Health Navigator and Macadamian Bring Easy-access Health Triage to Consumers With New Alexa Skill

LA GRANGE, Ill. (PRWEB) August 08, 2018 -- Health Navigator, a company that delivers clinical content for digital health, telemedicine, and eHealth, has partnered with Macadamian, a healthcare-focused software design and development consulting firm, to develop and demonstrate a proof-of-concept skill for voice-enabled digital assistants. The Alexa Skill lets people seek health information and care advice through their digital assistant anytime, anywhere.

Recent surveys from the Pew Research Center show 80 percent of internet users (approximately 93 million Americans) search for health-related topics online. The new capability from Health Navigator and Macadamian addresses the demand for expanded access to care and consumer-friendly, online health solutions.

The Alexa Skill is a voice-enabled health triage service based on the clinical content in Health Navigator’s triage engine. It allows a person to ask a digital assistant about symptoms and to receive care advice. Based on user-entered symptoms, the skill provides answers to consumer questions such as:
• How serious are my symptoms?
• Is this an emergency?
• Do I need to see a doctor? If so, when?
• Can I take care of this problem at home?

Through this partnership, Health Navigator and Macadamian show how digital assistants can use these capabilities to deliver care advice at a lower cost to many people.

“Solutions like the Health Navigator Skill can increase access to healthcare, while reducing the cost of care,” said Jeffrey A. Schwartz, MD, President of Health Navigator. “By interacting with their voice assistant, people can easily make decisions about the level of care they need and can manage their symptoms in ways that are more cost effective than a trip to the ER or clinic.”

How it works
Health Navigator’s clinical content and triage engine guide consumers to answer questions about their age, gender, symptoms, and other clinical factors. The digital health assistant then provides a recommendation on the type of care they should receive and when. For example, patients may hear self-care options or be told to make a clinic appointment or seek emergency care.

Health Navigator’s content is based on nearly two decades of subject-matter expert input, literature review, data mining and analytics, and testing against large clinical data sets. Meanwhile, Macadamian leveraged its expertise in conversational user experience design to develop the automated triage solution available through Alexa devices.

“Healthcare costs escalate when healthcare provider resources are not used efficiently. Delivering patient care management triage via Alexa is an efficient way to support people in making the right care decisions,” said Timon LeDain, director of emerging technologies and products at Macadamian.

Health Navigator and Macadamian are currently looking for partners to publish the skill and make it widely available for public use. To watch a video of the Health Navigator/Macadamian prototype, visit: https://healthnavigator.com/macadamian_1/.

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About Health Navigator
Based in La Grange, IL, Health Navigator is a privately-owned health information company. The Health Navigator platform is a comprehensive clinical vocabulary and decision-support system designed to support e-Health and telemedicine encounters from the presenting chief complaint to the final diagnosis. The platform includes a broad range of tools to capture the chief complaint through Natural Language Processing, present a documentation checklist to consumers and healthcare providers, generate a list of possible causes, and make care recommendations. These tools can be used to develop health bots, symptom checkers, and telehealth or digital health applications. All content can be delivered through an application programming interface (API; RESTful web service). To learn more, visit http://www.healthnavigator.com. Follow on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Media contact: Barbara Tabor / (651) 450-1342 / [email protected]

About Macadamian
Macadamian designs and develops digital and connected experiences to improve healthcare. Macadamian is a full-service software design and development consulting firm that provides a complete range of product strategy, usability, design, and software engineering services. Ranging from big consumer brands to complex enterprise environments, our goal is to create solutions that are simple and meaningful, prioritizing the experience of the patient, the clinician, and the business needs of our clients. http://www.Macadamian.com

Contact: Vani Edwardson, Vice President, Marketing, 819-772-0300 [email protected]

Barbara Tabor, tabor PR, +1 651-230-9192, [email protected]