With more technology systems and products being utilized to make lives more convenient and homes smarter, there is always a question of privacy and what is happening with data. Not to mention if there are any breaches in security, that lowers confidence for users.
Changes in the Health Landscape
From convenience and necessity, telehealth has grown in usage from 37% of people using it in 2019 to over 67% of people using some kind of telehealth in 2022, according to a U.S. Telehealth Satisfaction Survey. People are making the switch and taking advantage of technology.
However, this leads to the bigger question – what happens with all the health data? Is the information safe and secure?
Health Data Privacy
According to a survey conducted by the American Medical Association, nearly 75% of people are concerned about protecting the privacy of their health data. People want their data to be safe.
This is something that Electronic Caregiver has taken seriously and put at the forefront of operations and customer experience.
In a webinar discussing data privacy in the health field, Electronic Caregiver’s Chief Product Officer Mark Francis said, “We believed that was the right way to do things, whether that was how we were using cameras, or voice, or other ways. We decided to put privacy and the protection of privacy, and the control of privacy in the patient’s hand, first and foremost.”
Addison Care offers Privacy Built In
One of the offerings from the company, Addison Care, the Virtual Caregiver, provides users with an at-home health system for emergency response, vitals monitoring and tracking, and care coordination. A prominent feature and interaction with the Addison system is the ability to speak with the Virtual Caregiver.
Around 41% of users have reported concerns about trust, privacy, and passive listening from their devices with voice-enabled technologies, according to a survey from Microsoft. For this reason, informing customers of the security and safety of the device to make them feel safe is key.
“But for us at Electronic Caregiver, we looked at how we view data and how we view data privacy. We decided to do something fundamentally different,” Mark Francis said. “So, while we built out our system mostly on an AWS Cloud- basis, we haven’t done that for our use of voice. So instead of using Lex, which is the chatbot with AWS to do our voice interaction through the cloud. We actually decided and instructed our system and services to do all voice locally.”
Furthermore, Addison assists with care plans. So, making sure users are comfortable enough to trust and utilize the device is important for care plan adherence. In this way, a care team and family members know their loved ones are well taken care of.
To help accomplish local voice systems, Electronic Caregiver turned to Sensory and their TrulyHandsfree technology. This assists with wake words and natural conversation to control Addison. This is all able to be directly on the device for better response and privacy.
“Sensory is happy to partner and work closely with Electronic Caregiver and provide not only great technologies, but those that run on device and therefore provide ultimate privacy and security,” said Jeff Rogers, the Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Sensory. “TrulyHandsfree runs 100% on the device and does not save, nor send any voice or other data anywhere! Privacy is important for all products and especially important for health and home care assistants.”
Be Confident in the Privacy Safeguards
In addition, as a feature to access personal health information on an Addison Care system, facial recognition or a personal pin code is required for protection and security.
In conclusion, privacy measures are in place for users. Customers can relax knowing that companies do care about their concerns and are making sure their health data is secure.
To find out more about what an Addison Care system can do for you and the health data privacy protections it offers by calling 833-324-5433 or visiting here.