Chatbot for Healthcare: Key Use Cases & Benefits

They can answer reactions to your Instagram stories, communicate with your Facebook followers, and chat with people interested in specific products. A case study shows that assisting customers with a chatbot can increase the booking rate by 25% and improve user engagement by 50%. This case study comes from a travel Agency Amtrak which deployed a bot that answered, on average, 5 million questions a year.

In this article, we shall focus on the NLU component and how you can use Rasa NLU to build contextual chatbots. For instance, a Level 1 maturity chatbot only provides pre-built responses to clearly stated questions without the capacity to follow through with any deviations. If you look up articles about flu symptoms on WebMD, for instance, a chatbot may pop up with information about flu treatment and current outbreaks in your area. “We are incredibly excited about this launch, but it also underscores the profound impact on society that AI will have.

Chatbot use cases in healthcare

Most doctors’ offices are overburdened with paperwork, so many patients have to wait weeks before they can get their prescriptions filled, thereby wasting precious time. The chatbot can do this instead, checking with each pharmacy to see if the prescription has been filled, then sending an alert when it needs to be picked up or delivered. Many customers prefer making appointments online over calling a clinic or hospital directly. A chatbot could now fill this role by offering online scheduling to any patient through its website or app. By adding a healthcare chatbot to your customer support, you can combat the challenges effectively and give the scalability to handle conversations in real-time. It can ask users a series of questions about their symptoms and provide preliminary assessments or suggestions based on the information provided.

Instead, we relied on the literature and news articles for information on these. Therefore, our analysis of design characteristics has an overrepresentation of publicly accessible chatbots. This does not influence our use cases since chatbot objectives were described in the articles. We excluded 9 cases from our sample since our analysis revealed that they were not chatbots. We identified 3 new chatbots that focused on vaccination, bringing our final sample to 61 chatbots and resulting in 1 additional use-case category and 1 new use case.

Medical chatbots provide necessary information and remind patients to take medication on time. Medisafe empowers users to manage their drug journey — from intricate dosing schedules to monitoring multiple measurements. Additionally, it alerts them if there’s a potential unhealthy interaction between two medications.

Mental Health Support

Reaching beyond the needs of the patients, hospital staff can also benefit from chatbots. A chatbot can be used for internal record- keeping of hospital equipment like beds, oxygen cylinders, wheelchairs, etc. Whenever team members need to check the availability or the status of equipment, they can simply ask the bot. The bot will then fetch the data from the system, thus making operations information available at a staff member’s fingertips. This automation results in better team coordination while decreasing delays due to interdependence among teams. Questions like these are very important, but they may be answered without a specialist.

Chatbots from healthcare facilities provide links to establish a video call or make an appointment or to initiate a telemedicine session (e.g., Case 4). Other chatbots ask users to call an emergency number or their physician and provide links to official resources (e.g., Case 5). Two chatbots direct users to another chatbot for a more detailed screening (Cases 8 and 29). Although not claiming to diagnose, a few chatbots also try to eliminate differential diagnoses by asking more detailed questions (e.g., Case 41). A symptom checker bot, such as Conversa, can be the first line of contact between the patient and a hospital. The chatbot is capable of asking relevant questions and understanding symptoms.

Cancer Chatbot

However, there are different levels of maturity to a conversational chatbot – not all of them offer the same depth of conversation. There are three primary use cases for the utilization of chatbot technology in healthcare – informative, conversational, and prescriptive. These chatbots vary in their conversational style, the depth of communication, and the type of solutions they provide. Furthermore, hospitals and private clinics use medical chat bots to triage and clerk patients even before they come into the consulting room. These bots ask relevant questions about the patients’ symptoms, with automated responses that aim to produce a sufficient medical history for the doctor. Subsequently, these patient histories are sent via a messaging interface to the doctor, who triages to determine which patients need to be seen first and which patients require a brief consultation.

