The Rise of Chatbots in Healthcare

Chatbot adoption has surged in recent years. Companies use AI-powered virtual assistants to automate processes and deliver prompt, always-on service in areas such as customer support, payments, and marketing. Now chatbot technology is set to leave its mark on healthcare as well.
According to an analysis by Crunchbase, at least 14 startups building chatbots for healthcare services have raised more than 800 million dollars in funding. Healthcare is no stranger to artificial intelligence. Mounting pressure to cut costs and improve treatment outcomes, combined with growing volumes of accessible data, has opened the door to a wave of technological innovation. From early disease detection to the delivery of life-saving medication, AI is creating powerful new opportunities across the sector, and the latest developments look equally promising.
So does this mean robots will replace doctor appointments? Not quite.
To better understand how chatbots are used in healthcare, let's look at their benefits and potential problems together. We will also examine a few market-leading companies working to transform the sector.

How do chatbots work?

Much like Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa, chatbots use natural language processing (NLP) technology to understand and parse text and speech effectively. They mimic human conversation through a user-friendly interface, either in a standalone app or a web application.
Advances that have raised NLP accuracy show that chatbots are now sophisticated enough to pair with machine learning and serve real use cases in healthcare.

Why use chatbots in healthcare?

Chatbots have the potential to significantly lighten the load on healthcare organizations, reduce costs, and deliver personalized health and treatment services to patients. Some of the benefits of using chatbots in healthcare include:

Instant access to care

A chatbot can analyze a patient's symptoms and then offer appropriate recommendations for simple medical issues or arrange an appointment with a physician. If the bot cannot answer the questions confidently, the patient is routed to a real person. Making chatbots the first point of contact and automating patient triage filters out unnecessary visits to healthcare facilities and lowers costs.

Automating administrative work

Routine administrative tasks can also be automated to boost efficiency and cut costs. Chatbots are especially helpful with scheduling doctor appointments, sending medication and appointment reminders, directing patients to suitable healthcare facilities in their area, and answering frequently asked questions.

Proactive healthcare

Chatbots can also make life easier for healthcare staff by helping patients resolve issues and regain their health. Examples include apps used to support patients' mental and emotional wellbeing, keep them motivated, and provide guidance on health and exercise.

Challenges

However large the potential benefits, healthcare leaders and digital entrepreneurs must recognize the problems they may face in order to achieve the best possible outcome for healthcare organizations and consumers.
The harm that inaccurate medical information can cause is a significant risk. Chatbots may not know every factor relevant to a patient and can produce a wrong diagnosis, and the financial consequences of such an error can be enormous.
The absence of face-to-face interaction can be a problem too. Chatbots may fail to fully grasp patients' emotions and therefore miss their real needs. The patient experience can suffer from the lack of human touch, leaving patients feeling distant from healthcare professionals.

Companies leading the way

Although healthcare chatbots are still maturing, the innovative companies steering the market are already capturing the technology's benefits and paving the road ahead:

Babylon Health

In 2014, Babylon Health built a chatbot app called ‘Ask Babylon’ to learn about users' symptoms, give them the information they need, and offer advice. The chatbot asks users a few questions, then uses machine learning to compare what it learns against diseases, risk factors, and statistics. When needed, users can connect with one of Babylon's doctors or specialists around the clock via video chat or voice call.

Ada Health

Ada Health's care-friendly assistant asks patients simple questions, then compares their answers with thousands of similar cases to sharpen the assessment. In that respect it closely resembles Ask Babylon. The chatbot then finds helpful information in its Medical Library and shares it with users. The Ada Health app has more than 10 million users and operates in seven languages. Since its launch in 2016 it has been used to complete more than 20 million assessments.

Woebot Health

Woebot draws on artificial intelligence through easily accessible chat-based software to support people with mental and emotional health. The digital tool asks users questions and uses short conversations to gauge their mood, then offers suggestions suited to their situation. Exchanging 4.7 million messages with its users every week, the app detects crisis states with 98.9 percent accuracy.

A look at the future of chatbots

The role of chatbots will be to ease and improve the work of healthcare professionals rather than replace them. Even so, the benefits of using chatbots in healthcare remain substantial.
AI holds real promise for radically cutting costs, increasing efficiency, easing the burden on healthcare organizations, and improving treatment outcomes.
Current issues around clarity and accuracy, along with the lack of human touch, show that chatbots are best suited to non-urgent situations and routine work for now. But advances in NLP and machine learning point to a future where chatbots can take on far more complex tasks.