for colon cancer?”
- “Alexa, how long does it take your body to digest food?”
- “Alexa, when is the peak of flu season?”
- “Alexa, how long are you supposed to wash your hands?”
- “Alexa, why are my feet cold?”
On the record
“For nearly a decade, Sharecare has partnered with more than 180 trusted health organizations as part of our mission to help people easily access the latest scientifically validated information to support their overall well-being,” Dawn Whaley, president of Sharecare, said in a statement. “And with more than 19 million people in the U.S. actively using voice assistants to seek health information, being selected by Amazon’s Alexa to provide their customers with verified answers from Sharecare enables even more people to access what they need, when they need it, and through a frictionless experience.”
The context
This isn’t the first time Alexa got access to health information. Users of Amazon’s digital assistant can already access WebMD’s content for health-related information.
Also, in July 2019 – Amazon and the UK Government announced Alexa devices would use the NHS website to provide information to users seeking health advice. Using NHS data is meant to give users confidence that the information they receive is from a reliable source.