By Vixen Labs / October 7, 2021 / VCI

The healthcare system has embraced voice like no other. We’re looking at how voice assistants can improve patient care, staff management, and even surgery procedures with Intelligent Health Association founder and book author, Harry P. Pappas.

Talking Shop Episode 3 Speaker Harry P Pappas
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How Voice Can Improve Healthcare
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Listen to Talking Shop Episode 3

Listen to Episode 3 of Talking Shop: Making Voice Work for Marketers right here. Talking Shop is a brand new podcast series from Vixen Labs, taking you through the core findings and insights from the Voice Consumer Index 2021.

In episode 3, we look at voice in the healthcare sector, focusing on both current user needs and exciting promises in boosting patient care and driving more ROI through voice assistance in the future. To dissect our findings, we’re joined by Harry P. Pappas Intelligent Health Association founder and co-author of ‘Voice Technology in Healthcare: Leveraging Voice to Enhance Patient and Provider Experiences’. 

read the transcript

James Poulter  00:00

The healthcare sector has embraced voice assisted technology like no other, a hands-free solution being used in hospitals, by doctors, but also by families and individuals in their own homes. As people start making steps to accessing healthcare information and using voice assistant devices, well, what are the key issues that face the industry? Our data from the recent VCI report, that we’ve just released, showed that 60% of voice users name scheduling an appointment with a doctor or a practitioner as that top priority task for healthcare. And we want to look today at how the healthcare sector is changing to accommodate voice and provide access to healthcare services. 

James Poulter  00:36

You know, the willingness of voice users to search for symptoms and learn about a disease is really high. And we want to know what challenges and opportunities that  presents to the healthcare sector, as voice becomes ever present in all of our lives. What does healthcare really need to do when it comes to voice to help patients, to help practitioners along the way, and this is a big subject, and we need a lot of experience in it to really get into that. And we’ve got that today for you in the form of our guest. I’m really excited to get into this topic. 

James Poulter  01:04

This week, I’m joined by an expert in the field of healthcare, Mr. Harry P. Pappas, founder and CEO of the Intelligent Health Association, serial entrepreneur, friend of the royal family, even he was telling me earlier, and definitely an expert in the world of health tech, and we’re so pleased that you could join us just give us a little bit of introduction to yourself, and maybe a bit of background on how you ended up working in the world of health and voice.

Harry P. Pappas  01:27

I really got involved in the health and wellness community, first in the US and Canada, and then around the world, because of what happened to my mother. And I saw the state of health care in the United States. I saw how the industry could be improved with the adoption of technology. I then saw the second part of health and wellness community when my mother was living in an assisted living nursing home environment. So I saw that disaster that was happening there. And what drove me into healthcare, because I’m basically an entrepreneur utilising technology to improve the enterprise, whether it’s Marks & Spencer, or whether it’s Carrefour, or Walmart, or any of these companies. I started out using RFID technology in 1995. 

Harry P. Pappas  02:32

And I realised that a lot of the programmes, a lot of the projects that we were doing for the commercial enterprise, and the military should be used in a hospital setting. So when I saw the situation in the healthcare community, I complained to a number of people. And they said, Well, if you know that much, why don’t you jump in and help the community? So I did, I started divesting myself of, of companies, and decided that I wanted to make a change. So we started, initially, I guess, about 15 years ago, with a new organisation called the RFID in Healthcare Consortium. How do we educate hospitals to use this technology to improve patient care, patient safety, and to reduce the cost of operations? 

James Poulter  03:31

Harry, give me, a give me a practical example. What was that? What did that mean? In those days? You know, RFID, most of us know this is something that’s in our credit cards, or it’s in our passes, how is that being used in healthcare, then?

Harry P. Pappas  03:43

How’s it used in healthcare? Everything from a patient wristband to tracking equipment. Where’s my infusion pump? Where’s the gurney? And it goes on and on and on. And recently, there’s an integration going on with a couple of new companies, of voice and RFID.

