February 23, 2022
Researchers develop chatbot that asks emergency room visitors about social needs
Doctors across the United States have identified the need to access data on the social background of incoming emergency room patients in order to ensure more specialized care for patients. This prompted a research team led by the University of Washington to innovate a solution by developing a chatbot named HarborBot, which they presented at the Conference for Conversational User Interfaces this past July.
HarborBot is displayed on a tablet given to the patients when they arrive at the emergency room and takes them through a survey that assesses their social needs based on questions surrounding their demographic, financial, housing, legal and other information. The results of the survey are then used by emergency room personnel to help determine the issues each patient faces.
HarborBot is an evolved version of a previous chatbot that the team improved to increase the empathy of interactions with patients and address the needs of patients with a lower health literacy. They implemented features such as more detailed responses in order to ensure sensitivity in the conversations with patients.
The team is already thinking about how to improve the chatbot in the future. Their goal is to personalize the experience to each user through a kiosk, QR code or other technology that allows for greater adaptability based on patients’ responses to ultimately connect patients to resources as effectively as possible.