To improve the quality of care for Parkinson's patients even in the period of Covid-19, a solution was imagined that would bring together technology and medical experience. The AI-powered virtual assistant aims to support patients at any time with up-to-date and personalized responses
Rome, 4 August 2020 – Campus Bio-Medico University Hospital and IBM join forces to create "Parkinson bot", a virtual assistant, based on artificial intelligence, able to answer questions related to Parkinson's 24 hours a day all the days. It is one of the first technological solutions in Italy to improve access to information for Parkinson's patients and their families.
Especially in this moment of health emergency due to Covid-19, this type of solution available 24x7 can be a valid aid in managing requests for information on a disease that affects no less than 300.000 people in Italy.
With this pro bono project with IBM, theUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma aims to improve the relationship with its patients, their families and those seeking information on Parkinson's, providing a direct source of clinically proven answers. L'Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma it is in fact a research center recognized as an authoritative and updated source on Parkinson's disease.
Thanks to a virtual consultant, enabled by IBM Watson Assistant on IBM public cloud, it will be possible to ask questions about Parkinson's disease in colloquial language. The project is expected to help the University and its General Hospital strengthen its ability to communicate with people, amplifying and increasing what is now being offered to the community.
Dr. Lazzaro di Biase, Neurologist of theUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, proposed this project and followed its development during every phase with the IBM team. His comment after testing the first version of the virtual assistant was: "It is the first step in using new technologies to facilitate the dissemination of reliable medical information between patients and their carers, and opens up new avenues for further future developments".
The Virtual Assistant is not a simple "chatbot" educated on a topic, but the first point of contact that allows theUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma to activate an information and contact channel with its users and to promptly respond to requests for information, starting from the wealth of knowledge expertly prepared over the years by the Polyclinic.
“The emergency caused by covid-19 - explains Floriana Ferrara, CSR Leader IBM Italy - has highlighted how technology can be a formidable help in every area, including healthcare. For this reason we enthusiastically accepted the collaboration proposal from theUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma to create remote support that provided effective responses to the needs of patients and their families. We have thus put the best skills of our volunteers, in addition to our AI and cloud technologies, at the service of those in need of assistance to create a virtual assistant for Parkinson's".
The body of knowledge with which the virtual assistant was trained was prepared by the specialists ofUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma. It includes topics such as the characterization of the disease, its possible causes, the description of the main symptoms experienced by patients and the most frequently asked questions that doctors have recorded over the years. IBM's team of experts worked side by side with the University's doctors during the design and training of the virtual assistant. The Polyclinic is able to immediately use the solution created, to enrich its contents, to insert and personalize the information offer based on the real needs of patients, their families and all visitors who can access it through the site, allowing users to interact with the virtual agent to obtain specific information directly. The availability of the virtual assistant trained to respond in a complete and scientific way will offer support to Parkinson's patients and, at the same time, will help the Polyclinic to focus on the more specific and personal requests whose response must be addressed directly by specialized doctors .