James Poulter  04:05

Ah, really okay, well, tell us about that. Give us…give us some examples.

Harry P. Pappas  04:08

Well, there’s a lot going on. So let me…

 

“LET ME JUMP AND TELL YOU HOW IMPORTANT VOICE IS TO THE HEALTH AND WELLBEING COMMUNITY AROUND THE WORLD.”

It’s not about just what we’re doing in the United States. It’s how do we use voice along with other technologies on a global level to deliver quality healthcare? And I just had this discussion with two international companies yesterday. They said, ‘What’s this voice thing all about?’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘What is it?’ I said, ‘Do you have a smart speaker at home?’ ‘Oh, yeah, we got four of them.’ I said, ‘Do you know that you can use that in an operating room? Do you know that you can use that in the patient room. Do you know we can use that to brand the hospital?’

Harry P. Pappas  05:00

This Executive was totally confused, because he just couldn’t imagine the use of a smart speaker in an operating room. Okay. So let me tell you how I got involved in voice about four years ago, I was visiting my son’s home. And his wife speaks to this cylindrical device sitting on the kitchen table. I watched her talk to this device and place an order for diapers. And then two minutes later, she says, I want to hear this song. And I was mesmerised, mesmerised. And I said, ‘well, wait a minute, can I ask a question?’ And my daughter in law said, ‘Absolutely’. So I said to this device, ‘What is the temperature in Athens, Greece? And within two seconds, the device tells me what the temperature is, and the weather in Athens, Greece. I got blown away. 

Harry P. Pappas  06:09

And then I said to that device, ‘What is diabetes?’ And it was silence. Okay, I don’t have an answer to that. I’m sorry. Immediately, though, I saw the future. I saw how this device could be adopted in healthcare, but not only in healthcare, but many, many industries. I then, because I made a promise to my mother to transform healthcare, I saw how I could use voice along with other complementary technologies to improve healthcare. So the way I see voice in health and wellness, and I start with the provider, in the United States, there are tremendous competitive forces, market by market, because hospital A or hospital B is running advertisements on television for you to go to that hospital for cancer treatment. Another hospital is running advertising for diabetes. So there’s a tremendous competitive environment, city by city, hospital by hospital. So hospitals spend a fortune on advertising and have very expensive websites.

James Poulter  07:32

Yeah, and I think it’s worth saying, Harry, that, yeah, as you’re explaining this, yeah, for those of us that may be listening outside of the US, this is quite an interesting phenomenon, for those of us that have public healthcare, because you had the idea of a hospital advertising itself, or a pharmaceutical company advertising, you know, kind of drugs and things, we’ve all heard those terrible radio and TV commercials that are 30 seconds of kind of creative, and then another minute and a half of symptoms that may or may not happen to you if you take the drug. But you know, for most of us, we don’t have to…we don’t listen to this scoping. So it’s important to emphasise in that, but in the US in particular, and Canada, to a certain extent, there is this massive kind of opportunity in front of us, for healthcare providers, when it comes to changing their advertising structure.

Harry P. Pappas  08:16

It’s correct. And so I think where we’re gonna wind up is each major hospital, and I won’t mention any names, is gonna wind up having what I call their own voice channel, they’re gonna have their own voice brand. They’re gonna have their own identity. So if I’m shopping for a hospital to treat my diabetes, I then can ask the smart speaker, you know, what is the local hospital that has treatment for diabetes?

James Poulter  08:51

And crucially, what’s the best hospital for treatment for diabetes, which I suppose would be the big win, right, for a hospital in that area?

Harry P. Pappas  08:57

“ONE OF THE APPLICATIONS FOR VOICE IS FOR OTHER MAJOR HOSPITALS TO USE THIS PLATFORM AS A MARKETING VEHICLE TO THE CONSUMER.”

Okay, because again, the model between the UK and the US is very different. However, the consumer needs to be educated. So in a market like New York City or Chicago, you may have 10 hospitals with their own voice platforms, maybe their own voice devices, and, through the voice platform, they could do consumer surveys. They can have, as you said, scheduling, you can have a community built around a particular procedure. Like, for instance, if you’re a stroke victim, you want to be able to talk to other stroke victims.

