Health Chatbots for Fighting COVID-19: a Scoping Review
| Autor: | Manal Almalki, Fahad Khan Azeez |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
Emerging technologies
apps Internet privacy MEDLINE coronavirus computer.software_genre Chatbot 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine Empirical research User experience design Health care 030212 general & internal medicine Misinformation health chatbots conversational agents Original Paper business.industry COVID-19 Usability General Medicine health care 030220 oncology & carcinogenesis business Psychology computer |
| Zdroj: | Acta Informatica Medica |
| ISSN: | 0353-8109 |
| Popis: | Background Health chatbots are rising in popularity and capability for fighting the novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus (COVID-19). Objectives This study aims to review the current literature on COVID-19 related chatbots in healthcare, identify and characterize these emerging technologies and their applications for combating COVID-19, and describe related challenges. Methods The authors conducted a scoping review of peer-reviewed literature on COVID-19, guided by the Arksey and O'Malley framework. PubMed/MEDLINE and Google Scholar were searched over a period between January and September 2020 by using the keywords "COVID* chatbot", "virtual assistant", "AI enabled platform COVID" and associated synonyms. Relevant studies' references were checked for further articles. The content of these studies was screened and thematically analyzed by the two authors. Results Out of 543 articles initially identified, 9 were eligible for inclusion. Studies describing chatbots' development and architecture (n=6) were the most common, and only 3 empirical studies on the user experience were identified. Our scoping review identified five key applications of the current health chatbots, which were: disseminating health information and knowledge; self-triage and personal risk assessment; monitoring exposure and notifications; tracking COVID-19 symptoms and health aspects; and combating misinformation and fake news. Furthermore, these technologies can accomplish the following tasks: ask and answer questions; create health records and history of use; complete forms and generate reports; and take simple actions. Nonetheless, the use of health chatbots poses many challenges both at the level of the social system (i.e., consumers' acceptability) as well as the technical system (i.e., design and usability). Conclusion Using health chatbots to combat COVID-19 is a practice still in its infancy. We believe that our work will help researchers in this domain gain better understanding of this novel technology's design and applications, which are needed for continuous improvement in the health chatbots' functionalities and their usefulness to fight COVID-19. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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