The Pros and Cons of Healthcare Chatbots

According to the analysis from the web directory, health promotion chatbots are the most commonly available; however, most of them are only available on a single platform. Thus, interoperability on multiple common platforms is essential for adoption by various types of users across different age groups. In addition, voice and image recognition should also be considered, as most chatbots are still text based.

Although the law has been lagging and litigation is still a gray area, determining legal liability becomes increasingly pressing as chatbots become more accessible in health care. From the patient’s perspective, various chatbots have been designed for symptom screening and self-diagnosis. The ability of patients to be directed to urgent referral pathways through early warning signs has been a promising market. Decreased wait times in accessing health care services have been found to correlate with improved patient outcomes and satisfaction [59-61]. The automated chatbot, Quro (Quro Medical, Inc), provides presynopsis based on symptoms and history to predict user conditions (average precision approximately 0.82) without a form-based data entry system [25].

What is a triage chatbot?

The chatbot is available in Finnish, Swedish and English, and it currently administers 17 separate symptom assessments. First, it can perform an assessment of a health problem or symptoms and, second, more general assessments of health and well-being. Third, it can perform an ‘assessment of a sickness or its risks’ and guide ‘the resident to receive treatment in services promoting health and well-being within Omaolo and in social and health services external to’ it (THL 2020, p. 14). Fourth, it offers quality-of-life surveys, oral health surveys and health coaching. In the aftermath of COVID-19, Omaolo was updated to include ‘Coronavirus symptoms checker’, a service that ‘gives guidance regarding exposure to and symptoms of COVID-19’ (Atique et al. 2020, p. 2464; Tiirinki et al. 2020).

• Medisafe empowers users to manage their drug journey — from intricate dosing schedules to monitoring multiple measurements.
• In this way, a chatbot serves as a great source of patients data, thus helping healthcare organizations create more accurate and detailed patient histories and select the most suitable treatment plans.
• Healthcare chatbots are still in their early stages, and as such, there is a lack of trust from patients and doctors alike.
• Many of the apps reviewed were focused on mental health, as was seen in other reviews of health chatbots9,27,30,33.

It used pattern matching and substitution methodology to give responses, but limited communication abilities led to its downfall. Healthily is an AI-enabled health-tech platform that offers patients personalized health information through a chatbot. From generic tips to research-backed cures, Healthily gives patients control over improving their health while sitting at home. Obviously, chatbots cannot replace therapists and physicians, but they can provide a trusted and unbiased go-to place for the patient around-the-clock. Most patients prefer to book appointments online instead of making phone calls or sending messages. A chatbot further eases the process by allowing patients to know available slots and schedule or delete meetings at a glance.

What chatbot building platforms do you recommend to spearhead my bot development?

While these choices are often tied together, e.g., finite-state and fixed input, we do see examples of finite-state dialogue management with the semantic parser interaction method. Ninety-six percent of apps employed a finite-state conversational design, indicating that users are taken through a flow of predetermined steps then provided with a response. The majority (83%) had a fixed-input dialogue interaction method, indicating that the healthbot led the conversation flow. This was typically done by providing “button-push” options for user-indicated responses. Four apps utilized AI generation, indicating that the user could write two to three sentences to the healthbot and receive a potentially relevant response. Table 1 presents an overview of other characteristics and features of included apps.

That’s why they’re often the chatbot of choice for mental health support or addiction rehabilitation services. Informative, conversational, and prescriptive healthcare chatbots can be built into messaging services like Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, or Telegram or come as standalone apps. Acropolium has delivered a range of bespoke solutions and provided consulting services for the medical industry. chatbots in healthcare industry The insights we’ll share in this post come directly from our experience in healthcare software development and reflect our knowledge of the algorithms commonly used in chatbots. While being seriously impacted by the COVID-19, the healthcare industry is steadily gaining traction in terms of its digital transformation and is adopting more and more innovative technologies on a regular basis.

Implementing chatbots provides a trustworthy path for patients, giving almost accurate diagnostics. Imagine a scenario where patients can have real-time conversations with AI-powered virtual assistants to assess their symptoms and receive preliminary medical advice. In healthcare, this technology is enhancing patient engagement, providing instant responses to medical queries, and even offering medication reminders.

However, it is worth noting that formal models, such as game-theoretical models, do not completely describe reality or the phenomenon in question and its processes; they grasp only a slice of the phenomenon. The use of chatbots in health care presents a novel set of moral and ethical challenges that must be addressed for the public to fully embrace this technology. Issues to consider are privacy or confidentiality, informed consent, and fairness. Although efforts have been made to address these concerns, current guidelines and policies are still far behind the rapid technological advances [94]. With the vast number of algorithms, tools, and platforms available, understanding the different types and end purposes of these chatbots will assist developers in choosing the optimal tools when designing them to fit the specific needs of users. These categories are not exclusive, as chatbots may possess multiple characteristics, making the process more variable.