James Poulter  09:55

Yeah, and connecting communities around that.

Harry P. Pappas  09:57

Yeah, you know, you can build communities around a given procedure, for instance, about two months ago, I went through a hip replacement. And I saw ways that we should be using voice for other people who had the same procedure to exchange information to talk about therapy. And then there’s the other piece of the voice platform: how does a hospital use voice internally?

James Poulter  10:31

Right? You’re absolutely right. Yeah, it’s not. It’s not just the patient. But it’s in that kind of B2B context as well, which I want to get more into in just a moment. But let’s just stick with the consumer angle for a second here. So yeah, I think you’re painting this really interesting picture that voice’s already becoming commonplace enough. We see this in the data, right? And you’re inspired, or in the same way that many people are, originally to get into this field. By that personal experience, you saw a family member speaking to an advisor, like, wow, I can do that. And that’s something else that other people will do, too. 

James Poulter  11:00

And what we see from our data in the most recent VCI report is that, within the healthcare sector, in particular, the most asked for function and the priority activity, if you like, is people doing exactly that — you gave this example earlier about, you know, kind of ‘what is diabetes?’ In that particular instance, that device didn’t have a good answer? And that is the top ranking question that everyone is asking. Yeah, 57% of our users that we surveyed in the US, the UK and Germany, said that they identified using a smart speaker as a symptom checker was their top priority for healthcare and voice. 

James Poulter  11:34

And very shortly after that is also learning about a disease that they may be already experiencing. So just give us a picture here of where you see at the moment the market in the US in terms of receptiveness to being the solution. And when it comes to voice, are you seeing any brands, either in the pharma sector or perhaps even in hospitals, where they’re already beginning to get on board with this, and understanding that this is the way that consumers are behaving?

Harry P. Pappas  12:01

JP, first of all, I want to commend you and your team, for the research you did. I’m using the research, I’m telling colleagues about the research. And we need more of that, we need to get that information out to the consumer. Because there is a problem in the US. Okay, so I have many friends who refuse to have a smart speaker in their home because of privacy concerns. So that’s one of the major issues we as an industry, have to educate the consumer about. And you and I are involved with the Open Voice Network, which really should be out there. We need to educate people. We need to educate the end user on an ongoing basis, not once or twice, but we need to have an educational campaign ongoing.

 

“THE HOSPITALS THAT ARE USING IT HERE IN THE UNITED STATES ARE AHEAD OF THE CURVE.”

For instance, Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic has invested a lot of money into COVID. So when you go to the Amazon smart speaker, and you ask him anything about COVID, that data, that information is coming from Mayo Clinic.

James Poulter  13:30

Yeah, absolutely. We say the same thing, just for those that may be listening in the US and are familiar, we have the same thing here in the UK. But the NHS, obviously the National Health Service, which is the public body has also done similar things and providing lots of data first party to Amazon, to provide that answer. So great example, carry on there. 

 Harry P. Pappas  13:47

But you also have other hospitals who have jumped on board, like Boston Children’s Hospital for expectant parents. And, you know, how does a mother get prepared for the delivery of a baby? How can the mother use the device? To answer questions about her pregnancy? How does the mother use the device while she’s in the hospital? And then how does the mother use the device, once she comes home with the baby?

James Poulter  14:27

So, it’s that full life cycle of…

Harry P. Pappas  14:30

A continuum of care. That continuum of care before, during, and after. So again, mental health is another one…alcohol addiction. There are so many areas that I see, and my colleagues see, that are open to the use of voice…and, you know, with voice, I don’t need a laptop. I don’t need a computer. I don’t care how hold-on I am. I can then use that technology.

James Poulter  15:04

So it’s a point about democratisation and access, ultimately. Is that what you’re saying?

