August 29, 2023 – Siri, Alexa and other digital voice assistants aren't essentially the most reliable providers of emergency CPR information, a brand new report says.
Only 59% of their responses contained information directly related to CPR. Only one-third provided CPR instructions.
This is the results of the study published in JAMA Network.
The researchers said they asked eight questions on CPR instructions from Amazon Alexa on Echo Show 5, Apple Siri on iPhone, Google Assistant on Nest Mini and Microsoft Cortana on a Windows 10 laptop.
The answers were analyzed by two emergency physicians.
“They really lacked relevance and even had inconsistencies,” said lead study creator Adam Landman, MD, chief information officer and senior vice chairman of digital innovation at Mass General Brigham.
He said when you see a medical emergency, you must not depend on these kinds of devices.
“Bystanders should first call 911 if they see a patient suspected of cardiac arrest outside of the hospital,” he said.
“This is an important study for us as an organization to help us figure out how to better partner with VA device manufacturers and to ensure as we move into the world of AI that credible organizations like the AHA are providing the best answers from these devices,” said Comilla Sasson, MD, vice chairman of science and innovation on the American Heart Association on CNNSasson was not involved within the research.
About 960 people suffer cardiac arrest day by day on this country, she said. Knowledge of CPR “is important information because the life you are saving is likely that of someone you know or love.”