Amazon’s cylinder-shaped voice assistant can now answer your health-related questions through the courtesy of a HIPAA-compliant Alexa Skills Kit for developers. The kit enables developers to build Alexa skills to transfer and receive protected health information on an invitation-only basis. That means we can’t only just learn about health concerns but manage them as well through our smart speakers.

“ Voice search is huge right now”, says Bill Abramovitz, Partner & Creative Director for Biotica Healthcare Marketing. “People want to access information while their hands are full or they’re multi-tasking, so if you’re not including Siri, Alexa, and Hey Google in your planning, it’s time to get busy.”

That’s the upside. In the first part of 2019, 48% of CMO appointments were women, ever edging toward parity. Huzzah!

But the downside? The average tenure for a CMO has fallen to just 43 months. Compare that to the average lifespan of a CEO (84 months) or a CFO (63 months) and it looks like Marketers are the endangered species in the C-Suite. Blame the increasing complexity of the marketing landscape and the occasional need for a sacrificial lamb if sales or earnings targets aren’t met. It’s a dirty job, but somebody has to do it.

 

 

Looking for something a little juicier than your standard lager to schlep to the holiday party or enjoy in front of your fourth viewing of How the Grinch Stole Christmas? Here’s a list of craft beers to celebrate the holiday season –

• Mad Elf from Tröegs Brewing Company in Pennsylvania. It’s called Mad Elf, so how could we not try it. This Belgian Strong Dark Ale has an ABV of 11%, so watch yourself or you’ll be Elf-ed up before you know it.
• Sierra Nevada Celebration IPA. You can’t go wrong with an ale from Sierra Nevada, and this hoppy little brew brings the pine and citrus, just in time for the holidays.
• Sam Adams White Christmas. Probably one of the easier craft beers to find, this witbier lives up to its Christmas moniker with hits of cinnamon, nutmeg, and orange peel. Sam Adams does Winter Lager is worth a try, too, with similar flavors but in a more robust full-bodied malty beer.
• Great Lakes Christmas Ale. Honey, cinnamon, and ginger will make you want jingle all the way. Good stuff from our friends in Cleveland.
• New Belgium Accumulation. This hazy, wheat IPA is just the ticket for celebrating a snow day.

Apple Watch's Heart Data: Don't fire your cardiologist yet

The results are in from the Apple Heart Study, in which Stanford University researchers studied the Apple Watch to see how well it was able to identify atrial fibrillation (AFib). The results were mixed, at best. The Apple-funded research included a volunteer pool of 419,000 Apple Watch wearers, and while the study found low incidences of false positives, some folks were still diagnosed with AFib that the watch didn’t detect.

The good news? The research will help continue to refine wearable technology, until we reach Star Trek-level wearables.

The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine

Tap into Voice search to Reach More Patients and Doctors

Medical web sites aimed at patients, doctors, or B2B audiences need to reorient to voice search or risk losing valuable web traffic. In this post, we'll consider the maturity of voice search, its use by consumers, and broad strokes on implementation. Who's talking to voice-enabled products? Read more