*Important disclaimer: This tool does not provide medical advice, and is for informational and educational purposes only, and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, treatment or diagnosis. Call your doctor to receive medical advice. If you think you may have a medical emergency, please dial your local emergency response phone number.
What is Wellness Check? Wellness Check is a voice decision-tree with yes-no questions to help people learn what to look for in symptoms. Symptoms alone are not enough to diagnose a medical disorder, but can be useful as "clues" to possible underlying conditions. Knowing what to look for in symptoms is an important life skill for people to make an informed decision in time of need. Today, there is a wealth of information for general public in printed and online sources on how to identify clues to symptoms. However, literacy and accessibility issues in healthcare have been preventing such knowledge to be accessible by many, especially at the time when they need it.
Wellness Check helps solving the problem by using Amazon Alexa. With a few yes-no questions, Wellness Check brings out possible signs for a wellness condition, and offers the user a compelling reason to talk to a doctor. A quick access via voice empowers people to make an informed decision to make use of professional services effectively.
Three design guidelines dictate what Wellness Check does and doesn’t. 1. No medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment shall be provided by Wellness Check. 2. No personally identifiable information shall be used or collected by Wellness Check. 3. Wellness Check shall only use general public information for accuracy and integrity of the content.
To meet the three design guidelines, the decision trees are adopted from the cited reference for medical accuracy, and the textual content is completely revised for safe, anonymous access to educational information. Reference: The American Medical Association Guide to Your Family's Symptoms, Eds. C.B. Clayman & R.H. Curry. Random House, New York, 1992.
How does Wellness Check work? 1. Invoke this app by "Alexa, open wellness check", or "Alexa, ask wellness check for . . .” with a few words that describe a symptom, for example, “Alexa, ask wellness check for coughing". 2. Wellness Check is a decision tree application. It asks a few yes-no questions until it reaches the end. User simply answers each question by saying, yes or no. 3. When the decision tree reaches the end, it tells user to seek medical help with a brief description of clues and conditions, if any. Once done, user can try different symptoms by speaking symptom words. 4. At any time, user can terminate the app by saying “Alexa, stop”, or simply “stop” when the app is done speaking.
Wellness Check recognizes over 60 symptoms at the initial release, and more will be added in later releases. See the list of symptoms below. Feeling under the weather Feeling tired Loss of weight Overweight Sleep problem Fever Excessive sweating Itching Lumps and swellings Faintness and fainting Headache Dizziness Numbness or tingling Twitching and trembling Pain in the face Forgetfulness and confusion Difficulty speaking Disturbing thoughts and feelings Depression Anxiety Hair and scalp problems Nail problems General skin problems Spots and rashes Raised spots or lumps on the skin Rash with fever Painful or irritated eye Disturbed or impaired vision Earache Noises in the ear Deafness Runny nose Sore throat Hoarseness or loss of voice Wheezing Coughing Difficulty breathing Toothache Difficulty swallowing Sore mouth or tongue Vomiting Recurrent vomiting Abdominal pain Recurrent abdominal pain Swollen abdomen Excess gas Diarrhea Constipation Abnormal-looking bowel movements Anal problems General urinary problems Palpitations Chest pain Back pain Painful or stiff neck Painful arm Painful leg Foot problems Painful or swollen joints Painful knee
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