How AI health chatbots can help stem coronavirus pandemic chaos

Summary

AI health chatbots around the world have been racing to add coronavirus detection into algorithms or put up helpful information to demonstrate they are part of the response to coronavirus (COVID-19). But to be honest, it’s pointless. A symptom checker can’t diagnose you with COVID-19. That can only be done through testing. The symptoms are too close to cold and flu.

However, Prof Dr. Maureen Baker, Chief Medical Officer at Your.MD and former Chair of the UK’s Royal College of General Practitioners, has been involved at the highest level of pandemic preparation planning in the UK for decades and she is clear that AI chatbots, like Your.MD, can play a vital role in reducing the number of people who unnecessarily seek medical treatment and the deaths of individuals who are endangered by symptoms unrelated to COVID-19.

So, if AI health chatbots can’t reliably detect COVID-19 and should only advise you to stay at home, what else can they do?

“They can work in tandem with governments and health services to stop the worried well not at risk from the virus from seeking treatment, and also support people to self-care where that is appropriate,” says Prof Baker.

She thinks that with collaboration, there is enormous potential for chatbots to act as reliable companions providing guidance and tracking symptoms.