TY - JOUR T1 - The potential of placing a digital assistant in patients’ homes JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 8 LP - 9 DO - 10.3399/bjgp20X707273 VL - 70 IS - 690 AU - Ruth Chambers AU - Paul Beaney Y1 - 2020/01/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/70/690/8.abstract N2 - It is around 5 years since Amazon’s ‘Alexa’ was first launched in 2014 and the novelty does not appear to be wearing off. It recently escalated into the UK’s healthcare spotlight with the announcement1 of a new partnership between Alexa and the NHS website. The benefits promised by this partnership received a critical reception from several UK health professionals. While the focus has been on its new ability to search the NHS website to give health information to users, what has not caught current interest yet is its myriad of existing functions that can support people practically with chronic health problems.This editorial relays findings of a pilot project in Stoke-on-Trent and across Staffordshire on behalf of the Sustainability and Transformation Partnership’s (STP’s) digital workstream (as yet unpublished data), which has distributed 50 digital assistant kits (Alexa Echo Show plus WiFi if needed) to 50 patients with health or dependence needs. Initial findings are that with the aid of Alexa, patients report being better able to manage their health conditions and lead more independent lives. With the continuing national trends2 towards increased use of smart speakers in the home, it seems a good time to focus on how to use their existing functions for patients’, and potentially for primary healthcare clinicians’, mutual advantages.Several articles have been published by UK clinicians since the announcement by the Health Secretary1 and most are derisorily sceptical about the use and value of using Alexa to provide digital health information. One GP challenged Mr Hancock to ‘… put aside your fantasies of technological fixes and concentrate on realistic solutions to the urgent funding and workforce problems facing our NHS ’.3 The same professional argued that without live clinical input, a set of benign … ER -