Benefits of Chatbots in Healthcare: 9 Use Cases of Healthcare Chatbots

Artificial Intelligence Healthcare Chatbot Systems are able to answer FAQs, provide second opinions on diagnosis, and help out in appointment scheduling. But if the issue is serious, a chatbot can transfer the case to a human representative through human handover, so that they can quickly schedule an appointment. Chatbots may even collect and process co-payments to further streamline the process.

It also helps patients stay posted about their upcoming healthcare appointments and medication schedule so they don’t miss any doses or get confused about what they need to take when they go into the doctor’s office again. Your doctors are exhausted, patients are tired of waiting, and you are at the end of your tether trying to find a solution. Soon enough, organizations like WHO and CDC started adopting conversational AI-powered chatbots to provide curated information to a wide audience with ease. Over the last couple of years, especially since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for chatbots in healthcare has grown exponentially. The global healthcare chatbots market accounted for $116.9 million in 2018 and is expected to reach a whopping $345.3 million by 2026, registering a CAGR of 14.5% from 2019 to 2026. While many patients appreciate receiving help from a human assistant, many others prefer to keep their information private.

Collect patient data

The healthcare chatbot tackles this issue by closely monitoring the cancellation of appointments and reports it to the hospital staff immediately. A chatbot can offer a safe space to patients and interact in a positive, unbiased language in mental health cases. Mental health chatbots like Woebot, Wysa, and Youper are trained in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), which helps to treat problems by transforming the way patients think and behave. The market is brimming with technology vendors working on AI models and algorithms to enhance healthcare quality.

The ability of chatbots to ensure privacy is especially important, as vast amounts of personal and medical information are often collected without users being aware, including voice recognition and geographical tracking. The public’s lack of confidence is not surprising, given the increased frequency and magnitude of high-profile security breaches and inappropriate use of data [95]. Unlike financial data that becomes obsolete after being stolen, medical data are particularly valuable, as they are not perishable.

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As a state-of-the-art healthcare chatbot, this technology is the predecessor to Med-PaLM, which only scored 67.5% on the US medical exam. With the creation of ChatGPT and other such chatbots, it’s interesting to see the impact of AI on healthcare as a whole. Healthcare chatbots are transforming modern medicine as we know it, from round-the-clock availability to bridging the gap between doctors and patients regardless of patient volumes. The chatbot can collect patients’ phone numbers and even enable patients to get video consultations in cases where they cannot travel to their nearest healthcare provider. Both practitioners as well as patients, can highly benefit from this implementation.

For more insights about how the healthcare sector is using modern technologies, keep a close eye on our blog. And if you’re searching for a technology partner for your healthtech project, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. An organization can use chatbots to send files to new hires whenever needed, automatically remind new hires to complete their forms, and automate many other tasks such as requests for vacation time, maternity leave, and others. Patients can save their time and money when treating minor ailments with over-the-counter medication, and doctors have time for patients who require more attention.

We can think of them as intermediaries between physicians for facilitating the history taking of sensitive and intimate information before consultations. They could also be thought of as decision aids that deliver regular feedback on disease progression and treatment reactions to help clinicians better understand individual conditions. Preventative measures of cancer have become a priority worldwide, as early detection and treatment alone have not been effective in eliminating healthcare chatbot use cases this disease [22]. Physical, psychological, and behavioral improvements of underserved or vulnerable populations may even be possible through chatbots, as they are so readily accessible through common messaging platforms. Health promotion use, such as lifestyle coaching, healthy eating, and smoking cessation, has been one of the most common chatbots according to our search. In addition, chatbots could help save a significant amount of health care costs and resources.

Benefits of Chatbots in Healthcare

Added life expectancy poses new challenges for both patients and the health care team. For example, many patients now require extended at-home support and monitoring, whereas health care workers deal with an increased workload. Although clinicians’ knowledge base in the use of scientific evidence to guide decision-making has expanded, there are still many other facets to the quality of care that has yet to catch up. Key areas of focus are safety, effectiveness, timeliness, efficiency, equitability, and patient-centered care [20].

• Embracing this technology means stepping into a future where healthcare is more accessible, personalized, and efficient.
• The literature review and chatbot search were all conducted by a single reviewer, which could have potentially introduced bias and limited findings.
• Chatbots not only automate the process of gathering patient data but also follows a more engaging experience for the patients since they’re conversational in their approach.