Harry P. Pappas  15:10

It’s, it’s open to everybody, no matter how old you are, or how wealthy you are. As long as you have the device, you should be able to get the information that you’re looking for. And, you know, again, hospitals are just the beginning, you know, nursing homes, assisted living…but I want to, I want to finish up on the hospital, by using the voice platform for B2B, uses internally, can reduce the cost of operations.

James Poulter  15:47

That’s super interesting. Let’s double click on that, Harry, give us some examples of some tangible things you’ve seen in hospitals where they’re beginning to actually think about that.

Harry P. Pappas  15:56

Okay, so for instance, if I have the device, in a patient room, I have the devices sitting in my next to my bed, instead of calling the nurse, I can tell the device, turn on the lights, turn off the lights, I can use a device to order food, heating and air conditioning. If I want to get up and go to the bathroom, I can then use that device to cause the nurse to assist me. I don’t need to have a nurse called technology. Because nurse call technology is an expensive technology.

James Poulter  16:36

Yeah, absolutely. And not very nuanced as well, you know, press a button for this press a button for that doesn’t necessarily replicate what you could say out loud, right?

Harry P. Pappas  16:45

So if I can save the nurse 500 steps a day, times 365 days a year, times 500 nurses, that’s more time that the nurse has to pay attention to patients who are critically ill.

James Poulter  17:03

And probably a lot less tired and going through a lot less pairs of crocs or skechers walking up and down the corridors of hospitals.

Harry P. Pappas  17:10

Absolutely. But also the patient can then communicate directly with the physician, the family can then also participate in this.

James Poulter  17:23

And, do you know what, it also gets me excited about, Harry, when you’re talking about this, there’s also the difference when you move away from a very simple push a button, get a response device to one that uses language is the data that that potentially unlocks, right? If you can begin to, as a hospital, look at all of the things that patients asked, all of the things that they said in the aggregate across the year — thousands of patients coming and going to Boston General, you gave us an example — yet these mega hospitals thousands of patients being seen every week, every month, but you’ll be able to see across the year…this many people ask for food or this many people complained about this or, yeah…you begin to have such a treasure trove of data, don’t you?

Harry P. Pappas  18:04

Yeah, JP, you’re right spot on, because using AI, with the voice assistant, the hospital administrators can now see what is happening. What is the patient experience? Where do we need to improve? So the hospital actually then has an ROI. Because hospitals are trying to save money, improve service. So when I speak to hospital executives, I said, you know, if you develop your own voice platform, and let’s say you spend X dollars, let me show you the ROI. Okay, snap staff satisfaction, the nurses, the doctors, the patient experience, especially here in the US where there’s a lot of competition between hospital A and hospital B. If the patient had a positive experience, he’s going to tell his friends, hey, don’t go to hospital A, go to hospital B.

James Poulter  19:09

Because of the US system, the money follows. So you know, that’s, I think, an important thing for us to remind ourselves of now, though, I have to now flip this on its head though. So if it’s that simple to say, ‘Hey, here’s the ROI of doing this’, then, you know, we’re seeing first footsteps in it, but not an absolute tidal wave of people getting on board. So where’s that? Where are the blockers, Harry? What’s stopping healthcare professionals, particularly at hospitals or in the medical sector more broadly, getting on board with this faster? What can we do to help them understand it?

Harry P. Pappas  19:37

Well, let me just tell you, number one, it’s all about education and training, what we do as an association, we’re focused on educating and training the healthcare community globally, to adopt new technology. If you remember, many, many years ago, you could not go into a hospital with your smartphone. You cannot go in with your mobile phone. You are not allowed. You’ve got to remember also many years ago, hospitals did not have WiFi.

James Poulter  20:09

Some of them still don’t over here. So don’t get too ahead of yourself.

Harry P. Pappas  20:13

Okay, that’s new to me. How long did it take you, JP, to adopt an email, to adapt to the internet? 

Harry P. Pappas  20:21

Yeah, I mean, not that long for me. But I think for many others definitely has taken some time, you know?

