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Alexa, open Mary Free Bed

Five simple words provide access to rehabilitation expertise.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. —  Voice technology has made our lives easy in so many ways, from getting groceries to giving us directions. And now it can help you with that lower back pain.

Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital in Grand Rapids has launched it's rehabilitation expertise into the world of Amazon "Alexa". 

 All you need need to say is "Alexa open Mary Free Bed" and you'll be guided through a series of questions to help you manage your symptoms. Whether it's hip, knee, back or neck pain you'll be given simple exercises you can do at home to help relieve the pain, "Within the Assessment section, you could actually narrow it down to where your pain is and she'll ask you a bunch more questions to get to the point of what exercises or stretches you can do that will actually help you to resolve some of that, that back strain. And this saves you the time of having to call a doctor, or having to do a Google search and get a whole, you know, series of confusing or sometimes even conflicting information, we've narrowed it down to some of the basics that you can do to help your body to an injury." says Terence Reuben, a Physical Therapist at Mary Free Bed who helped developed the program for Alexa.

This is the first-ever Alexa Skill developed by a rehabilitative health care organization and now people across the country can get help from Mary Free Bed experts with a simple voice command and access the Skill created by Mary Free Bed clinicians to guide you through a list of questions. 

  • Would you like a list and description of outpatient services? Say “Services.”
  • Concerned about an injury or pain in a specific area of your body? Say “Assessment.”

Mary Free Bed innovation team and health experts worked with technology company Aspirent to develop the Alexa Skill. It’s available on any Alexa-enabled devices such as Amazon Echo and Amazon Fire TV. You also can download the Alexa app on your smart phone.

Mary Free Bed is the first health care organization in the country to use "Alexa" services in this way.

Learn more by clicking here.

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