Doctor Robot: chatbots help medical professionals

A robot doctor is still some way off, but chatbots can already give patients and medical professionals a helping hand. Think of: information provision, offering up-to-date information and reducing workload. Doctors, assistants and nurses carry out essential work: to inform patients and cure them as fast as possible, they could use a bit of help now and then. This is what a chatbot can mean for medical professionals and patients, for example.

Doctor, doctor!

A chatbot can keep doctors informed of changes in their field. It brings important news to their attention through push notifications, for example, or distributes new information about medicines among doctors. Now and then a particular medicine comes into the news negatively, because negative side effects have been discovered, for instance. In such a case it is important that a doctor is informed straight away, in order to answer patients' questions.

Users of the medicines often call the GP in such a case, who also does not have all the knowledge to hand straight away. A chatbot, from a professional association for example, can pass the information straight to the doctor, at the moment they need it. This can be done with new information about medicines, but also when the flu (jab) is coming round again, in spring (the paradise for allergies), and summer; in which outdoor activities and warm temperatures mean an increase in tick bites and food infections.

Travellers with holiday plans can also ask a chatbot which vaccinations they would best get before they head for the tropics. You could also think of a chatbot that works as an interactive package leaflet for medicines. Can you not remember how many paracetamols you may take in a day? A chatbot does not bat an eyelid and gives an answer straight away.

The Watermelon Chatbot was devised to make companies' customer service more efficient, but the technology is so flexible that it has many more applications. The chatbot is excellently able to deal with people, and can evaluate people's requests for help by means of checklists. That way it can take some pressure off at the out-of-hours GP service (HAP).

Pressure on the HAP

The chatbot can ask a user about various symptoms, and urge them to seek medical help if certain criteria are met. Stomach ache and stomach cramp are very unpleasant, for example, but usually no cause for concern, and moreover they pass quickly. If the complaints last longer or other symptoms rear their heads, something more serious may of course be going on. A chatbot can signal this kind of worrying symptom and inform a member of staff.

The extra communication channel can relieve the pressure on an out-of-hours GP service, and apply a form of selection before a sick person seeks contact by telephone. A chatbot is of course not a doctor, and cannot make a diagnosis. A chatbot can, however, automatically ask targeted questions, which a medical professional can work with.

Test yourself!

A report from someone with stomach ache is assigned a low priority, except when there are symptoms of appendicitis among them, for example. In that case a medical assistant can take the conversation over, or the chatbot can urge the user to seek telephone contact with a doctor quickly.

A chatbot collects various ‘symptom checkers’ in one smart program. This is what such a conversation could look like.

Out-of-hours GP services deal with a high workload in the evenings and at weekends. The HAP is actually intended for emergency care, but is very often called about (admittedly unpleasant, but) less serious ailments. A chatbot can take over part of the requests for help, and so lower the workload for doctors. Sick people get a fast answer, medical staff get some extra breathing space and people with serious complaints are helped sooner.

A chatbot cannot replace medical staff, but it can support a team excellently. Would you like to know more about how to deploy chatbots successfully? Download the free whitepaper by clicking the button below!