Chatbots in healthcare — where can they be used?
From direct interaction with patients to supporting roles in complex medical decisions — chatbots in healthcare offer a wide range of applications. In the health care sector, they are therefore also known as virtual health assistants.
1. Patient interaction and support
chatbots can improve communication between patients and medical staff in the healthcare sector. They become the first point of contact for patients by answering questions about symptoms, treatments, and appointments. Based on the user's individual health information, they also provide personalized advice and recommendations. They also plan and schedule appointments, which helps both patients and doctors. And the support doesn't stop there: Chatbots can also remind patients to get a new prescription in good time for a medication that they need to take regularly.
2. Triage and diagnostic support
Another important area of use of chatbots in healthcare is triage and diagnostic support. Here, chatbots ask patients specific questions about their symptoms in order to make a preliminary assessment of their health status. Based on this information, they can then make recommendations as to whether a doctor's visit is necessary. By using algorithms and medical knowledge databases, chatbots also help doctors make differential diagnoses by identifying potential illnesses based on existing symptoms.
3. Medication management
Managing medications can be a challenge for many patients, especially when they are taking multiple medications or need to comply with complex dosages. Chatbots have great potential here: For example, they send reminders to take medications, provide dosage instructions and even monitor interactions between different medications. In doing so, they help to reduce medication errors and improve adherence to therapy. And that ultimately leads to better treatment outcomes.
4. Health education
Knowledge is an important component of health care. Chatbots can provide a wealth of information about various health topics, from prevention and wellness to specific disease conditions and treatment options. Through interactive dialogs, they explain complex medical concepts in an understandable way and help users make well-founded decisions about their health. In addition, chatbots also share current health warnings to keep users informed about important developments — let's think of the corona pandemic here.
5. Psychological support
Mental health is an important part of holistic wellbeing that is often neglected. Chatbots are a low-threshold way to get support for mental health issues. They can act as confidential interlocutors that users can entrust themselves to without fear of stigma or condemnation. For example, they suggest relaxation techniques or provide resources for further assistance. In this way, they help improve access to psychological help and promote mental health awareness.
What are the benefits of chatbots in healthcare?
As you can see from the areas of application, chatbots are an innovative solution in the healthcare sector and have several advantages:
- 24/7 availability: Chatbots are available 24/7 to help patients with questions and concerns, which reduces response and waiting time and increases patient satisfaction. Patient care is thus more seamless and effective.
- Relief for medical staff: By handling simple inquiries and answering frequently asked questions, chatbots relieve healthcare professionals so they can focus on more complex tasks.
- Cost savings: Implementing chatbots can save costs in the healthcare sector as they help reduce the workload of medical staff while increasing efficiency in patient care.
- Improved healthcare: Chatbots help patients comply with therapies and answer their medical questions. They can also encourage people to seek help earlier and talk openly about their health — all of which contribute to improved healthcare.
Examples and providers of chatbots in healthcare
More and more companies and organizations recognize the potential of chatbots in healthcare and are investing in their development and implementation. Some prominent examples and providers include:
- Ada Health: The Ada chatbot helps patients evaluate their symptoms. Ada uses artificial intelligence, to provide personalized recommendations based on the user's individual health information. To do this, users first answer questions about their health status and current symptoms. Ada analyses these answers on the basis of medical data and provides an assessment.
- IBM Watsonx: IBM Watson is known for its cognitive technology, which is used in medicine, among other things. Watsonx's intelligent chatbots can process a whole range of patient inquiries and respond in real time with recommendations and advice. If a request is more complex or sensitive, the bot automatically forwards it to healthcare professionals.
- moinAI: More than 100 companies from a wide range of industries are already using the moinAI AI AI chatbot to automate communication. Companies from the health care and health care sector, such as Unilabs, are also taking part. Unilabs is one of the largest European diagnostics companies and offers patients around the world a comprehensive range of laboratory, pathology and imaging services. As the leading digital champion covering the entire diagnostic spectrum, Unilabs' 12,000 employees save lives every day. An exciting use case and reason enough to do a webinar about it: In webinar Charlotte Calemard from Unilabs gives insights into practice and explains how recurring questions from patients can be automated so that customer service staff is relieved in the long term and can focus on more complex and relevant concerns.
- Florence: Florence is a virtual assistant who helps patients meet their treatment plans by sending reminders of medication regimens. The chatbot also finds pharmacies and doctors near them for users.
- Woebot: This chatbot focuses on mental health and helps users cope with stress, anxiety, and depression. To do this, the “digital therapist” performs simple elements of cognitive behavioral therapy with users.
The future of chatbots in healthcare: Current trends and developments
The development of chatbots in healthcare is progressing rapidly and there are a number of exciting trends that will shape the future of this technology:
- Personalization: Chatbots are increasingly being personalized to meet the individual needs and preferences of users. By integrating machine learning and artificial intelligence, chatbots can better address the specific health needs and medical history of each individual user and provide appropriate recommendations and support. This is because chatbots not only rely on databases, but also learn from interactions with the respective user. For example, the chatbot already knows that a patient is taking a specific medication and should pay attention to interactions with a new medication.
- Integration with wearables: There are already apps like WatchGPT that ChatGPT Combine with Apple Watch. There is great potential here for the healthcare sector. By integrating chatbots with wearables such as fitness trackers and smart watches, they are able to seamlessly monitor and analyze health data in real time. They can use this data to suggest preventive measures and help users achieve their health goals.
- Advanced diagnostic capabilities: By using advanced algorithms and medical expertise, chatbots will increasingly help with complex medical diagnoses. This can help make diagnostic procedures more accurate and efficient. Algorithms are already being developed for the automatic recognition of X-ray images, computed tomographic or magnetic resonance imaging data sets. Doctors can then communicate with an AI chatbot for diagnosis, which helps them do so.
- Improving user experience: The user experience of chatbots is constantly being improved to ensure seamless and intuitive interaction. By integrating natural language processing and emotional intelligence, chatbots become more empathetic and interactive, which contributes to a positive patient experience. For example, the Woebot works with a certain pinch of humor on the difficult topic of depression and thus tries to cheer up the user, or reacts emphatically to bad news and wishes all the best.
conclusion
The increasing use of chatbots in healthcare is a clear sign of the ongoing digitization of this sector. Their ability to improve patient interaction, support diagnoses, and enable continuous health monitoring offers a promising future for healthcare — efficient, personalized, and patient-centered.
