A couple of years ago I joined
Amazon Prime. I joined not because I wanted access to films or music (although
that was a bonus), no, the reason for signing up was the fantastic on-line
ordering and delivery service that Amazon have developed. As a Prime member I
can order something today and it will be delivered tomorrow. I increasingly use
this service as it is so reliable and you can order 24 hours a day. More people
are Amazon Prime members than any other similar membership group, with some
100,000,000 members, although the number of active Amazon users is over
310,000,000. Amazon was once simply a way to buy a book online. These days it
has more products for sale (562,382,292) than the entire US population
(324,459,463). It has come a long way since its humble beginnings in 1999.
As a company, they are beginning
to change the way we shop, entertain ourselves and others, and in many other
areas are changing the way we live. To my mind one of the best things they
developed was Alexa. This device, which is no bigger than a tin of beans, is
phenomenal. I have no idea how it works, but it changed my life. Overnight all
my CDs, (younger readers ask your parents what a CD is) became redundant, and
there were 100s of them. Even my iPod was condemned to that bedside cabinet draw
that has lots of other useless stuff that you can’t just throw away just yet.
These days I can get access to 40 million songs, simply by asking Alexa to play
them.
I can ask her what the news is,
the weather, if there are any travel issues on the roads, and so much more.
Sometimes she gets things wrong, and sometimes she appears to have a mind of
her own and will suddenly say something or respond to something heard on the
TV, but usually she sits there on the piano and waits to be asked a question or
to be given a command. However, I was surprised last week that the new Secretary
of State for Health and Social Care,
Matt Hancock (or Gadget Man as some commentators are starting to call him) suggested
that we (patients) will soon be able to ask Alexa for a diagnosis and treatment
plan, using information available on the NHS Choices website.
As part of a commitment of to
invest some £487 million in hospital technology, he announced a partnership
between the NHS and Amazon. This may sound a lot of money, but in the context
of Amazon’s 2017 earnings of over £69 billion, it’s small change. Not so though
for all those nurses who were expecting to get their pay rise in July’s pay
packet. Despite voting for the recent 3% pay deal announced by Mr Hancock’s
predecessor, it was revealed last week that nurses will only get 1.5%, and have
to wait for next year’s incremental point to get the full pay rise. There is
much anger being directed at Janet Davies, the Chief Executive of the Royal
College of Nurses (RCN), who it appears miscommunicated information to their 435,000
members over the detail of the proposed pay deal. In fairness, all health
unions apart from GMB voted to accept the pay deal. Maybe the GMB asked Alexa
what she thought?
Perhaps, Gadget Man should have
asked Alexa what she thought the reaction would be to his first speech as
Health Secretary, where in a week of rising upset over pay, he announced that
technology, prevention and the health and social care workforce were his three
top priorities. He believes that the technology investment will make the NHS
the most advanced health care system in the world. I think we probably have a
little bit of catching up to do however – see here and here. Gadget Man hopes that
patients being able to ask Alexa for health advice will take the pressure off
the NHS by keeping people with minor illness out of GP surgeries and Accident
and Emergency departments. He is a patient of Babylon’s controversial GP at
Hand app.
There are over 50 million GP
consultations each year for minor complaints, all of which do not require a
trip to the doctor to sort out. Such appointments cost the NHS billions of
pounds. However, there are many GPs who are suspicious that asking Alexa will
reduce the number of such consultations. Based on previous experience of such
interventions as NHS 111, NHS Choices, Pharmacist services, even the latest
health scare, it’s often a case of ‘see your
doctor’. My experience suggests that unlike the demise of my CD
collection, health technology will be a slow burn if it is going to change people’s
health and wellbeing or reduce the demand for NHS services. It will be changes
to organisational systems and ways of working, a developing workforce, health
promotion and prevention strategies, community based social care and carer support
that will really make a difference. Technology is an enabler of all these elements,
not an outcome in itself. But just to be sure, I’m going to ask Alexa.
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