Voice of Healthcare Summit 2019 with Bradley Metrock

VFH Episode 40

In this episode, Teri welcomes Bradley Metrock, the CEO of Score Publishing and the creator of VoiceFirst.FM, the leading podcast network covering everything about voice technology

Bradley is the guy behind some of the best voice technology events out there in all different sectors. The flagship event that he puts on is Project Voice, and he also puts on many voice events covering many different verticals and industry sectors which include healthcare.

Key points from Bradley!

The Voice of Healthcare Summit 2018 and 2019, and some of the things that he has observed over the last year with regards to the evolution of voice technology particularly in the healthcare sector.
Amazon Alexa’s HIPAA Compliance and how it will affect Amazon in both the short and long term.

Developing an Event Around Healthcare and Voice

The genesis of the Voice of Healthcare Summit started with the Voice of Healthcare Podcast which he co-created with Dr. Matt Cybulsky.
They needed an in-person gathering of all the people interested in voice technology and AI, and its intersection with modern healthcare. The perfect venue for it was Harvard Medical School. They piloted the event in 2018 and it went very well. They had very qualified attendees and fantastic speakers.

The Current Happenings in Healthcare and Voice

We have sort of reached a saturation point especially for the early adopters of voice technology. There’s a prevailing thought on what the next voice technology that will carry us forward will be.
There are still plenty of people who are yet to interact with computers by voice. More people are still discovering what voice technology can do for them that other interfaces cannot.
It feels like the industry is plateauing, but several companies are making major moves.
Samsung came out with a number of developer tools and Bixby 2.0. Apple hired some people to get more serious on improving Siri.
Microsoft’s decision to partner with Amazon Alexa had a number of positive implications for their business.
Different companies are diving into voice strictly into specific verticals.
He predicts that there will be some sort of killer voice app in healthcare that will open up people’s eyes to the potential of what voice can do for people everywhere. Looking at the conference program at the Voice of Healthcare Summit 2019, one company called Canary Speech is well-funded and has top-notch computer scientists involved. They use voice to impact healthcare by analyzing the sound waves in someone’s voice, and measuring them against the person’s baseline and other benchmarks that they have.
Other companies that will talk about their great voice apps include CARROT Pass, The Mayo Clinic, Orbita, Lifepod, Triad Health A.I. (They have a very different approach using their voice platform to help people who have been diagnosed with Parkinsons), Transform9, and many more.

Voice of Healthcare Summit 2019 with Bradley Metrock

Innovation in Voice for Healthcare Versus Other Verticals

The amount of innovation taking place in other verticals is huge but the attention on them by their respective sectors is different. For example, in the hospitality sector, based on the Voice of Hospitality Summit, there is a lot of innovation going on but there is very little attention on that from the hospitality market. The adoption of those technologies is very slow.
From the Voice of the Car Summit, there’s plenty of innovation going on in voice technology for cars, but the attention from the market is slightly less than in healthcare or hospitality.

Amazon Alexa’s HIPAA Compliance

It brings things to a whole new level.
The number of devices being sold is something that can’t be ignored.
The fact that Amazon would go to the trouble of getting Alexa to be HIPAA Compliant sends a signal that voice and AI can deeply impact healthcare positively.