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Hampshire County Council Trial Alexa
Hampshire County Council trials Amazon’s Alexa to improve the quality of life of social care clients while reducing council’s cost.
21:35 14 March 2018
Hampshire County Council is currently working with Argenti Telehealthcare Partnership to trial Amazon’s Alexa digital assistant for social care. The project, which is funded by the Department of Health, aims to explore all the possible benefits of the technology in improving the quality of life of social care clients, particularly those with little or no mobility due to medical conditions, such as multiple sclerosis and motor neurone disease.
Talking about the project, Graham Allen, the county’s director of adult social care, said: “It’s about enabling people to live well rather than simply live,”
According to Mr Allen, there are currently 9,500 people who use the council’s telecare service. Of those, more than 5,000 use only telecare and do not rely on other services.
“Part of our success is that we’ve managed to replace a lot of traditional forms of service through the application of technology,” Mr Allen added.
As a result, the council was able to reduce its costs by £43.1million over the past two years. The council expects the project to help to increase savings by £56million per year.