Amazon's Alexa can now schedule doctor's appointments and give you updates on your prescription drug shipments

To start, the healthcare skills include:

• Prescription-tracking information, via Express Scripts.

• Some Cigna members can use Alexa to track their health and wellness goals.

• Boston Children's Hospital is using Alexa to help parents and caregivers give updates to doctors on how their children are recovering after surgery.

• Providence is using it to help patients find nearby urgent care centers and schedule appointments, as is Atrium Health, a health system in North Carolina and South Carolina.

• Digital health company Livongo is using it to link up with the company's device that tracks blood sugar levels. For instance, users can ask Alexa what their last blood sugar readings were.

"These skills are just the first step in making it easier for customers to manage their healthcare needs using just their voice - we're excited to see what developers build next," Amazon said in a blog post Thursday.