A Gamified Interaction with a Humanoid Robot to explain Therapeutic Procedures in Pediatric Asthma

TL;DR

This paper explores using a gamified humanoid robot interaction to improve therapeutic procedure learning and adherence in children with asthma, aiming to enhance health outcomes through engaging education.

Contribution

It introduces an interactive, gamified module on the Pepper robot for pediatric asthma education and discusses a planned study to evaluate its effectiveness.

Findings

Designed an interactive robot-based educational module

Planned a study to assess impact on treatment adherence

Aimed to improve health outcomes through engaging therapy

Abstract

In chronic diseases, obtaining a correct diagnosis and providing the most appropriate treatments often is not enough to guarantee an improvement of the clinical condition of a patient. Poor adherence to medical prescriptions constitutes one of the main causes preventing achievement of therapeutic goals. This is generally true especially for certain diseases and specific target patients, such as children. An engaging and entertaining technology can be exploited in support of clinical practices to achieve better health outcomes. Our assumption is that a gamified session with a humanoid robot, compared to the usual methodologies for therapeutic education, can be more incisive in learning the correct inhalation procedure in children affected by asthma. In this perspective, we describe an interactive module implemented on the Pepper robotic platform and the setting of a study that was planned in 2020 to be held at the Pneumoallergology Pediatric clinic of CNR in Palermo. The study was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our long-term goal is to assess, by means of a qualitative-quantitative survey plan, the impact of such an educational action, evaluating possible improvement in the adherence to the treatment.