Aiva Inc., a digital health startup based in West Hollywood, struck a deal with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to employ Aiva’s bedside voice assistant to allow patients to speak to Amazon’s Alexa to summon a nurse or change the TV channel.
The Beverly Grove hospital announced Feb. 25 it launched a pilot program with Aiva to equip 100 “smart” patient rooms with hands-free Amazon Echo devices.
The devices allow patients to use their phones to ask an Alexa virtual assistant to do everything from play music, change a TV channel, or make a pain medication request to a registered nurse.
“Smart rooms are all about improving satisfaction for both patients and nurses,” said Sumeet Bhatia, founder and chief executive of Aiva, in a statement. “Cedars-Sinai and Aiva are giving patients more entertainment options, more control over their environment and close communication with their care team.”
Aiva, founded in late 2017, developed its platform with the help of a business accelerator run by Cedars-Sinai, which was an early investor in the firm.
In September, Aiva received an unspecified investment from the Google Assistant Investment program to boost development, and from Amazon’s Alexa Fund for the artificial intelligence-powered smartphone app with voice commands. It also works with other voice assistants such as Google Home.
Aiva, which also does business as Aiva Health, has also raised $100,000 from such investors as Act One Ventures, Mucker Capital and the Cedars-Sinai Accelerator, according to Crunchbase.
Health business reporter Dana Bartholomew can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @_DanaBart.
