An artificial intelligence created for the end of life is already here: "Primary-care physicians don't think to call in palliative-care services until patients are incurable, when in fact the patient might have been in pain or could've used some kind of intervention beforehand," said Bickmore, associate dean for research in Northeastern University's College of Computer and Information Science.
Today about 90 million Americans live with a serious illness, according to the Center to Advance Palliative Care. This number is expected to double over the next 25 years as the baby boomer generation ages.
"It turns out that patients were very happy to talk with a computer about it. They were very explicit in telling us, 'The doctor never asked me about these things.'"
-Michael Paasche-Orlow, Boston Medical Center doctor�
The interactions patients are having with these chatbots are monitored continuously by nurses, who can activate care if a patient tells the chatbot they're experiencing symptoms. The nurses will also alert a family member if patients are telling the chatbot they're thinking about making end-of-life decisions, like completing a last will and testament.
"If a patient rates their nausea or pain a little higher, we ask them if they've taken medicine for that and then try to figure out and troubleshoot that experience," Paasche-Orlow said. "With a lot of these types of things, humans just forget to follow up on them, so there's a lot of lost opportunities to support people in different ways."
Today about 90 million Americans live with a serious illness, according to the Center to Advance Palliative Care. This number is expected to double over the next 25 years as the baby boomer generation ages.
"It turns out that patients were very happy to talk with a computer about it. They were very explicit in telling us, 'The doctor never asked me about these things.'"
-Michael Paasche-Orlow, Boston Medical Center doctor�
The interactions patients are having with these chatbots are monitored continuously by nurses, who can activate care if a patient tells the chatbot they're experiencing symptoms. The nurses will also alert a family member if patients are telling the chatbot they're thinking about making end-of-life decisions, like completing a last will and testament.
"If a patient rates their nausea or pain a little higher, we ask them if they've taken medicine for that and then try to figure out and troubleshoot that experience," Paasche-Orlow said. "With a lot of these types of things, humans just forget to follow up on them, so there's a lot of lost opportunities to support people in different ways."