Hey Alexa, does this look infected?

Once you’re done ordering pizza and locking and unlocking your front door, what’s left to do with your Echo? Starting today, HealthTap users will be able to use Amazon’s connected home assistant for medical advice, if they so choose.

The online healthcare startup is announcing Alexa integration this week, letting users tap into their voice-controlled health services with the command, “Alexa, talk to Dr. AI.” Once that’s taken care of, the talking speaker will walk the user through a guided path designed to simulate (but not, one assumes, replace) an in-person doctor visit, offering up insights.

The system features an AI doctor “trained in bedside manner to ask intelligible, dynamically generated questions in natural language via an intuitive conversational user interface.” It also can schedule an in-person visit for those in need of more urgent care or just wanting the real thing.
The system targets users with limited mobility, like the disabled and the elderly. It’s already available for iPhone and Android, but the company’s hoping the addition of Alexa functionality will make it more user-friendly and provide additional access to people who don’t have the use of their hands.

Read the full article on TechCrunch here.