Hey, Alexa—Play Today’s ‘Psychiatric News Brief’!

Are you short on time but want to stay up to date on Psychiatric News reports? Then turn to Alexa: APA has launched a new way to listen to summaries of selected articles from Psychiatric News using Alexa.

Alexa is Amazon’s virtual assistant—similar to Siri on iPhones—that works from an Echo device or Alexa-enabled speaker. You speak, and she listens! Alexa is available in thousands of devices, so you can access our new feature anywhere at any time.

“Psychiatric News Brief” features short, audio synopses of clinical and research news selected from the daily Psychiatric News Alert (alert.psychnews.org) and the print and web versions of Psychiatric News (psychnews.org).

If you are new to Alexa devices, here’s how to get Alexa to do your bidding: Download the Alexa app from your phone’s app store if you don’t already have it. Open the Alexa app, click on the hamburger menu, choose “Skills and Games,” and search on “Psychiatric News Brief.” Click on the result and choose “enable to use.” You have now enabled Alexa’s skill to access “Psychiatric News Brief” and can ask for the brief by saying something like “Alexa, what’s my flash briefing?” or “Alexa, tell me what’s new.” (You can say “Alexa, stop” to exit anytime.)

“Psychiatric News Brief” is updated regularly and focuses primarily on peer-reviewed studies that appear in APA’s journals. It may occasionally include reports from other journals or nonclinical news relevant to psychiatrists. ■

More information on how to download and use the Alexa app is posted here.