Sapio Smart Healthcare, a division of Indian government advisory firm Sapio Analytics, has developed a chatbot that assists patients from rural and remote areas in India.

Based on a press statement, the AKS Sapio Med Bot was designed to understand the "local and personal" concerns of a patient, while assisting them in seeking treatment before getting medical consultations.

The chatbot is named after the late Dr Ashok Kumar Srivastava, a surgeon in the tribal areas of Sahibganj and Pakur in the eastern state of Jharkhand, who had demonstrated the delivery of "empathetic healthcare".

The company says the chatbot was created to emulate Dr Srivastava's care style following a large-scale evaluation of his mindset, behaviour and persona.

WHY IT MATTERS

Sapio Analytics seeks to build a comprehensive and accessible healthcare system in small towns and villages across India. A part of its strategy is to provide care with empathy.

"Our analysis shows that empathetic understanding of individuals is important for successful healthcare in rural areas of India," Hardik Somani, director of Sapio Analytics, said.

Empathetic healthcare, the company noted, is not only the display of a clinician's compassion; it also provides personalised knowledge and relevant recommendations to patients. Among others, a doctor must acknowledge the patient's beliefs and socio-economic situation to offer them the right health guidance.

THE LARGER TREND

Using chatbots helps healthcare in performing specific tasks, determining social needs, and tipping off behaviour changes. Recently, it became a widespread tool of choice for delivering verifiable information about COVID-19.

In May, Sapio Analytics and government officials launched the SUTRA smart chatbot that assists COVID-19 patients in locating nearby verified plasma donors and healthcare centres. The chatbot was made for people from small towns in India and those without access to digital platforms and networks.

ON THE RECORD

"While working with remote areas in Maharashtra, our partners realised that building a world-class hospital was not enough because, despite [the] creation of a smart hospital in the area, the patients were not visiting the same. That’s when we understood that smartness does not just lie in modern technologies but also in understanding the citizens that they are meant to serve and give importance to their local customs and beliefs and interact with them like their own. This was made possible using AI and domain knowledge from legends," Somani stated.