Duke Center for Health Informatics: Conversational Agents for Chronic Disease Self-Management

Abstract: Conversational agents, or systems that communicate with users in natural language through text or speech, have demonstrated early promise for improving health and self-management behaviors. Dr. Griffin will discuss a user-centered design project that iteratively designed and developed a text-based conversational agent using Google Cloud Dialogflow natural language understanding platform. She will also present findings from virtual usability testing of the conversational agent prototype, highlighting user satisfaction, strengths, and shortcomings. This seminar will also discuss the potential and implications (e.g., regulatory, safety, ethical) of using conversational agents in health care.

Biosketch: Ashley Griffin, PhD, MSPH, is a medical informatics postdoctoral research fellow at Stanford University and VA Palo Alto Health Care System. She graduated from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in the Health Informatics Program in 2021. Dr. Griffin's research focuses on the use of digital health technologies to support individuals in accessing and using their health information in meaningful ways. She has studied a variety of consumer health informatics tools, including patient portals, wearables, and connected devices. She is particularly interested in integrating valuable aspects of patient-generated health data and patient goals into care settings to inform medical decision making.

All seminars begin at 4 PM, join from the meeting link: https://dukemed.webex.com/dukemed/j.php?MTID=m7be00763ac602659cfb654f12930989b

Meeting number (access code): 2621 726 8279, Meeting password: 9HkF2XuJ3Sc