Customer feedback surveys is another healthcare chatbot use case where the bot collects feedback from the patient post a conversation. It can be via a CSAT rating or a detailed rating system where patients can rate their experience for different types of services. Chatbots not only automate the process of gathering patient data but also follows a more engaging experience for the patients since they’re conversational in their approach. You can guide the user on a chatbot and ensure your presence with a two-way interaction as compared to a form. Once you integrate the chatbot with the hospital systems, your bot can show the expertise available, and the doctors available under that expertise in the form of a carousel to book appointments.

For example, in 2020 WhatsApp collaborated with the World Health Organization (WHO) to make a chatbot service that answers users’ questions on COVID-19. Hopefully, after reviewing these samples of the best healthcare chatbots above, you’ll be inspired by how your chatbot solution for the healthcare industry can enhance provider/patient experiences. To develop a chatbot that engages and provides solutions to users, chatbot developers need to determine what types of chatbots in healthcare would most effectively achieve these goals. Therefore, two things that the chatbot developer needs to consider are the intent of the user and the best help the user needs; then, we can design the right chatbot to address these healthcare chatbot use cases. Chatbots are software developed with machine learning algorithms, including natural language processing (NLP), to stimulate and engage in a conversation with a user to provide real-time assistance to patients. One of the use cases of chatbots for customer service is offering self-service and answering frequently asked questions.

The most common anthropomorphic feature was gender with 9 chatbots being female, 5 male, and 1 transgender. In addition, 1 chatbot had its gender randomly assigned for each interaction (Case 22) and 1 gave the user the option to choose (Case 28). Thirty-six chatbots delivered use cases in a single use-case category (which we term single purpose), and 25 delivered use cases across multiple categories (which we term multipurpose). The most common single-purpose chatbots were for information dissemination (21 cases) and risk assessment (12 cases). The most common categories to be combined were risk assessment (22 cases) and information dissemination (21 cases), with the most common multipurpose chatbot combination being these 2 categories (18 co-occurrences).

Chatbots can also be used to send automated reminders about taking medication, filling prescriptions, and upcoming healthcare checkups. This can help service providers better manage patient recovery and healthcare outcomes, as well as reduce healthcare costs by preventing potentially costly medical errors. Healthcare chatbots can help medical professionals to better communicate with their patients. Here are five ways the healthcare industry is already using chatbots to maximize their efficiency and boost standards of patient care.

It is partially because conversational AI is still evolving and has a long way to go. As natural language understanding and artificial intelligence technologies evolve, we will see the emergence of more advanced healthcare chatbot solutions. A healthcare chatbot is an AI-powered software program designed to interact with users and provide healthcare-related information, support, and services through a conversational interface. It uses natural language processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML) techniques to understand and respond to user queries or requests. Different healthcare businesses have different use cases for healthcare chatbots. Chatbots can be leveraged to collect patient information and data, set appointment reminders, assist healthcare professionals, disseminate important medical information, or simply offer patient support.

Conversational chatbots can be trained on large datasets, including the symptoms, mode of transmission, natural course, prognostic factors, and treatment of the coronavirus infection. Bots can then pull info from this data to generate automated responses to users’ questions. Doctors also have a virtual assistant chatbot that supplies them with necessary info – Safedrugbot.

EXPERT-RECOMMENDED AI CHATBOT IDEAS

This allows for fewer errors and better care for patients that may have a more complicated medical history. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. The feedback can help clinics improve their services and improve the experience for current and future patients. Overall, this data helps healthcare businesses improve their delivery of care. Medical chatbots are AI-powered conversational solutions that help patients, insurance companies, and healthcare providers easily connect with each other.

Also, they will help you define the flow of every use case, including input artifacts and required third-party software integrations. That provides an easy way to reach potentially infected people and reduce the spread of the infection. The HIPAA Security Rule requires that you identify all the sources of PHI, including external sources, and all human, technical, and environmental threats to the safety of PHI in your company. The Rule requires that your company design a mechanism that encrypts all electronic PHI when necessary, both at rest or in transit over electronic communication tools such as the internet. Furthermore, the Security Rule allows flexibility in the type of encryption that covered entities may use.

