Applications of Chatbots Available for the Healthcare Sector

Healthcare Tech Outlook | Friday, May 14, 2021

AI-driven chatbots may become part of hospitals' plans to meet patients' requirements as health professionals have taken to telemedicine to consult them.

FREMONT, CA : Chatbots are software programs that use machine learning algorithms, such as natural language processing (NLP), to initiate and maintain conversations with users to obtain real-time assistance to patients.

In retail, news media, social media, banking, and customer support, chatbots have already gained popularity. Many people use chatbots on their smartphones regularly without even realizing it. Chatbots change the way people interact, from catching up on sports news to managing bank applications to playing conversation-based games.

Healthcare payers, suppliers, and physician assistants are starting to use AI-based tools to streamline patient care and reduce high costs. People see a healthcare chatbot in action if a patient initiates a conversation with a medical representative who appears to be human but is an intelligent conversational machine.

The Role of Artificial Intelligence

Patients prefer talking to real doctors, and chatbots sound more human due to artificial intelligence. In reality, some chatbots with sophisticated self-learning algorithms can hold in-depth, human-like conversations.

Machine learning systems are starting to change the way the healthcare sector think about patient care. Chatbots will boost service delivery and contribute to substantial healthcare cost savings and better patient care results in the near future, even though they are still in their initial stages.

Use Cases of Chatbots in Healthcare

To create a chatbot that engages users and offers solutions, developers must first decide which types of chatbots would most successfully achieve these objectives. As a result, the chatbot developer must understand the user's purpose and the user's best assistance before designing the appropriate chatbot to resolve these issues.

In healthcare, there are three prominent use cases for chatbot technology: informative, conversational, and prescriptive.

CONVERSATIONAL CHATBOTS

Conversational chatbots are designed to be contextual tools that respond to the user's purpose. A conversational chatbot appears in different stages of maturity, and not all of them have the same degree of conversational depth. Natural language processing (NLP) and natural language understanding (NLU) are AI applications that allow machines to learn human language and purpose, are used by conversational chatbots.

INFORMATIVE CHATBOTS

Users can get helpful information from chatbots in the form of pop-ups, updates, and breaking news stories. Informative bots offer automated information and customer service.

PRESCRIPTIVE CHATBOTS

While prescriptive chatbots are designed to be conversational, they are designed to provide therapeutic solutions rather than just answers or instructions. People with depression, anxiety disorders, or mood disorders may communicate with this chatbot, which then assists them in self-treatment by restructuring their actions and thinking patterns.