Leading Singapore-based healthcare software provider Napier Healthcare Solutions has announced the General Availability (GA) of its artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)-powered virtual assistant.

Napier Assistant is the ‘virtual’ primary front end to Napier’s acute and long-term care software, such as its Hospital Information System, Nursing Home and Home Care solutions. The Napier Assistant will be available to work with any third-party application to empower key users such as doctors and nurses. It can be integrated with monolithic legacy systems currently being used by many hospitals today, providing an easy-to-use voice interface. Napier has released this product simultaneously for the Asia Pacific, China, Middle East and India markets.

When ported into an application, Napier Assistant enables a comprehensive voice interface that can obviate the need for the use of a keyboard. These voice-controlled functions include navigation through menus and commands that are specific to the user, such as:-

• a Physician who needs to reference & update medical records, update lab results and handle medication management
• a Nurse or Caregiver who routinely takes and records patients’ vital signs, checks & reports on bed status and administers medication
• a Front Desk Executive required to quickly respond to queries, process admissions and manage patient & doctor schedules
• a Patient who wants to track his health status and the next doctor’s appointment

Freedom from not having to use the keyboard is a huge productive boost for any users in their daily tasks. This translates into fewer clinical errors, more facetime between care provider and patient, and ultimately better care at lower costs for all. That’s why it represents the “death of the keyboard” as we know it.

The general availability of Napier Assistant can support Singapore in particular, in its quest to meet the healthcare objectives of its Smart Nation programme, launched by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on 24 November 2014. The AI/ML-powered Napier Assistant can potentially drive higher productivity in healthcare, improve patient care and raise population health standards by eliminating human errors.

Napier Healthcare has been an active participant in a number of national healthcare technology initiatives to date. They include lab trials in the Smart HDB Town Framework under the Smart Nation initiative in 2015, and more recently a comprehensive telehealth study supported by the Infocomm Media Development Authority. The company expects Napier Assistant to be a significant force in helping drive the adoption of advanced technologies such as AI and ML among local healthcare providers.

“As a Singapore company, Napier is proud to be able to make a contribution to not only our Smart Nation programme, but also to efforts in the execution of the national Health IT Master Plan,” said Tirupathi Karthik, CEO, Napier Healthcare.”