Amazon Alexa is an artificial intelligence platform capable of interacting with various types of information from thermostats to medical devices. According to Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO, the purchase of individual Amazon smart speaker units has surpassed 20 million in the United States, up from 10.7 million in March of 2017 and 5.1 million in November of 2016. Now, Belmont students are adding to the body of knowledge that Alexa possesses.

Last month, twelve students from Belmont University’s College of Pharmacy were recognized by Amazon Alexa’s certification team for acceptance of their artificial intelligence submissions. Since the inception of this initiative in Fall 2017, Belmont’s team of student pharmacists has grown from eight initial members to a group of twenty skill-certified Amazon Alexa developers. To date, the student pharmacists have developed more than 25 skills that have been peer-reviewed and certified by the Amazon Alexa team and subsequently made available in the Amazon store.

Students worked to develop voice activated applications, or “skills”, as part of a co-curricular component of the Introduction to Healthcare Informatics I course. Each skill can be downloaded and activated on-demand to answer drug information questions with accurate medical information. While none of Alexa’s skills should replace a consultation with a licensed healthcare professional, these skills can be downloaded for free online or through the Alexa app, which is now available for Amazon Fire, Apple, and Android devices. To download a skill, choose “Skills” from the Alexa app menu and search for the skill by name.

As a team leader, Mary Lankford was instrumental in keeping the project on schedule. “As a team, we created a series of artificial intelligence skills for Amazon Alexa. These skills will provide convenient and clinically accurate information to patients about their medications from the comfort of their own homes. I was thrilled to be involved with this project, because it gave me the opportunity to combine my background in IT with my love of pharmacy and improving patient care."

Newly certified developer, Anmar AlJassani, is a strong advocate for using Amazon’s smart speaker technology for population health. “As a clinically oriented pharmacy student team with an interest in healthcare informatics, the number one question for us has always been ‘How we can improve health outcomes on a large population scale?’ The answer was Alexa. I think starting from scratch and working through the challenges that emerge during a project of this complexity was a great experience for all of us. The team did just a great job coordinating priorities, responsibilities, making the work smoothly flow from phase to phase, and finally achieving the goal. We’re looking forward to using these skills to increase patient safety and engagement.”

Dr. Anthony Blash, Pharm.D., BCompSc., CPHIMS, Assistant Professor and sponsor of the Belmont Amazon Alexa Initiative, has created a sequence of five courses and one-month intensive experiential rotations to prepare Belmont’s student pharmacists to become future leaders in healthcare informatics. “Through our partnership with Amazon, we are exploring new ways to provide telepharmacy services in innovative and inexpensive ways to large segments of the population.” Blash said. “Not only is our team growing, but we’re offering these co-curricular activities earlier in the curriculum to create an even larger impact on future projects.”

The informatics concentration at Belmont is collaborating with interested organizations to provide competent student and graduate healthcare informaticians with clinical knowledge as grad-student team members, and plans to expand their program to include residents and/or fellows. This collaboration would be of no cost to the partnering organization and could help to advance Healthcare Informatics initiatives currently underway or in the planning phase. To find out more about this exciting opportunity, please contact Dr. Blash at Anthony.Blash@belmont.edu