How Chatbots Disruption Benefits Healthcare Industry?

Key takeaways

Introduction Smart algorithm-powered interfaces conversing via text or audio are becoming more and more popular.
Chatbots can even provide links to training material, videos, and other relevant information, making it easy for employees to access necessary information.
The future is yet to be determined but the healthcare industry could definitely leverage them to improve patient care as well as customer service.

Introduction

Smart algorithm-powered interfaces conversing via text or audio are becoming more and more popular. The recent surge in chatbots has led to their prominence in several industries, including retail, entertainment, social networks, finance, and healthcare. Chatbots are particularly widespread in customer services; they could help perform all the repetitive and lower-level activities of a representative.

A chatbot uses machine learning algorithms with an NLP (natural language processing) layer built-in to communicate like humans with users via text or audio. Healthcare providers, doctors, and medical assistants are now leveraging these artificial intelligence solutions to streamline patient care and reduce unnecessary expenses. There have been various cases where a digital personal assistant or a chatbot has helped patients with their queries. The patient may not even be aware that the human-like medical representative is actually an intelligent conversational machine in many cases.

Healthcare Chatbots: Future Analysis #

The demand for healthcare services has reached an all-time high in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Doctors are in short supply around the world, and chatbots have proved to be an essential tool in healthcare delivery. Chatbots could help patients detect symptoms, manage medications, assist with chronic health issues, and schedule their appointments at healthcare facilities.

According to ‘The Global Chatbots in Healthcare Market Report’ by BIS Research, the market is expected to grow at a significant CAGR of 26.29% during the forecast period from 2019 to 2029. Healthcare chatbots, thanks to improved internet access, a rise in smart device adoption, and advancements in speech recognition and NLP, will see significant growth in coming years.

Governments of various countries are investing money in the healthcare sector, resulting in better healthcare infrastructure and increased digital technologies usage.

Why use Chatbots in Healthcare? #

Healthcare chatbots are growing at a CAGR of 26.29%
38% of the users believe that chatbots offer good experience
33% have rated chatbots as friendly and accessible
Clinical chatbots have a satisfaction rate of 73%
Healthcare bots will save $3.6 billion worldwide

The Importance of Chatbots in The Healthcare Industry #

Amidst the new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the CDC and WHO have suggested using chatbots to distribute information about symptoms, recommend behavior changes and provide emotional support. If we implement chatbots properly, we will be able to actively share current information that enables suitable health practices and reduces the psychological harm caused by anxiety and social isolation.

It is possible that chatbots could lead to a major healthcare overhaul. They can enhance efficiency and accuracy. Here are the key advantages of a healthcare chatbot:

Reduce waiting time: Time is essence, specifically in medical issues. Chatbots can answer your queries within seconds. Patients need not wait in line, call or email hospitals to get answers to their questions; they can just type in their queries and get an immediate response.

Daily Medication Reminder: Doctors prescribe medicines to help patients with various health conditions. A research study suggests that over 50% of patients do not take their medication on time.

Chatbots can provide not only timely medical advice but also send daily reminders to patients for their medication.

Appointment Scheduling: Scheduling an appointment over a phone call could be time-consuming and even frustrating sometimes. The call operator will need to get details about the patient, the doctor they need to see, and manual check if the slots are available. It leads to an additional administrative cost. A well-employed chatbot could assist patients in booking their appointment with the right doctor.

Improved Internal Communications: Chatbots aren’t limited to helping patients. They can be used to facilitate better internal communication among employees. Chatbots can even provide links to training material, videos, and other relevant information, making it easy for employees to access necessary information.

Billing and Registration: Healthcare facilities can use our platform to integrate with backend billing, insurance claims, and inventory management systems. This allows quick and easy generation of invoices and payments.

Health insurance providers could utilize the bots to answer common queries related to coverage, claims, and procedures.

24*7 Availability: Doctors may not be available all the time for every patient. Bots can be available 24/7 personally for you and assist you throughout your recovery. They can provide medical information, give tips, remind you about medication, and care for your overall health.

Famous Healthcare Chatbots #

There are quite a few variants of healthcare industries. Here, we are mentioning some of the chatbots characterized by their biggest features.

Real-Time Healthcare Assistance #

Elomia #

An AI-powered virtual therapist trained using thousands of consultations conducted by doctors. The virtual therapist could take care of the users emotional well-being and can help patients with:

Depression
Anxiety
Lower self-esteem
Sleep Issues
Relationship Issues

Youper: Self-Guided Therapy #

A mental health app that uses AI and is backed up by an army of healthcare professionals. It helps users with personalized conversations and offers:

Personality Assessments
Emotional State test
Mood Tracking
Mindfulness

Babylon Health #

A chatbot that gives medical advice before you have to go in for an appointment. Here is how it works

The rob-doctor talks to you
If needed, it redirects you to a video conference with a Babylons full-time physician
The physician prescription is sent to your nearest pharmacy right from the app

Note: The app also stores consultation notes for future reference.

Ada Health Companion #

Ada Health is a diagnostic tool that requires users to fill out a detailed health assessment based on their symptoms.

Ada helps you have basic conversations while also inputting information from a massive database of relevant inputs and cases. It feeds into a larger machine-learning model to provide an accurate estimation of your overall health and pinpoint the causes of your problem, as well as possible solutions.

Buoy Health Data-Backed Discussions #

Used as a diagnostic tool. It helps users self-assess for their symptoms. Here is how it works:

Talk about your symptoms
Get clinical insights on your symptoms
Choose the best care option based on your symptoms

Note: They will follow-up with you if you allow the access and they also have an ‘Buoy Community’ where they can connect you with people experiencing similar symptoms.

SafedrugBot #

Aimed to help out physicians. The bot has three different commands:

Information on Drugs
Active Ingredients
Alternative Drugs

In the future, it can help identify allergies and foreign prescriptions.

Content-Rich

CancerChatbot’s #

An AI medical chatbot software for helping people learn about different types of cancer, various treatment options and the long-term outlook.

This bot crowdsources the information from relevant sources on various types of cancers, organizes them, and makes it available for users in an approachable way. Cancer-related information is regularly provided to users via a chatbot, which also answers users’ queries and runs them through a database of cancer research data, and treatment trials.

Your MD #

A symptom diagnostic chat tool with a database of information. It can be accessed via various platforms like

Skype
Telegram
Facebook
Slack
Android App
iOS App

Reminders #

Florence #

Used to remind patients to take their medication. They need to enter the medicine name, quantity, and the time patient has to consume it. It has several other features like:

Track weight and periods
Send prescription refill reminder
Daily health tips
Moderate mood
Locate nearest physician or pharmacy

Conclusion #

Chatbots are undoubtfully beneficial in the healthcare industry. They are an important part of the future of health IT. In the wake of the pandemic, these bots have multiplied. Although, they offer a lot of advantages; there are concerns about data privacy and security. The future is yet to be determined but the healthcare industry could definitely leverage them to improve patient care as well as customer service.

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