Amazon's Alexa Will Provide U.K. Users With Medical Information
July 10 2019 - 9:40AM
Dow Jones News
By Parmy Olson and Denise Roland
LONDON -- Amazon.com Inc.'s voice assistant Alexa will provide
medical information to users in Britain that comes directly from
the country's state-backed National Health Service, a deal that
broadens the tech giant's push into health care but raised concerns
among privacy advocates about exploiting people's medical
information.
Under the partnership, which starts this week, Alexa will
automatically search the NHS website for information when asked
about common illnesses instead of other sites. It is Amazon's first
deal with the NHS, which provides health care for more than 66
million people in the U.K. No money will change hands.
For Amazon, serving reliable health information could help build
trust with British consumers. It also establishes a relationship
with the NHS that could lead to the provision of other services.
Other local technology companies have contracts with the NHS to
book appointments with doctors and order prescriptions.
Spokespeople for Amazon and the NHS wouldn't comment on how the
tie-up might evolve over time.
Privacy advocates warned the collaboration could make patients
more cautious about sharing sensitive personal information with
health-care providers or lead to the misuse of such data.
"There's a benefit in it for Amazon, which means the
commercialization of our health data," said Silkie Carlo director
of Big Brother Watch, a privacy campaign group.
"We shouldn't forget that Amazon is not a charity," said Eva
Blum-Dumontet, a researcher at Privacy International. She said
Amazon had a poor track record for transparency on privacy matters,
citing Alexa's default settings that allow employees to listen to
requests, without making that clear in its privacy policy. Amazon
says it does this to improve the service.
An Amazon spokeswoman said the company wasn't collecting
personal information or sharing audio recordings. "Customer trust
is of the utmost importance, and Amazon takes privacy seriously,"
she added. Amazon says it has millions of Alexa users in the
U.K.
The U.K. government said offering NHS advice through Alexa had
the potential to reduce pressure on doctors and pharmacies. The
partnership is part of a broader effort by health officials in the
U.K. to give citizens greater access to health care through digital
means. It recently launched a smartphone app that allows users to
check their symptoms and view their medical records.
"I want the very best advice on Alexa," Health Secretary Matt
Hancock said in a radio interview with the BBC.
The tie-up, instigated by the U.K. government, has been in the
works for at least a year. Mr. Hancock said in a speech in July
last year that NHS information on things like back pain would be
made available through digital assistants. The NHS is in talks with
other digital-assistant makers, a spokesman said.
Alexa users can already ask the voice assistant for information
relating to their health, but until now, the answer could come from
a variety of websites. Now, it will only return information found
on NHS websites.
A spokeswoman for Amazon said the service wouldn't seek to
diagnose users, adding "this is an information service." A customer
can ask Alexa how to treat a migraine, for instance, but they can't
ask if they should call an ambulance.
Amazon has already made moves to encourage consumers to use
Alexa for health matters. In the U.S., the company has established
partnerships with hospital systems and insurer Cigna Corp. that
allow Alexa to transfer sensitive health information using a
federally mandated protocol that meets health-privacy rules. Under
those arrangements, Alexa can schedule hospital appointments and
read blood-sugar results.
Doctor and patient groups in the U.K. said the NHS partnership
would help some users access reliable health care information but
stressed the need to monitor whether they were receiving safe
advice. "It is vital that independent research is done to ensure
that the advice given is safe, otherwise it could prevent people
seeking proper medical help," said Helen Stokes-Lampard, Chair of
the Royal College of GPs, a medical association for primary care
physicians.
Write to Denise Roland at Denise.Roland@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 10, 2019 09:25 ET (13:25 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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