Only six (8%) of apps included in the review had a theoretical/therapeutic underpinning for their approach. Two-thirds of the apps contained features to personalize the app content to each user based on data collected from them. Seventy-nine percent apps did not have any of the security features assessed and only 10 apps reported HIPAA compliance. There are countless opportunities to automate processes and provide real value in healthcare.

Insurance Chatbot Use Cases

This constant availability not only enhances patient engagement but also significantly reduces the workload on healthcare professionals. By automating responses to repetitive questions and routine administrative tasks, healthcare chatbots free up valuable time for healthcare staff, allowing them to focus more on critical care and patient interaction. We identified 6 broad use-case categories and 15 use cases where chatbots were deployed in the Covid-19 public health response. Chatbots are scalable, enable social distancing, augment the capacity of healthcare and public health workers, broadly disseminate information, and gather real-time information from a broad audience to inform public health interventions. They can easily be deployed on different platforms and have easy-to-use conversational interfaces that enable broad reach and access to different demographics. Chatbots are most commonly used for information dissemination and risk assessment, which are critical to public health response.

Healthcare chatbots automate the information-gathering process while boosting patient engagement. Most patients prefer to book appointments online instead of making phone calls or sending messages. A chatbot further eases the process by allowing patients to know available slots and schedule or delete meetings at a glance. A smaller group (3 cases) provides a report and explains the reasons behind their recommendation (Cases 15, 22, and 36).

They can respond to policyholders’ needs while delivering a wealth of extra business benefits. Use cases for healthcare chatbots vary from diagnosis and mental health support to more routine tasks like scheduling and medication reminders. Pasquale (2020, p. 57) has reminded us that AI-driven systems, including chatbots, mirror the successes and failures of clinicians. However, machines do not have the human capabilities of prudence and practical wisdom or the flexible, interpretive capacity to correct mistakes and wrong decisions. As a result of self-diagnosis, physicians may have difficulty convincing patients of their potential preliminary, chatbot-derived misdiagnosis.

Issues to consider are privacy or confidentiality, informed consent, and fairness. Although efforts have been made to address these concerns, current guidelines and policies are still far behind the rapid technological advances [94]. Over the past few years, artificial intelligence (AI) has made significant advancements in the healthcare industry. One of the most prominent AI-powered tools is ChatGPT, a natural language processing model developed by OpenAI. A healthcare chatbot also sends out gentle reminders to patients for the consumption of medicines at the right time when requested by the doctor or the patient. If you wish to know anything about a particular disease, a healthcare chatbot can gather correct information from public sources and instantly help you.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, chatbots were already deployed to share information, suggest behavior, and offer emotional support. They have the potential to prevent misinformation, detect symptoms, and lessen the mental health burden during global pandemics [111]. At the global health level, chatbots have emerged as a socially responsible technology to provide equal access to quality health care and break down the barriers between the rich and poor [112].

Consequently, promoting a healthy lifestyle early on is imperative to maintain quality of life, reduce mortality, and decrease the risk of secondary cancers [87]. According to the analysis from the web directory, health promotion chatbots are the most commonly available; however, most of them are only available on a single platform. Thus, interoperability on multiple common platforms is essential for adoption by various types of users across different age groups. In addition, voice and image recognition should also be considered, as most chatbots are still text based. Further refinements and large-scale implementations are still required to determine the benefits across different populations and sectors in health care [26]. Although overall satisfaction is found to be relatively high, there is still room for improvement by taking into account user feedback tailored to the patient’s changing needs during recovery.

Being able to reduce costs without compromising service and care is hard to navigate. Healthcare chatbots can help patients avoid unnecessary lab tests and other costly treatments. Instead of having to navigate the system themselves and make mistakes that increase costs, patients can let healthcare chatbots guide them through the system more effectively.

The journey with healthcare chatbots is just beginning, and the possibilities are as vast as they are promising. As AI continues to advance, we can anticipate an even more integrated and intuitive healthcare experience, fundamentally changing how we think about patient care and healthcare delivery. They can handle a large volume of interactions simultaneously, ensuring that all patients receive timely assistance. This capability is crucial during health crises or peak times when healthcare systems are under immense pressure. The ability to scale up rapidly allows healthcare providers to maintain quality care even under challenging circumstances.

They will be equipped to identify symptoms early, cross-reference them with patients’ medical histories, and recommend appropriate actions, significantly improving the success rates of treatments. This proactive approach will be particularly beneficial in diseases where early detection is vital to effective treatment. The introduction of AI-driven healthcare chatbots marks a transformative era in the rapidly evolving world of healthcare technology.