Salud Digital | Chile da un paso en el sector salud con su asistente PatricIA.

Chile takes a step in the health sector with its assistant PatricIA

The Artificial Intelligence System, PatricIA, implemented for the operations of medical centers in Chile, has improved the care capacity that doctors provide to their patients.

PatricIA, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) software created by Eniax that serves as a medical assistant capable of scheduling and tracking patients to manage their appointments, is working at medical and clinical centers in Chile.

PatricIA can understand and predict the most suitable communication channel to organize with users their appointment calendar either by SMS, e-mail, WhatsApp, chat or phone call; all of the above according to the user's preference.

The The American Journal of Medicine estimates that in the world 20% of scheduled medical appointments are not made because without prior notice the patient did not show up to the appointment. In Chile the percentage is higher and 25% of the agenda is wasted. If we add to this that the number of doctors available is low for the total population, it results in us that missed consultations can make a difference in patient care.

PatricIA functions as a single-channel digital assistant. Based on the data provided by users looking to schedule, it offers solutions that minimize errors of understanding and can even cancel an appointment by simply analyzing each patient's history, understanding the situations under which it tends not to present, and thus optimize wait times.

AI allows PatricIA, through a system of specific steps, to:

Schedule: Data can be debugged through any device to provide the customer with a method that allows to take turns of waiting without frustrating the patience of the requester.

Manage appointments: Deliver tracking information through the most dynamic and convenient channel to avoid disrupting their daily activities, but ensure that they remember and show up for the session.

Medical Appointment: Participates in the assignment of a suitable specialist for each patient with fewer mistakes than made in a call center.

Follow-up: Accompanies the patient by providing quotes, indications and proposals. This seeks to improve the statistic that 40% of patients will never have contact with doctors again for follow-up.

Preventive health: A package of medical examinations, treatments and procedures to generate reminders and advice that drive healthy living.

PatricIA operates through Natural Language Processing (NLP) combined with Machine Learning.

The first aims to have the computer process the human language by inserting a series of algorithms and data for certain tasks such as machine translation, interactive dialogue systems, analysis of opinions, trends, tastes, etc.

For its part, ML uses data science to allow machines to acquire new knowledge and make their own decisions without the need to use programming, but rather, through experience. An example is Siri (Apple's smart system); it relies on how the user speaks and communicates to generate their responses and recommendations.

PatricIA currently serves nearly 2 million patients per month, which translates into more than 5 million communications and is used in 95% of Chilean health centers. Within the first goals that have been achieved with implementation, we can talk about 5% less absenteeism since the first month.

Currently there are 5 trainers working with the technology that will be perfected as the use and the different cases strengthen the system.