Diabetes and conversational agents: the AIDA project case study

Abstract

One of the key aspects in the process of caring for people with diabetes is Therapeutic Education (TE). TE is a teaching process for training patients so that they can self-manage their care plan. Alongside traditional methods of providing educational content, there are now alternative forms of delivery thanks to the implementation of advanced Information Technologies systems such as conversational agents (CAs). In this context, we present the AIDA project: an ensemble of two different CAs intended to provide a TE tool for people with diabetes. The Artificial Intelligence Diabetes Assistant (AIDA) consists of a text-based chatbot and a speech-based dialog system. Their content has been created and validated by a scientific board. AIDA Chatbot—the text-based agent—provides a broad spectrum of information about diabetes, while AIDA Cookbot—the voice-based agent—presents recipes compliant with a diabetic patient’s diet. We provide a thorough description of the development process for both agents, the technology employed and their usage by the general public. AIDA Chatbot and AIDA Cookbot are freely available and they represent the first example of conversational agents in Italian to support diabetes patients, clinicians and caregivers.

The importance of digital mental health interventions to support people with diabetes-related psychological outcomes: a narrative review

“…Integrating artificial intelligence (AI), natural language processing and machine learning allows chatbots to have humanlike conversational interactions with the users. “Artificial Intelligence Diabetes Assistant,” a text-based chatbot and a speech-based dialog system, has been developed to train people with diabetes so that they can better self-manage their care plan (Alloatti et al , 2021). Likewise, “Emile” helps with better sleep and exercise [Center for Advance Hindsight (CAH), 2018], “Sophia” is available 24/7 for diabetes-related questions (Bulik, 2018) and “Karim” helps type 1 young diabetics to manage their diabetes (Sekkat et al , 2021).…”

The golden age of Artificial Intelligence

“…The fourth article of the issue is titled "Diabetes and Conversational Agents: the AIDA Project Case," in which the authors introduce their Artificial Intelligence Diabetes Assistant (AIDA). It consists of a text-based chatbot and a speech-based dialog system [10].…”

Design, development and usability of an educational AI chatbot for People with Haemophilia in Senegal

“…14 However, their usability can be perceived as limited by the algorithms driving them, their scalability, or the lack of privacy perceived by their users. [13][14][15][16][17] To our knowledge, there is no chatbot currently that specifically meets the needs of PWH. We could not find a chatbot using any local languages of African countries in the literature.…”

“…Chatbots can be used as virtual assistants to help patients to monitor their symptoms; they can mimic a therapeutic relationship but also tackle gaps in education using a versatile and user‐friendly platform 14,15 . Recent studies have demonstrated the rising development of chatbots in chronic diseases, e.g., for therapeutic education in diabetes 16 or sickle‐cell disease management 14 . However, their usability can be perceived as limited by the algorithms driving them, their scalability, or the lack of privacy perceived by their users 13–17 …”

“…Recent studies have demonstrated the rising development of chatbots in chronic diseases, e.g., for therapeutic education in diabetes 16 or sickle‐cell disease management 14 . However, their usability can be perceived as limited by the algorithms driving them, their scalability, or the lack of privacy perceived by their users 13–17 …”