The Use of Conversational Interfaces in Long Term Patient Care

Abstract

Abstract Communication plays a significant role in human life. To fulfill the different requirements people use many communication methods. After learning their mother tongue they use native or foreign languages to communicate. People use different communication methods such as verbal, written, visual, paralanguage and other methods. However, people with disabilities face many problems when communicating with others. Even the patients with long term illnesses who could not complete their work alone expect others to listen to them. By the way, it is a necessity to have a caretaker to take care of the long term patients. With the increasing number of the elderly and disable people, it is essential to use the technology to fulfill their needs and make them more independent. In most of the countries, they spend a more independent life thanks to technology and a comfortable lifestyle. In Sri Lanka, the elderly people get the assistance of a caretaker, since they are not very familiar with the technology and due to language barriers. The machines emulate conversations with humans through conversational interfaces. Mainly we can identify chatbot as a main conversational interface where it’s available on-screen and as a voice assistant. Since the voice integrated personal assistance is more fitting to the patient care domain, the thesis presents the observations done with the long term patients and the elders on their ability to communicate voice integrated personal assistance. The research is conducted using the design science research methodology to understand the current problem in society. The research is initiated with the motivation to facilitate the communication and psychological requirements of long term patients. For that, researchers conducted a review analysis on voice integrated personal assistance and the use of it in the long term patients and elderly people. Then the interview is conducted to identify the requirements of the elderly long term patients. By the results of the review analysis and the interview process, we prioritized the communication needs of them. Using the voice integrated personal assistance the proof of concept was developed for the identified needs. The proposed proof of concept is used to evaluate it on the elderly long term patients by mainly considering requirements such as loneliness, exercise tracking, and games. The Developed solution quantitatively evaluated by elderly long term patients mainly under five criteria such as google home device, mind game, bedridden exercises, talking companion and overall conclusion. Most of them had a positive opinion to embrace the new experience while few of them had language issues due to the accent. In the analysis of overall satisfaction, more than 90% had total satisfaction of 0.75 or more which shows higher satisfaction. Elderly patients believe the device improves their independence and helps them to spend some quality time. More than using the screens to communicate, voice integrated personal assistance is a new experience that makes their life easy. Based on the results, researches presented appropriateness of the voice integrated personal assistance to the elderly long term patient care domain.