Health, Wellness, and Life Sciences Community of the Open Voice Network

The Open Voice Network Health, Wellness, and Life Sciences Community (HWLSC) will enable consumers and health, wellness, and life sciences professionals to improve the continuum of health through the adoption of open, standards-based voice technology and privacy-protected analysis of voice-based data.

It will achieve this important objective through its global community of industry and technology leaders, exploration of use cases and industry requirements, and extensive educational outreach.

The HWLS is led by Harry P. Pappas, the Ambassador for the OVON Health, Wellness, and Life Sciences Community. The community is made up of individuals and organizations with expertise and experience in the many specialty areas of the health, wellness, and life sciences ecosystem. Members share a common vision: that voice technology will soon be a primary interface to the operational and informational worlds of the HWLS industry, and that artificial intelligence-based analysis of voice data will emerge as an important diagnostic tool.

The Open Voice Network, an open-source community of the Linux Foundation, is a technology- and vendor-neutral organization dedicated to making voice technology worthy of user trust. We do so through the development of standards and usage guidelines for voice technology, and with a focus on voice agent-to-agent interoperability and new levels of personal and clinical privacy for users and their data.

This work is of critical importance to HWLS decision-makers. Voice assistance is increasingly used by consumers to connect to the digital world, to search for and find the answers they need. Voice assistance is a hands-free technology, with substantial hygiene benefits over smeared screens and keyboards. And voice interfaces are fast; on average, we can speak (and be understood, accurately) three times faster than we can type.

In this world, standards for privacy and interoperability are paramount. Standards are required for voice technology to be adopted and trusted by consumers and clinicians within the Health, Wellness, and Life Sciences industries. By adopting voice technology, members of the HWLS will enable their firms to better serve their customer/client base.

The Open Voice Network HWLS Community has two missions:

1. Identification (and exploration) of Value-Creating, Ethical Use Cases:

   Within each sub-industry group identified below, the HWLS will encourage the adoption and deployment of voice technology to improve the delivery of patient care and patient safety. We’ll do so by identifying voice technology that respects individual and clinical privacy, is secure, and is trusted at every level of the healthcare continuum.

   The HWLS will also work to establish a baseline for ethical use by identifying and examining industry use cases and specific areas where voice has been successfully implemented into the health, wellness, and life science industries.

   This work will directly inform the standards and usage guidelines work of the Open Voice Network.
   
   

2. Outreach to Consumers:

   The HWLS will develop educational programs directed to consumers so that they may understand the need for standards in this new technology sector. Consumers need to feel comfortable in using voice technology as part of their everyday life and to feel secure that their personal information is protected and not used by third parties. Consumers need to be comfortable in purchasing and using voice devices in their homes and businesses to get the full benefit of this revolutionary technology.

You are invited to join one or more of the below-listed industry groups within the HWLS community. We ask that you help us shape this new digital VOICE world. Please share this information with your associates. If you have questions or would like to contact us, please email Harry P. Pappas.

The members of the HWLS and its industry groups will establish goals and guidelines for each of the listed industry groups:

The governing team of the Health, Wellness, and Life Sciences Community meets on the fourth Friday of every month at 17:00 CET (08:00 Pacific).

Related Resources:

• Health, Wellness, and Life Sciences Community Introduction Slides – Presentation slides introducing OVON’s Health, Wellness, and Life Sciences Community