 

“I THINK WE’RE IN FOR A HUGE REVOLUTION WITH VOICE.”

Because I don’t need a keyboard, I don’t need a computer. And you’re using your natural given talent of speaking and talking. Now, a lot of hospitals in the US are looking at what other major hospitals are doing. Like, like mail yesterday, to give you an example, I was on a call with a global company dealing with robotic surgery. And I said to the CEO, ‘You know, you should consider using voice integrated with the surgical robot.’ And they said, ‘Harry, you’re spot on. We’re coming out with that in January.’ So there is a movement. 

Harry P. Pappas  21:18

We may not know about it, because it’s company secrets, competitive, okay. But there’s a silent revolution going on. On both sides, both the consumer, as well as the enterprise.We have been demonstrating the use of voice in a clinical setting, at our pavilion at trade shows for four years now. Okay, so how do I use voice in an operating room? I’m going to give you an example. Because we’re working with some multinational corporations. The surgeon says to the device, ‘What is the temperature of the room? The operating room?’ ‘It’s 75.’ ‘Set it for 72.’ ‘What are the pathogens in this room right now? What’s in the air? What molecules? Are there any infectious molecules in the air in your lab? Give me that report.’ And up on the screen, in the OR, you’ll see the report.

James Poulter  22:28

And of course, it’s worth emphasising that some of this stuff just is way too difficult to be doing. And you’ve got to go walk to a computer to type it in because people are scrubbed in there in a clean environment, you know, it’s just touchless completely.

Harry P. Pappas  22:40

It’s touchless. So the surgeon knows that this is a hard procedure, and it’s going to take eight hours. So he says to the device: ‘For the first two hours, play Vivaldi, the next two hours, play Pearsall, and then, next two hours, play Handel. And so I want the air circulating at so many cubic feet per minute.’ So there are so many uses, but at the same time, he can also say to the device, ‘Please, every 30 minutes, give me the patient’s heartbeat, heart rate’, or whatever.

James Poulter  23:19

Or ‘Paige anesthesiologist’, or you know, kind of whatever it might be, right? So it’s a combination of these technologies between sensors, between communications,  between voice in the room.

Harry P. Pappas  23:29

Correct. And what’s happening, JP, is that more and more technology companies are now learning to integrate voice with their medical device.

James Poulter  23:41

And I suppose all of those you’ve mentioned, particularly in the healthcare sector, one of the big issues that we see is, yeah, there’s a language issue here as well, because the language of the medical environment is far more complicated than you know, kind of standard English, or standing in line at McDonald’s or Sonic ordering a burger is a very different experience to, you know, being in an operating room asking for certain kinds of drugs or you know, kind of certain procedural instruments or things like that. So are they having to wrestle with overcoming some of that natural language barriers as well?

Harry P. Pappas  24:13

You’re spot on. AI is having a tremendous impact on voice. Natural Language is as part of that machine learning as part of that. Even I had a conference call two weeks ago with a group of doctors in Germany who are using voice, AI and blockchain. So this is going on around the world, because I talk to people internationally. And a lot of the things that are going on in the US are going on in Australia. They’re going on in Israel. So this is a global phenomenon. And if it took, I don’t know, 10 years for people to get on board with email here, it’s going to be half that time, because it’s so easy to use.

James Poulter  25:02

Exactly, or even less, which I think is what we’ve seen. If it’s anything like the consumer angle, it’s even less than that. And I think that we’re very excited about where it goes. But obviously, one of the things that happens when you have a rapidly evolving technology, particularly something that’s been adopted at great speed, is that it takes a while for regulation and some of the legal constraints, and particularly also some of the privacy concerns to catch up. So I just want to turn our conversation, as we begin to kind of think about wrapping up here, to that subject particularly. 