This free AI-enabled chatbot allows you to input your symptoms and get the most likely diagnoses. Trained with machine learning models that enable the app to give accurate or near-accurate diagnoses, YourMd provides useful health tips and information about your symptoms as well as verified evidence-based solutions. Although prescriptive chatbots are conversational by design, they are built not just to answer questions or provide direction, but to offer therapeutic solutions. Informative chatbots provide helpful information for users, often in the form of pop-ups, notifications, and breaking stories. Generally, informative bots provide automated information and customer support. Exciting new features are already in the pipeline and will be added to the AI assistant soon.

Once you choose your chatbot and set it up, make sure to check all the features the bot offers. Data privacy is always a big concern, especially in the financial services industry. This is because any anomaly in transactions could cause great damage to the client as well as the institute providing the financial services.

Chatbots are computer software that simulates conversations with human users. Chatbots can be used to communicate with people, answer common questions, and perform specific tasks they were programmed for. They gather and process information while interacting with the user and increase the level of personalization.

Trained on clinical data from more than 18,000 medical articles and journals, Buoy’s chatbot for medical diagnosis provides users with their likely diagnoses and accurate answers to their health questions. Machine learning applications are beginning to transform patient care as we know it. Although still in its early stages, chatbots will not only improve care delivery, but they will also lead to significant healthcare cost savings and improved patient care outcomes in the near future.

Chatbot Reduces Waiting Time

A lot of patients have trouble with taking medication as prescribed because they forget or lose the track of time. This can be a risk to their health if they do it over a longer period of time. Another example of a chatbot use case on social media is Lyft which enabled its clients to order a ride straight from Facebook Messenger or Slack. They can track the customer journey to find the person’s preferences, interests, and needs. Teaching your new buyers how to utilize your tool is very important in turning them into loyal customers. Think about it—unless a person understands how your service works, they won’t use it.

However, the majority of these AI solutions (focusing on operational performance and clinical outcomes) are still in their infancy. Healthcare chatbots can also be used to collect and maintain patient data, like symptoms, lifestyle habits, and medical history after discharge from a medical facility. By using NLP technology, medical chatbots can identify healthcare-related keywords in sentences and return useful advice for the patient. Chatbots can recognize warning signs of mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety, through conversational analysis.

According to an MGMA Stat poll, about 49% of medical groups said that the rates of ‘no-shows‘ soared since 2021. No-show appointments result in a considerable loss of revenue and underutilize the physician’s time. The healthcare chatbot tackles this issue by closely monitoring the cancellation of appointments and reports it to the hospital staff immediately. The healthcare industry incorporates chatbots in its ecosystem to streamline communication between patients and healthcare professionals, prevent unnecessary expenses and offer a smooth, around-the-clock helping station.

47.5% of the healthcare companies in the US already use AI in their processes, saving 5-10% of spending. With the use of empathetic, friendly, and positive language, a chatbot can help reshape a patient’s thoughts and emotions stemming from negative places. Healthcare Chatbot is an AI-powered software that uses machine learning algorithms or computer programs to interact with leads in auditory or textual modes.

This is one of the chatbot use cases in banking that helps your bank be transparent, and your clients stay on top of their finances. Chatbots can check account details, as well as see full reports about the user’s account. About 67% of all support requests were handled by the bot and there were 55% more conversations started with Slush than the previous year.

Healthcare chatbot use cases go a step further by automating crucial tasks and providing accurate information to improve the patient experience virtually. Medical services are also able to send consent forms to patients who can, in turn, send back a signed copy. QliqSOFT also offers a HIPAA-compliant method for doctors, nurses, and patients to communicate with each other, along with image and video sharing capabilities. Since a chatbot is available at all hours, users are able to access medical services or information when it’s most convenient for them, reducing the burden on staff. Chatbots can be used to automate healthcare processes and smooth out workflow, reducing manual labor and freeing up time for medical staff to focus on more complex tasks and procedures.

• It can also provide information about spending trends and credit scores for a full account analysis view.
• The general population audience could be as broad as the world (e.g., the WHO chatbot) or a country (e.g., the CDC chatbot in the United States).
• The Global Healthcare Chatbots Market, valued at USD 307.2 million in 2022, is projected to reach USD 1.6 billion by 2032, with a forecasted CAGR of 18.3%.
• Other chatbots ask users to call an emergency number or their physician and provide links to official resources (e.g., Case 5).

