Background The high demand for health care services and the growing capability of artificial intelligence have led to the development of conversational agents designed to support a variety of health-related activities, including behavior change, treatment support, health monitoring, training, triage, and screening support. Automation of these tasks could free clinicians to focus on more complex work and increase the accessibility to health care services for the public. An overarching assessment of the acceptability, usability, and effectiveness of these agents in health care is needed to collate the evidence so that future development can target areas for improvement and potential for sustainable adoption. Objective This systematic review aims to assess the effectiveness and usability of conversational agents in health care and identify the elements that users like and dislike to inform future research and development of these agents. Methods PubMed, Medline (Ovid), EMBASE (Excerpta Medica dataBASE), CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature), Web of Science, and the Association for Computing Machinery Digital Library were systematically searched for articles published since 2008 that evaluated unconstrained natural language processing conversational agents used in health care. EndNote (version X9, Clarivate Analytics) reference management software was used for initial screening, and full-text screening was conducted by 1 reviewer. Data were extracted, and the risk of bias was assessed by one reviewer and validated by another. Results A total of 31 studies were selected and included a variety of conversational agents, including 14 chatbots (2 of which were voice chatbots), 6 embodied conversational agents (3 of which were interactive voice response calls, virtual patients, and speech recognition screening systems), 1 contextual question-answering agent, and 1 voice recognition triage system. Overall, the evidence reported was mostly positive or mixed. Usability and satisfaction performed well (27/30 and 26/31), and positive or mixed effectiveness was found in three-quarters of the studies (23/30). However, there were several limitations of the agents highlighted in specific qualitative feedback. Conclusions The studies generally reported positive or mixed evidence for the effectiveness, usability, and satisfactoriness of the conversational agents investigated, but qualitative user perceptions were more mixed. The quality of many of the studies was limited, and improved study design and reporting are necessary to more accurately evaluate the usefulness of the agents in health care and identify key areas for improvement. Further research should also analyze the cost-effectiveness, privacy, and security of the agents. International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) RR2-10.2196/16934
Background Due to an aging population, the demand for many services is exceeding the capacity of the clinical workforce. As a result, staff are facing a crisis of burnout from being pressured to deliver high-volume workloads, driving increasing costs for providers. Artificial intelligence (AI), in the form of conversational agents, presents a possible opportunity to enable efficiency in the delivery of care. Objective This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness, usability, and acceptability of Dora agent: Ufonia’s autonomous voice conversational agent, an AI-enabled autonomous telemedicine call for the detection of postoperative cataract surgery patients who require further assessment. The objectives of this study are to establish Dora’s efficacy in comparison with an expert clinician, determine baseline sensitivity and specificity for the detection of true complications, evaluate patient acceptability, collect evidence for cost-effectiveness, and capture data to support further development and evaluation. Methods Using an implementation science construct, the interdisciplinary study will be a mixed methods phase 1 pilot establishing interobserver reliability of the system, usability, and acceptability. This will be done using the following scales and frameworks: the system usability scale; assessment of Health Information Technology Interventions in Evidence-Based Medicine Evaluation Framework; the telehealth usability questionnaire; and the Non-Adoption, Abandonment, and Challenges to the Scale-up, Spread and Suitability framework. Results The evaluation is expected to show that conversational technology can be used to conduct an accurate assessment and that it is acceptable to different populations with different backgrounds. In addition, the results will demonstrate how successfully the system can be delivered in organizations with different clinical pathways and how it can be integrated with their existing platforms. Conclusions The project’s key contributions will be evidence of the effectiveness of AI voice conversational agents and their associated usability and acceptability. International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) PRR1-10.2196/27227
Objective: This study looked at a single paediatric neuro-oncology centre's experience of childhood intracranial tumours seen in the ophthalmology clinic over an approximately five-year period. This was used to analyse the role of the ophthalmologist in their long term follow up. Methods: A database was compiled of all children discussed at the neuro-oncology multidisciplinary team (MDT) meeting between January 2012 and April 2017. All children who had an intracranial tumour determined by histology or suspected on neuro-imaging, who had also been seen in the ophthalmology clinic, were included. A retrospective case review was performed to create a record for each child. Results: The database contained 129 children of which 82 (64%) were boys and 47 (36%) were girls. Of these 89 (69%) had a histological diagnosis and 40 (31%) had a tumour suspected on neuroimaging. The most common tumour locations were the posterior fossa (n = 54, 42%), diencephalon (n = 20, 16%) and the visual pathways (n = 17, 13%). Papilloedema at first presentation was only found in 39 (30%) children. The most common other neuro-ophthalmic manifestations were non-paralytic strabismus (n=33), sixth nerve palsy (n=19) and seventh nerve palsy (n=12). Non-paralytic strabismus was a presenting symptom in only one case. There were 13 ophthalmic surgical procedures required for these children, the most common being strabismus surgery. Conclusion: We report the types and locations of paediatric intracranial tumours seen in the ophthalmology clinic as well as their neuro-ophthalmic manifestations. Only 30% presented with papilloedema and approximately 10% required an ophthalmic surgical procedure.
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