James Poulter  25:33

What are you seeing at the moment in terms of where the the legislation, where the governance and particularly you mentioned are part of our partnership here with the Open Voice Network and the research we’ve been conducting is thinking about standards, when it comes to healthcare, you know, we’ve got things like HIPAA that have obviously kind of come…with a kind of…now there are HIPAA compliant voice devices, but they’re not 100% open door to do anything you’d like in the healthcare practice. What are some of the blockers or some of the key movements that people need to be aware of in the regulatory side of things when it comes to voice and healthcare?

Harry P. Pappas  26:05

JP, that’s an excellent question. I think the number one concern, of course, is privacy and trust. And this is a sensitive topic with me. Who owns the data? Who owns the data and what are they going to do with that data? Did I give the hospital permission to use my data? Is the hospital selling the data to the pharmaceutical companies? So there are many, many issues. And I don’t know about the UK or Germany, but here in the US, I don’t think Congress is prepared to answer those questions right now. And this is why I’m working with John and OVN. I said, we really need to be educating the members of Congress, you need to be educating the members of Parliament, they’ve got to understand the value of this technology, you know, just that…just as they adapted to the internet and email, they need to adapt to voice.

Harry P. Pappas  27:08

Okay. And we need to establish guidelines to protect the public. Like right now, if you’re using your smartphone, who owns the data on your smartphone? Do you own it? Or does Deutsche Telekom own it? Okay, so there’s many, many issues that we need to address to help the industry, the voice industry, move forward, aggressively. I think it’s gonna take a combined effort. OVN is going to do a great job and help to educate the community. We also need to educate the consumer so that the consumer feels comfortable in buying the device and bringing it home. And using the device not to be afraid of to see the value and create a trade-off between his privacy and the value that they received in exchange.

James Poulter  28:10

Is that…that trade-off is the thing that I think we’re all particularly acutely aware of…is that we…we see even our own data, right? We know that there is a concern amongst those that don’t use these devices sitting around about 40% of consumers that aren’t using them. And that, you know, privacy is up there in their top concerns. We know that that’s that wall of privacy being broken down over time. But at the same time, even working in the industry, with the big partners, both in terms of the front end experiences that we all have, as well as also the data, we all share this concern about making sure that this is maintained, that the standards are rigorous, that there’s open documentation. 

James Poulter  28:46

So I think, yeah, everyone listening should be hearing that message loud and clear that Harry’s making here: is to kind of…be talking to those that have influence over these things to make sure that this is maintained as a standard and that the big companies are being transparent with what they’re doing with our data. And obviously within the healthcare sector, given what we’ve all been through over the past 18 months in terms of COVID we’ve got you vaccine passports. This is a massive debate. You know what all of this kind of data privacy thing has a halo effect on people’s willingness to use technology when it comes to their healthcare and I think we have to be super cautious about how we handle that as well.

Harry P. Pappas  29:23

And JP to that point, we all have to work together to help educate the consumer. Okay, that you can trust the organisation bringing your information, have the right policy on a given… so, for instance, if hospital A has their own voice platform, for whatever reason, that hospital has to establish their privacy, privacy policies. Every website today, every website that I see has a privacy statement. Okay. And we need a privacy statement from everybody who’s entering into the voice community.

James Poulter  30:10

And more so than ever before, obviously, within the healthcare sector, and also some of the other kind of sensitive sectors like finance, where, you know, antitrust and health is huge.

Harry P. Pappas  30:20

Yeah, the healthcare sector is very, very important. Your private information about your health should be protected. You don’t want the hospital to take the data, that you’re going to die in 10 months, and give it to the insurance company. And the insurance company says, ‘Hey, we’re not going to renew your life insurance policy. Because we understand that you’re going to not live that long.’ Okay. 

Harry P. Pappas  30:54

And the same thing, if I’m home, and I’m using med management technology, and the med management technology tells your doctor that you have not been taking your cardio medication for four days, and you have a relapse. And that information then is sold to the drug company and the insurance company, they can drop you. Let me tell you something. Okay. I’m excited. But I’m also concerned.

