Amazon’s Alexa now handles patient health information

Today, Amazon announced that six health care companies and providers will allow customers to access some of their personalized medical information by talking to Alexa-enabled devices. The announcement marks another huge move for Amazon into the health care business. The main health privacy law in the US — the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) — typically ensures that health information can only be shared between patients and those in the health care system, like doctors or hospitals. In other words, information like medical diagnoses and pharmaceutical prescriptions are…

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Heart Disease Patient? Reduce Risk With Mediterranean Diet

The Mediterranean diet is associated with a reduced risk of death in patients with a history of cardiovascular disease such as coronary artery disease and stroke, says yet another study on the diet’s impact.”The Mediterranean diet is widely recognised as one of the healthier nutrition habits in the world,” said one of the researchers Professor Giovanni de Gaetano from IRCCS Neuromed Institute in Pozzilli, Italy. “We found that among those with a higher adherence to the Mediterranean diet, death from any cause was reduced by 37 per cent in comparison…

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WhatsApp doc! Specialist advice for remote patient care

Earlier, a heart patient in remote rural areas of Himachal Pradesh used to get specialist treatment or advice after travelling for 11 to 24 hours, as heart specialists were available only at either Shimla or Kangra. But now, a physician sitting at a remote location can get special advice in 10-15 minutes, and this has been made possible with the innovative idea of Dr Vivek Chauhan of Internal Medicine at Dr Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College and Hospital in Kangra (RPGMCH). He has developed an IT-based gateway using WhatsApp to…

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