AI-Powered Virtual Health Assistants: Transforming Patient Care and Engagement

Abstract

Analyzing the possibilities of virtual health assistants and chatbots, this research paper reveals the importance of innovation in the sphere of patient interaction with the help of AI. An example of virtual health assistants is artificial intelligence (AI) and ML, being highly valuable in promoting patient engagement, informing patients via the internet, and providing early and instant medical advice. These advanced technologies powered by Artificial Intelligence are allowing patients to engage with their doctors and overall healthcare applications in such a localized and efficient way that the communications divide between patients and healthcare practitioners, especially for regular appointments, check-ups, or simple questions and answers, is removed. The paper reviews the many functionalities of otherwise health-related AI-based virtual assistants, including symptom checkers and administration, medication and disease management, and lifestyle modification, so as to demonstrate the benefits of this technology for healthcare delivery and for increasing health access, especially in marginalized settings. Nonetheless, this paper is to show the drawbacks and risks which are associated with implementation of AI, such as the question of patients’ data confidentiality, security issues of personal health information, and the questions of AI’s proper regulation in decision-making processes. These challenges explain why proper regulatory requirements and patients’ awareness have to be developed to increase belief in those technologies.