After the pandemic outbreak, healthcare workers are overloaded with calls from anxious patients on possible symptoms of COVID 19. To manage the enquiries and clear the doubts, many health systems are turning to self-diagnosing and triaging tools before putting them through to a doctor. To asses the symptoms and to assist patients, the Providence Health in Washington State, USA, restructured chatbot Grace with information on COVID 19 symptoms. In the first month alone, they saw 70,000 patient logins and one million more messages. Virtual visits were 10-15 times more than pre-pandemic levels.

In India, many startups are ready with tech tools to combat the pandemic. Hyderabad based startup, Digibeings, founded by three youngsters Praveen, Varun, and Vatsal, has developed an artificial intelligence-based virtual human, Intelligent Remote Assistant(IRA), which can assist healthcare workers and patients. 

How it works

Virtual humans look like real humans, and they interact with using human voices, facial expressions, gestures and body movements. “Most of the human communication is non-verbal, which involves facial expressions, body language and gestures, whereas current interfaces even chatbots or voice-based AI are completely verbal. We are trying to build the next user interface in the form of virtual humans which can humanize our interactions with technology and make it more natural,” says Praveen Anasuya, one of the co-founders. “Our virtual human-AI assistant platform humanises interactions with the help of technology and makes it more natural,” he says. 

The AI Assistant platform improves physicians’ productivity by allowing them to focus on crucially important information rather than spending time collecting trivial data or completing encounter reports. Service representatives can process patient calls and gather the required information with the help of AI. A conversation between the assistant and the patient is recorded and the transcribed on-the-go using IBM Watson Speech-to-Text service and then is handled by Natural Language Processing (NLP) engine to estimate the patient’s acuity and identify chief complaints. This approach results in proper patient care, as high acuity patients can be handled bypassing the system, and a thorough decision support system provides relevant questions ensuring that a complete clinical picture is formed. Once all the information is captured, depending on the acuity level, the call can be either transferred to the doctor or put into a callback queue.

Combating COVID

Implementing the IRA can make remote monitoring of COVID patients more efficient and scalable. “In the current crisis, freeing up beds for patients who need the most is the only way we can minimise casualties. On the other hand, people having mild symptoms can become anxious and overcrowd the hospital, as seen in Italy and China. IRA can speak with patients face to face and add more trust,” says Praveen. “It also monitors essential physiological signals like oxygen saturation level, respiration rate, etc., using the mobile camera without requiring any additional device,” he adds. The system can work along with remote monitoring teams to address more patients and also guide people on mental health issues.  

The company has developed a prototype and has pitched it to the state and central governments. “Once we get a confirmation, we can launch in three to four weeks,” Praveen says. The solution is completely digital and thus, highly scalable. It can be accessed over mobile, desktop, VR and AR devices, and no special training is required for users to use the product.