Alturaiki Alma Mohammed, Banjar Haneen Reda, Barefah Ahmed Salleh, Alnajjar Salwa Abdulrahman, Hindawi Salwa
King Abdulaziz and His Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity (Mawhiba), Saudi Arabia.
Computer Science Department, Faculty of Computing and Information Technology, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Int J Telemed Appl. 2022 May 11;2022:9734518. doi: 10.1155/2022/9734518. eCollection 2022.
-thalassemia is an inherited blood disorder that affects the production of hemoglobin molecules owing to the reduction or absence of beta chains. Transfusion therapy has had a key role in extending the lifespan of -thalassemia patients. This life-saving therapy is linked to numerous assessments and complications that now comprise most thalassemia management considerations. Consequently, many patients do not receive adequate information about the required assessments, as indicated by evidence-based medical guidelines. Patients with -thalassemia may benefit from chatbots that follow up on their condition and that provide the required assessment information. Self-management will hopefully have a positive impact on health outcomes.
This study aims to develop a chatbot that can assist in the management of -thalassemia by providing the assessment information required to monitor patients' statuses.
The chatbot operated as a messaging system. A question/answer system was created based on knowledge pertaining to -thalassemia assembled from experts, medical guidelines, and articles. Recommendations regarding the patient's follow-up assessment are made based on the answers.
A prototype was implemented to demonstrate how the chatbots could dynamically and flexibly provide the assessment information required to follow up on and monitor patients. A small sample of adults with -thalassemia used the chatbot to examine the system's usability and perceived utility. A system usability scale and utility scale were implemented to complete a post-test survey. The chatbots were considered by 34 patients, of whom the majority (72%) found them easy to use, while more than 90% of patients considered their use beneficial. Most of the participants agreed that the chatbots could improve their knowledge about their -thalassemia assessments.
Our findings suggest that chatbots can be beneficial to the development of recommended tests and management related to the assessment of -thalassemia.
β地中海贫血是一种遗传性血液疾病，由于β链减少或缺失，影响血红蛋白分子的产生。输血治疗在延长β地中海贫血患者寿命方面发挥了关键作用。这种挽救生命的治疗与众多评估和并发症相关，这些评估和并发症现在构成了大多数地中海贫血管理的考虑因素。因此，正如循证医学指南所示，许多患者没有得到关于所需评估的充分信息。β地中海贫血患者可能会从能够跟踪其病情并提供所需评估信息的聊天机器人中受益。自我管理有望对健康结果产生积极影响。
本研究旨在开发一种聊天机器人，通过提供监测患者状况所需的评估信息来协助β地中海贫血的管理。
聊天机器人作为一个消息系统运行。基于从专家、医学指南和文章中收集的有关β地中海贫血的知识创建了一个问答系统。根据答案给出关于患者后续评估的建议。
实现了一个原型，以展示聊天机器人如何动态灵活地提供跟踪和监测患者所需的评估信息。一小部分成年β地中海贫血患者使用聊天机器人来检验系统的可用性和感知效用。实施了系统可用性量表和效用量表来完成测试后调查。34名患者使用了聊天机器人，其中大多数（72%）认为它们易于使用，而超过90%的患者认为使用它们有益。大多数参与者同意聊天机器人可以提高他们对β地中海贫血评估的了解。
我们的研究结果表明，聊天机器人有助于制定与β地中海贫血评估相关的推荐检测和管理方法。
