Looking into the Future of Health-Care Services: Can Life-Like Agents Change the Future of Health-Care Services?

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential of life-like agents to transform healthcare services by addressing limitations of current online health information sources and improving patient engagement and decision-making.

Contribution

It introduces a specialized life-like agent designed to enhance online health information access and overcome issues like lack of interaction and accessibility.

Findings

Life-like agents can improve user engagement in health information retrieval.

The agent addresses accessibility and interaction issues in online health services.

Potential to change future healthcare delivery models.

Abstract

Time constraints on doctor patient interaction and restricted access to specialists under the managed care system led to increasingly referring to computers as a medical information source and a self-health-care management tool. However, research show that less than 40% of information seekers indicated that online information helped them to make a decision about their health. Searching multiple web sites that need basic computer skills, lack of interaction and no face to face interaction in most search engines and some social issues, led us to develop a specialized life-like agent that would overcome mentioned problems.