James Poulter  31:23

And I think that’s, that’s probably a good summary of how most of us in this space are feeling about it at the moment. Harry, I think you made the point well, that this is a huge opportunity. We’ve spoken there about the opportunity for consumers, for hospitals, for the medical sector as a whole, particularly in things like surgery, but also in pharmaceuticals, that there is so much opportunity, but it has to be treated with a level of caution, a level of care. 

James Poulter  31:45

And certainly in both your role within the Intelligent Health Association, as well as also our partnership with Open Voice Network, we want to push for an open dialogue about how that’s managed in a trusted fashion. And why that is. 

James Poulter  31:57

So, Harry, we’re nearly out of time. So I want to ask you one last thing, if that’s okay, which is to say you started off by telling me…talking to us a little bit about kind of how you got inspired to kind of work in this field by some of what you saw with your parents and how they were cared for in those sectors. What hope do you have for that area in particular, things like elderly care, and do kind of end of life care when it comes to voice and how this might transform the experience for patients?

Harry P. Pappas  32:24

JP, having a voice assistant in a nursing home, or assisted living or ageing in place, with independent living, it’s a godsend. The device can be a companion to your parents, they can order groceries without leaving the house, they can ask questions to their physician. It goes on and on and on. And also the ROI for the company that’s operating the nursing homes. Here in the United States, you have huge corporations that own three or four or 5000 nursing homes. Where’s the ROI for that corporation to provide voice assistants in every room? It’s huge. It’s huge. 

Harry P. Pappas  33:16

And it’s a benefit to the corporation. It’s a benefit to the clinical staff. It’s a benefit to the patient, the resident and their family. It’s huge. And I see it because we have the devices around the house and aren’t able to use the device in so many different ways. And again, it comes back to you and I and others to educate the community that, okay, there are some privacy issues. There are maybe some trust issues. But let me…let’s talk about the benefits side. Let’s talk about the benefits. So you’re gonna give up a little bit of your privacy, a little bit, and get this in return. 

James Poulter  34:07

Yeah, much bigger payoff than…than…at least the argument would go — much bigger payoff potentially for the overall wellbeing for that limitation of the purposes.

Harry P. Pappas  34:17

Yeah, and you know, JP, let me just see, if you’re watching TV right now on your smart TV set, the cable company, whoever you’re using to bring that entertainment into your home, they know what channel you’re watching, they know how long you watch what you watch. They also know the ads that you’re watching. So talk about privacy, come on!

James Poulter  34:42

Yeah, it’s…we know this is not a privacy…is not just a limited thing to voice, obviously. But yeah, it’s an overall halo effect…it’s something that we want to, we want to watch with care. But yeah, what I’m hearing from you, Harry, is that the overall message though, is something that you see as the positive future of this, that this can be something transformational for both the healthcare sector, for those working in it, but also for those receiving care. And I think that that’s, that’s what excites me about this.

Harry P. Pappas  35:05

That’s correct. You’ve got to take a holistic view of the technology within health and wellness, okay. And once you have this holistic picture, you realise how valuable this is and why. What…how did I live before it?

James Poulter  35:23

Harry, well, look, we’re pretty much out of time here. So I want to thank you so much for your contribution to all that you do for Open Voice Network, for all you’re doing at Intelligent Health Association and for being part of this episode for those listening. If people want to connect with you, or find out more about what you do, would you just give someone listening a link, or where can they go to find out more about what you’re up to and get involved?

Harry P. Pappas  35:44

Yeah, www.ihassociation.org. And also, JP, one last, if you go to Amazon, order our book, ‘Voice Technology in Healthcare’. It’s on Amazon right now. ‘Voice Technology in Healthcare’.

James Poulter  36:01

Absolutely! Go get Harry’s book, definitely dive into this subject more, you’ll find links to that and all of the other things we’ve mentioned here in the show notes as well. So do check that out, head to vixenlabs.co and go to the podcast pages and you’ll find all of that extra information as well. Harry Pappas, thank you so much for your time and for being a great guest.

Harry P. Pappas  36:24

I hope this was educational and informative. Thank you. Thanks so much.

 

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