Chatbots
long have been a part of many industries. However seeing the nature of the
healthcare industry, it was only being utilized for basic operations. Right
now, there are compelling chatbot services and plenty of healthcare use cases
that can be catered to.
To reveal
to you the different use cases for which chatbots can be used in healthcare, we
have written this article.
Therefore,
here we go.
9 Use Cases of Healthcare Chatbots
Below are the most common use cases of chatbots in the
healthcare industry. Let's have a look:
Insights for Patients' Medical Conditions
Previously, there have been multiple online symptom checkers
from some of the most reputed organizations. Organizations like WebMd, Mayo
Health, Everyday Health, etc. that are trusted platforms.
These online symptom checkers are basically AI chatbots that
respond to the user's query. Based on the symptoms provided by the patients,
these chatbots had the capacity to educate patients about their existing
conditions.
Right now with the inception of ChatGPT, Microsoft Bing, and other LLM (language learning models), the accuracy with which the results are provided is much higher. Benjamin Tolchin, a neurologist and ethicist from Yale University in an article in Scientific American states that he used to ask his patients to stay away from Google.
However, the patients that visit now have much more robust
information because of these LLM-based tools. Chatbots today not only resolve
patients' problems but they are doing it with much higher accuracy.
Scheduling Appointment for Health Checkup
Scheduling an appointment is one of the biggest use cases
Chatbots have solved. Previously users had to continuously cling to their
phones to schedule an appointment. Sometimes the line would engage, and
sometimes the number may not be working.
However, with the inclusion of a Chatbot, patients can
schedule their appointment on the go. The patient simply has to put in the
query and provide the time suitable for them for the appointment. Based on the
availability, the chatbot will automatically book the patient's time in the
Doctor's calendar.
Aggregating the Patient Data
Collecting patient data is one major use case in the
healthcare industry. Typically, the responsibility for this ordeal falls on the
shoulder of Healthcare providers. Healthcare providers such as doctors, nurses,
and other medical staff.
This is important for primarily two reasons:
- Assessing the health of the patient and providing an
inference
- Maintaining the records of the patient's medical history
as HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability).
To further give context to HIPAA, the regulation primarily talks about maintaining the privacy of patient's medical records. However, it does compel healthcare institutions to maintain that record. This work of collecting patient data requires time. Adding to it, the majority of this data can be collected initially with the help of Chatbots.
A Chatbot can ask questions similar to the one's mentioned below to gain relevant medical information:
- What is the patient's name?
- What is the patient's age?
- What is the weight of the patient?
- Any past medical issues?
- Any past medical emergencies or procedures?
- Any chronic disease?
- Any allergies?
By programming a chatbot with questions such as this,
healthcare providers are already taking benefit of chatbots to aggregate
relevant medical information. This data can be directly extrapolated to the
EHRs (Electronic Health Records). This helps in diagnosis and reduces the time
spent manually entering this data.
Self-Management of Chronic Diseases
Managing chronic conditions is amongst the most crucial yet
difficult use cases to achieve. If the data provided by the chatbot is not
accurate, it could be dangerous for the patient. There have been plenty of
engineers who have been working in order to make this happen. It is tricky
because managing these chronic diseases is subjective to the patient's current
health status.
Although, there are chatbots now that can help the patient
manage their chronic conditions. Some of these chatbots are Ava, MayoBot,
Cancer Chat, Diabeto, Quitnow, etc.
These chatbots work with the combination of two AI
technologies i.e. natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML).
Once the model is mature enough, it will be able capable of providing responses
based on the context provided by the patient.
These chatbots can help the patient based in different ways
such as:
- Education
- Support
- Reminders
- Tracking
- Self-management
Managing the Mental Health
With stress taking over with the current misbalance of
work-life, the amount of mental strain everyone goes through can often open
doors for past trauma. Managing mental health is difficult and it is slowly
& steadily becoming a use case that needs dire attention. In this
situation, the majority of people require an emotional counselor or psychiatric
help (if things go worse).
Thankfully with the help of chatbots, it is possible to
provide this service. These chatbots can provide relevant answers to the patient's
query and help destress them. These have the capability to help them unwind and
be open about their problems 24*7. Some common chatbots that can be used for
managing mental health are Woebot, Youper, etc.
Providing Relevant Information about Medication
This use case is quite similar to managing chronic disease.
The primary difference however is that these types of chatbots are primarily
created for medication. There are several ways these chatbots can be used for
administering medication. Those are:
- Reminding the patient when to take the medicine
- Educating the patient about the dosage, side effects, and
interactions
- Tracking the medication
- Dispensing medication via a physical dispenser or a
virtual one.
The potential benefit of this would be:
- Less medication error
- High patient experience
- Adherence with medication
Setting up Reminders for Medication, Health checkups, etc.
Setting up reminders for taking medication on time is an
essential part of healing or managing the disease. This is especially the case
if the disease is chronic in nature. It is because the patients are required to
take their medication on time.
The great news is that there are chatbots that can be used
for setting reminders on a daily basis for taking medication. In fact, these
chatbots can be used for setting reminders for doctor's appointments or setting
timely checkups.
Providing Responses to Medical Queries
There are times when you don't truly require a doctor.
However, a little assistance regarding the health could do wonders. In this
situation, a chatbot can be used as an aid. These chatbots will provide
relevant information regarding the query put in.
Right now with tools like ChatGPT and Google Bard, it is
absolutely possible to get the kind of support in terms of figuring out
symptoms, important measures for managing health, type of food to eat, etc.
With a chatbot, anyone can have answers to these queries without having to
physically visit the doctor.
Marketing the Healthcare Service
Without marketing, it is almost impossible for many
businesses to survive especially if they are new. It has the capacity to create
the awareness that is required and increase sales for the business.
Essentially even a healthcare facility is a business that
requires money to sustain. Money can be generated by making patients aware of the
services your hospital can provide. In this scenario, chatbots can play an
important role. Some of the ways chatbots can help in marketing for the
healthcare industry are:
- It can be used for engaging with website or social media
visitors turning them into potential leads.
- It can be used for booking an appointment i.e. lead
conversion
- It can be used for promoting the service by providing
customers with relevant information your healthcare facility provides
- It can be used to provide direct assistance to patients if
they visit the website
- It can be used for providing personalized recommendations
- It can be used for targeting a particular customer base
- It can be used for taking in relevant feedback
Wrapping Up!
Right now, the market is filled with some of the best AI
chatbots that the healthcare industry can make use of. Also, it is essential to
do so because today everything is about ease of access and customer
satisfaction. By providing a virtual portal in the form of chatbots, we are
engaging customer back when they gone with any answer. This would ultimately
help in boosting the customer experience and help you serve them well in the
longer. Chatbots today are not an option in healthcare but a necessity that
needs to be fulfilled.
