Chatbots in Healthcare: Future Prospects and Development Paths

Posted on the 26 March 2022 by Genuinework789

Chatbots are already very popular in social media, customer support, retail, banking, etc. Chatbots respond to a query by the user; they can be trained to perform specific tasks like notifying patients to take meds, providing real-time assistance, making an appointment with the doctor, and many more. This makes chatbots in healthcare very helpful and time-saving. And in this article, we will look at the future of healthcare chatbots and how you can develop your own healthcare chatbot.

What are the uses of a Healthcare Chatbot?

In a world where almost every new technology has artificial intelligence, chatbots also use AI as well as Natural Language Processing (NLP) to sound more human to the user. It helps the user to feel like they are talking to a real doctor. An AI chatbot for healthcare industry can assist in diagnosing patients when they input the symptoms, generating a diet plan for the users based on their requirements, in-depth information on various diseases, and much more. An Artificial intelligence healthcare chatbot system can learn from a patient's medical history and provide more personalized guidance and support.

Future of Chatbots in the Healthcare Industry:

The use of chatbot technology in healthcare is in an early stage of development, but the adaptability is very quick. The future of chatbots in the healthcare industry looks extremely promising as this new integration helps solve many healthcare problems. Healthcare Chatbot can help reduce administration costs, reach underserved regions, follow up of patients after they are discharged, and collect all the necessary data before the patient visits a doctor.

Popular Healthcare Chatbots:

ADA Health: It is a global digital health company that has an AI-enabled diagnosis feature to assess the patient's symptoms. ADA health now has over 10 Million plus downloads and 20 Million+ more symptoms assessed.

BABYLON HEALTH: Babylon health uses AI to assist patients. It also has a feature to consult with a virtual and a real doctor. With the help of a chatbot, users can submit their symptoms, and the AI will search from the database to come up with all possible diagnoses.

FORKSY: Forksy is a robot nutritionist. It is a chatbot that helps users to come up with a suitable diet plan and also helps them evaluate their diet.

Steps to build your Healthcare Chatbot:

1. Create A Conversation Flow:

This is going to be a bit difficult task to do since it requires extra precaution to create a productive conversation with the patient. The chatbot must understand the query to its core before coming up with an answer. Developers can use Natural Language Understanding(NLU), IBM's Watson, Microsoft Cognitive Services Language Understanding LUIS.ai. and many other platforms.

2. User Interface design:

Creating an elegant and easy user interface is necessary since people of all ages will be using the same user interface. You can use any of the platforms like Alexa API, Google Assistance, Telegram, Slack, or you can build your user interface.

3. Artificial Intelligence:

Creating an artificial intelligence healthcare chatbot system has become a necessity nowadays. Since AI can learn and adapt to various conditions so, as your platform grows in numbers, more your AI will become stronger and efficient.

4. Training and Testing:

Now you need to work on training your chatbot before the final release. Having a database that serves a larger audience will be great for your platform to grow. You can hire expert developers to test everything out.

5. HIPAA Compliance Integration:

Health Insurance Portability And Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 is a public law that protects the patients' sensitive information from being used without the consent of the patient. Every medical health app must comply with HIPAA. Learn about what PHI and other data come under HIPAA regulations.

Final Words:

Hope you find this article helpful. Note that chatbots in healthcare are in a very early stage but have a huge potential to change the way we interact with healthcare professionals. Chatbots are already a lot more common than you know. So many websites now use chatbots technology in healthcare to make things easier for users and on the administrator side too. Soon chatbots will be used almost everywhere in the health industry.