Healthcare chatbots: The new era of patient care

1. Continuous and constant availability

Medical emergencies don’t announce their arrival.

During such times, setting up a quick response channel where patients can connect for immediate assistance is important.

Medical chatbots remain online 24/7, providing customers with support, answers to their questions, and access to resources whenever they need them. They can even be set up to alert medical staff to come online to help patients. Research suggests that 24/7 access to health information and perceived information confidentiality (when talking to a chatbot instead of a human) make medical chatbots more appealing.

2. Efficient data collection

Healthcare chatbots are excellent tools to collect and organize patient data and provide personalized experiences.

They create neat patient profiles based on their interactions that doctors and medical staff can quickly access at any point of care. Chatbots powered by AI and NLP can draw context from previous consultations and can be set up to conduct follow-ups with patients post-treatment or after the completion of medicine dosage.

3. Scalability

Healthcare staff can only provide one-on-one care to a limited number of people. On the other hand, chatbots can be easily scaled up to resonate with the care load whenever needed.

For example, hospitals can scale chatbots up during flu season to help more patients access help and resources while the healthcare staff pays attention to the more complex cases.

4. Better accuracy

AI and ML-powered chatbots can analyze customer interactions, assess symptoms, and collate data, helping doctors make precise diagnoses backed by available data. This helps doctors prescribe effective treatments to patients that help them recover quickly. 

Doctors can also use chatbots to enter data in a timely manner so that patients can keep consistent records. An independent study highlights that a BERT-based medical chatbot displayed an accuracy of 98% in handling medical queries and a precision score of 97%.

5. Remote consultations

Chatbots facilitate remote consultations for people living in areas where healthcare cannot be reached quickly. This enhances their access to modernized consultation and practices, accurate diagnoses, and reliable prescriptions. Chatbots can also be accessed from personal devices, further enhancing accessibility to healthcare even from remote locations.

6. Cost-effectiveness

Chatbots can automate routine tasks, such as scheduling appointments and refilling prescriptions. This can help save costs for hiring human staff to manage these operational aspects at clinics or hospitals.

When chatbots handle the routine tasks related to outpatients, medical staff have more time to focus on their admitted patients. According to Forbes, private payers can save up to $110 billion over the next five years by implementing AI in healthcare. Furthermore, physicians can expect savings of 3% to 8% in their costs with the use of AI in healthcare.

7. Improved outcomes

Chatbots facilitate 24/7 access to healthcare, enhance patient engagement through personalization, and improve response times. By speeding up healthcare delivery, they enhance overall satisfaction and patient outcomes.

1. Symptom documentation and triage

Chatbots can interact with patients to collect and document their symptoms. They can analyze this information to generate preliminary medical or preventive advice until the doctor is available for consultation.

This virtual triage is a critical facilitation for people who live in remote areas and have to wait for days to gain access to medical advice.

For example, Infermedica is a symptom checker and triage chatbot that provides efficient and accurate care to patients who come to it with symptoms.

2. Reminders

It is possible to design special chatbots that track patients’ medications and send them reminders when it is time.

These chatbots are particularly helpful for people who live independently and do not have a support system to help them track their medication. They help patients adhere to their medicine schedules, improving their outcomes.

For example, Florence is a chatbot that is designed to track medication. It effectively keeps patients on track for their medications by sending reminders and notifications. It can also track weight, mood, and period.

3. Mental health support

For patients struggling with anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues, mental health support chatbots can benefit tremendously. Since therapists cannot be omnipresent with all their patients everywhere, a mental health support chatbot stays with the patients instead.

Woebot is an excellent example of a mental health support bot that offers Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to patients who struggle with anxiety and depression. It provides guidance during an episode and helps patients cope with the situation, enhancing accessibility to mental healthcare.

4. Scheduling appointments

Chatbots can effectively schedule patient appointments at facilities with a heavy influx of patients every day. This takes some operational load off the floor staff, giving them more time to focus on the critical tasks at hand.

For example, Sensely’s Molly chatbot is a virtual nurse that helps patients book appointments quickly and manages this schedule with ease. It reduces the administrative burden on staff.

5. Health and fitness coaching

For patients who need to lose weight and track their fitness, you can design chatbots that help them achieve their goals by tracking their progress and sending reminders. These chatbots can deliver personalized health advice, fitness tracking, and more, and also help clinics promote a healthier lifestyle for their patients.

For example, Ada Health is a trusted chatbot that people use to get personalized health advice and fitness tracking.

