Tarun Nagar Have you ever chatted with a Chatbot? Of course, some will answer yes, and some will say no. But the reality is almost all brands or businesses are using Chatbots on their app or website to handle customers’ queries.
It is surprising to know the fact (published by Acuire.io) that near around 1.4 billion people are using Chatbots. Furthermore, Marketsandmarkets.com discloses another fact in a report that Chatbot as a conversational AI market will grow to $18.4 billion by 2026 from $6.8 billion in 2021 with a CAGR of 21.8%.
It is just about the Chatbots, but specifically, if we go for chatbots in healthcare industry, more surprises are waiting. It is closely associated with mobile app development where engineers develop it using their AI-ML programming skills. There is crucial role of AI in chatbot development. so the same is applied to the chatbots in healthcare.
Chatbots in Healthcare Industry
If you have basic knowledge of it, then there is no need to say that Chatbots are AI-oriented software applications that simulate human conversation. The Chatbot is related to the concept of conversational AI. Voice assistants and voice recognition systems are related to it.
Similar to the other industries healthcare industry is also advancing with Chatbots. Let me mention an earlier example of it when Chatbot in healthcare just came into existence, and the name was ELIZA introduced in 1966. It imitated a psychotherapist.
It is just a simple example; now healthcare sector is using more advanced Chatbots that can detect the symptoms or suggest a diet for health. If you are thinking about Healthcare Software Development then inclusion of chatbots will help you to create the best experience of the app.
Let’s talk first about-
What is an AI Chatbot Exactly?
Here I will not share the one-liner mentioned earlier in the above paragraph. Here I would like to break things into a more simplistic way to get the information you are here in this article. Have you ever thought about the Chatbots in healthcare have a type?
Yes, these have. These can be categorized into two traditional Chatbots and AI-Powered Chatbots. The point is present time Chatbots that we are interacting with now are the results of continuous research and the involvement of AI. Still, you can find traditional Chatbots in healthcare but believe me,
you will easily find them boring due to their pre-programmed responses. However, these traditional and old-fashioned Chatbots work fine but are not sufficient to engage the users. Their pre-programmed and scripted nature lets them remain limited, and the truth is they can’t go beyond it.
Now, here comes AI Chatbot that can’t even give the time to the user to think that they are talking to the machine or someone else who is sitting behind to listen to their queries. The core specialty of AI-empowered chatbots in healthcare is dynamism and adaptability. On the other hand, the main concept is Natural language processing that enables the Chatbot apps to communicate with humans.
Therefore, they communicate in a more humanistic way. Although the functioning is similar of both Chatbots but AI, ones are far more different than the traditional ones.
Here I would like to add that Chatbots can also be developed cost-effectively. You can get the more information via searching like – How to create Chatbots from scratch.
So, I hope the idea is clear now. Let’s get back to our main topic, chatbots in healthcare industry. In the upcoming section, we will read about the role of Chatbots in the healthcare industry.
The Chatbots & Healthcare: Made For Each Other
These are the advantages of Chatbot programs that suit the healthcare sector. Let’s make it simpler; whenever a person gets ill or suffers from a disease, they need immediate assistance. They need someone to talk from whom they can discuss their symptoms immediately.
Although it is the responsibility of healthcare professionals, due to busy schedules, sometimes it is too tough to handle patients. Here Chatbots are helping the healthcare industry in the best way.
The best part is there is no need to develop a Chatbot separately for doctors, patients, pharmacists, lab technicians, and even the receptionist at the hospital. Once Chatbot serves well for all. From doctors to reception, all these remain in sync.
The AI-based Chatbots can diagnose the symptoms in the first interaction. That’s why it is advantageous to develop a chatbot for healthcare industry with the help of a healthcare software development company.
For expansion, subsequent points indicate how Chatbots are adding value to the healthcare sector.
#1. Diagnosis and Symptoms Checking
The real potential of Chatbots came out during the Pandemics when people got medical advice when the whole world was facing a tough time. The patients got advice accordingly, such as prescriptions or advice for the lab test. Even using Chatbots, people got connected to doctors via video call.
#2. Engaging the Patients
Patients’ engagement is much more necessary to soothe them. It is necessary to listen to the person suffering from the disease and who needs medical assistance to get relief from it. The Chatbots are doing it in the most exciting way and engaging the patients.
#3. History Management
Chatbots are advantageous for diagnosing the patients; these are also advantageous in managing the patient’s history. Even the advanced AI Chatbots keep the record in a well-formatted way that can be accessed at any time.
#4. Administrative Aid
This AI-based software also helps healthcare professionals, hospitals, and clinics to manage administrative tasks. The Chatbots can be used for booking appointments to generate billings. It saves the time of administrative staff.
#5. Availability
One of the best advantages of Chatbots is availability. A person can interact with it at any time whenever they need any healthcare advice. Even at the time of a medical emergency, they can get immediate assistance. It can help in maintaining a great relationship with the patients.
The Trending Chatbots in Healthcare Sector
There are different types of Chatbots available for the healthcare industry. Healthcare brands, hospital chains, clinic chains, or individual clinics can use Chatbots according to their specific needs. So, let’s check out these-
1. Appointment Booking Chatbots
These Chatbots work like reception professionals who inquire the patients about basic details and symptoms. Immediately after receiving the details, they suggest the doctors to the patients or book an appointment with the doctor online or offline.
2. Informative Chatbots
The Chatbots that provide desired information to users is called informative Chatbots. Usually, these Chatbots are programmed explicitly for providing automated information and customer support. The users get the information in the form of real-time updates, alerts, pop-ups, and push notifications.
3. Conversational Chatbots
These type of Chatbots tests the skills of Chatbot developers. Usually, conversational Chatbots are complex in terms of development. As the level of degree increases, these Chatbots work fine. For example, level -1 conversational Chatbots only provide automated responses instead of taking communication further. On the other hand, advanced level Chatbots communicate in a more fantastic way.
4. Prescriptive Chatbots
These types of Chatbots showcase the NLP (natural language processing) ability in the full spectrum. In the background, processes work like:
- Lexical Analysis: checks for words structure
- Syntactic Analysis: check the structure of sentences
- Semantic Analysis: find out the meaningfulness of the sentences
- Discourse Integration: refers to the sense of the context
- Pragmatic Analysis: extracting the information from the text
Although the above-mentioned steps work for each AI Chatbot. The prescriptive Chatbots utilize it to provide the prescription to the users.
there are various technologies that can allow you to develop a chatbot for healthcare industry. For example, developing chatbot with Python is a superfine idea as it is one of the most compatible technology for developing AI Based software or apps.
The Future
The future of Chatbots in healthcare is bright, and there will be more advancements we will observe in the upcoming time. A significant percentage of healthcare brands have adopted or included this technology to attain operational efficiency.
In the future there will be more brands will adopt it. As per the current market statistics, the healthcare Chatbot market will $967.7 million by 2027. The CAGR is expected to reach 21.56%.
The healthcare Chatbots are the best option for medical brands, customer service, mental health, health & fitness, patient engagement, and improving medical services. On the other hand, this software can also help in tracking patients’ health data.
So, at the time of pandemics or a wide population suffers from a common disease, it will help to monitor the health conditions. It can also facilitate the govt. And healthcare professionals to implement a common strategy to handle the drastic health conditions we have seen during Covid-19.
This article ends up here explaining the relationship between Chatbots and the healthcare sector. Stay tuned for coming up with more articles.