After training your chatbot on this data, you may choose to create and run a nlu server on Rasa. Ensure to remove all unnecessary or default files in this folder before proceeding to the next stage of training your bot. The name of the entity here is “location,” and the value is “colorado.” You need to provide a lot of examples for “location” to capture the entity adequately.

The most significant difference between these compliances is that GDPR covers citizens of the EU while HIPAA is restricted to American citizens and healthcare companies. Book a free consultation with our team, and we’ll share the best practices for creating a powerful chatbot, along with the support, training and maintenance of your chatbot. Bots help pitch ideas, send requests, submit works and track the status of its reviewing in one place without extra efforts.

The inherent value extends to providing consistency and coherence to employee communication and reducing confusion for the end-user while delivering an instant response. A conversational chatbot is more suited for businesses with advanced SaaS tools and B2B companies providing enterprise solutions and online social platforms. This chatbot use case also includes the bot helping patients by practicing cognitive behavioral therapy with them. But, you should remember that bots are an addition to the mental health professionals, not a replacement for them. They communicate with your potential customers on Messenger, send automatic replies to Instagram story reactions, and interact with your contacts on LinkedIn. You don’t have to employ people from different parts of the world or pay overtime for your agents to work nights anymore.

Obviously, chatbots cannot replace therapists and physicians, but they can provide a trusted and unbiased go-to place for the patient around-the-clock. It also increases revenue as the reduction in the consultation periods and hospital waiting lines leads healthcare institutions to take in and manage more patients. Although, if you’re chatbot use cases in healthcare looking for a basic chatbot assisting your website visitors, we advise you to take a look at some existing solutions like Smith.ai, Acobot, or Botsify. The Indian government also launched a WhatsApp-based interactive chatbot called MyGov Corona Helpdesk that provides verified information and news about the pandemic to users in India.

Healthcare professionals can now efficiently manage resources and prioritize clinical cases using artificial intelligence chatbots. The technology helps clinicians categorize patients depending on how severe their conditions are. A medical bot assesses users through questions to define patients who require urgent treatment. It then guides those with the most severe symptoms to seek responsible doctors or medical specialists. The introduction of AI-driven healthcare chatbots marks a transformative era in the rapidly evolving world of healthcare technology. This article delves into the multifaceted role of healthcare chatbots, exploring their functionality, future scope, and the numerous benefits they offer to the healthcare sector.

This also helps medical professionals stay updated about any changes in patient symptoms. This bodes well for patients with long-term illnesses like diabetes or heart disease symptoms. Discover what they are in healthcare and their game-changing potential for business. You have probably heard of this platform, for it boasts of catering to almost 13 million users as of 2023. Ada Health is a popular healthcare app that understands symptoms and manages patient care instantaneously with a reliable AI-powered database. A chatbot can offer a safe space to patients and interact in a positive, unbiased language in mental health cases.

Let’s dive a little deeper and talk about a couple of the top chatbot use cases in healthcare. We’ve already discussed the role of top health chatbots, but what are their use cases? Well, you can find anything from a chatbot for medical diagnosis to chatbots for mental health support. It costs $14.99/month for the Pro version, which provides unlimited conversations with chatbots, personalized health reports, and grants you early access to new features. One of the first healthcare chatbot companies we wanted to talk about is Google’s Med-PaLM 2. As a state-of-the-art healthcare chatbot, this technology is the predecessor to Med-PaLM, which only scored 67.5% on the US medical exam.

A comparison of symptom-checker tools indicated great variability in effectiveness in terms of their sensitivity and specificity,37 with some outperforming the CDC symptom-checker. Therefore, while utilizing official sources is a prudent practice, especially for off-the-shelf solutions and for non-healthcare organizations, more work is required to understand best practices. We categorized these chatbots based on (a) their use case which reflects the public health response activity they supported and (b) their design characteristics.