Step 1: Determine the purpose of the chatbot

Identify the purpose for which you need a chatbot. It can be for appointment scheduling, patient support, symptom checking, mental health support, etc.

Setting a purpose for the chatbot helps ensure that it is tailored to your specific needs. It also helps users adopt your chatbot more readily and maximizes the benefits and returns you get from it.

Step 2: Evaluate the chatbot’s capabilities

There are simple programmatic chatbots, there are chatbots powered by AI, chatbots for WhatsApp, and then some with NLP and other advanced capabilities. Each type is suited for different purposes.

If you require your chatbot to handle slightly more complicated tasks, an AI agent is a necessary component to generate accurate results.

Additionally, align the capabilities with your purpose. For example, if you want a chatbot to enhance patient engagement, ensure that it has the capability to integrate with your CRM system to pull patient data and deliver personalized interactions.

Step 3: Consider the customization options

Customization helps you launch a chatbot that reflects your brand, helping enhance user engagement and experience. It allows the chatbot to deliver on your specific needs and work according to patient preferences.

Request the vendor provide documentation detailing the customization capabilities you get with a chatbot. You can also request that your vendor show you the chatbot's applications after customization.

Step 4: Evaluate the chatbot’s security and compliance

With the launch of regulations like HIPAA and GDPR, it is mandatory to comply with patients’ personal information protection and data privacy laws in your region. Therefore, the chatbots you deploy should also have inbuilt compliance mechanisms that automatically stay updated according to the prevailing and applicable regulations and laws.

Remaining compliant can help you avoid penalties, fees, and reputational damage.

Step 5: Select the right vendor

Selecting the right vendor helps you acquire implementation support, troubleshooting guidance, and continued maintenance and updates for your chatbot. This helps to ensure that your chatbot solution remains tuned to your evolving needs all the time.

Step 1: Define the objectives and use cases

Make a list of the pain points you are trying to solve by implementing a medical chatbot. Identify the specific tasks the chatbot needs to execute (like administrative tasks), and determine the target audience.

Step 2: Choose the right technology/platform

Select a chatbot platform that gives you the capabilities to execute your use cases and objectives. For example, you can get chatbots for WhatsApp if you want to acquire patients through that channel, and choose a WhatsApp chatbot provider.

Step 3: Design the flow of the conversation

You now need to map the conversations that cover potential questions that users might ask, their answers, branching paths, etc. This is how the chatbot will respond to user queries.

Step 4: Develop the chatbot and train it

Using your chosen technology and platform, you need to develop the chatbot’s logic and rules. You also need to input it with your institution’s data (cleaned and pre-processed) to train it.

Step 5: Integrate the chatbot

Make use of APIs to integrate the chatbot into your systems. Connect other useful apps to the chatbot, like appointment schedulers, CRMS, etc.

Step 6: Deploy and monitor the performance

Conduct a pilot run and monitor the chatbot’s performance in a controlled environment. If there are mistakes or inaccuracies, now is the time to fix them.

Step 7: Ascertain data privacy and security

Make sure that the chatbot is in compliance with all the prevailing regulations and laws in your region. Establish clear protocols for handling patient data.

Step 8: Establish transparency and build trust

It is important to set the right expectations with users by letting them know the extent of service or support your chatbot can provide. Additionally, for transparency, always let your users know how their data is being handled or used by the chatbot.

Pro Tip: Gallabox, a WhatsApp chatbot platform, provides you with full-fledged medical chatbot solutions for healthcare. Starting from appointment optimization and engagement management, to streamlining onboarding and managing payments, the Gallabox solution simplifies it all. You also get ready-to-use chatbot templates designed specifically for healthcare use cases. 

Explore Gallabox’s Healthcare chatbot solutions today!

How do healthcare chatbots handle patient data and ensure privacy?

Modern chatbots are built using robust security measures, such as blockchain-based encryption and data protection measures. Additionally, they are automatically compliant with industry regulations (such as HIPAA), ensuring data privacy.

Can chatbots assist in scheduling appointments and managing patient inquiries?

Yes, medical chatbots can help you book appointments easily, even through platforms such as WhatsApp. Augmented with AI, chatbots can handle basic patient inquiries and prescribe preventive care until a doctor is available.

How do chatbots compare to human interaction regarding accuracy and patient trust?

Healthcare is a complex field where mistakes often have a high cost.

Bearing that in mind, patients may not yet trust AI enough to accept a diagnosis, even if it is accurate. However, in terms of facilitating convenience (like appointment bookings, report collection, medication reminders, etc.), patients may find chatbots helpful.