Can chatbots help patients?

You have probably experienced visiting a website where a small chatbot offers you help with your questions. It has gradually become more and more common in the private sector, but now we are testing whether chatbots can also help us in the healthcare system.

29th November 2022

This is happening in a new project where a chatbot will help patients with endometriosis who are affiliated with Odense University Hospital (OUH).

Endometriosis is a chronic disease that typically appears in the teenage years, but is diagnosed an average of seven years later, and patients describe the disease as debilitating and painful. There is no cure, and the aim of treatment is to reduce pain. Often the symptoms reappear, which is why the patients have regular contact with the healthcare system.

Advantages for both patients and staff

The chatbot must be able to provide clinically correct answers to the most frequently asked questions, but without going into questions about treatment. If there is the slightest doubt, the chatbot must forward the inquiry or encourage the patient to contact the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at OUH.

This should make it easier for patients when doubts arise about their illness, so that they can get answers the moment the doubt arises, regardless of the opening hours of their own doctor or the hospital. This will save the patients from spending time in telephone queues or on transport back and forth to the hospital and help to reduce the worry that can be associated with a chronic illness. It should also relieve the staff at the Gynecology and Obstetrics Department by limiting repetitive and monotonous questions.

The project runs until May 2023, and Rikke Lyngholm Christensen, programme manager at CIMT, is excited about the project's results:

“We are constantly looking for new opportunities to help patients; we cannot cure their endometriosis, but we may be able to remove some of the worries and questions. At the same time, we hope that the chatbot can relieve the staff and automate answers to some of the general questions that are repeated. If it proves effective in this area, I see great potential for scaling up and using the solution for other diseases and departments”.