Five Ways Voice Assistants Can Change Drug Research

Voice-powered virtual assistants have huge potential for improving and expanding clinical trials, and tech companies are moving quickly to develop artificial intelligence-based software that can support and also protect the most private conversations between patients and clinicians. Katherine Vandebelt has already started scribbling down ideas about how voice assistants could work in a clinical trial environment. As Oracle's global head of clinical innovation, and former clinical innovation leader at Eli Lilly and Company, Vandebelt believes that the clinical trial experience can change with the introduction of virtual assistants into the drug research ecosystem. In April, Amazon's Alexa app became compliant with the US government's Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and similar virtual assistants are likely to follow. Here are five changes she sees coming.