The chatbot will see you now: patients prefer virtual doctor when discussing sexual health, study finds

GPs still the preferred choice for discussing severe health conditions such as cancers, researchers found.

In this photo illustration a virtual friend is seen on the screen of an iPhone on April 30, 2020, in Arlington, Virginia. - "It's so good to hear your voice." "I was worried about you." "What would you like to do today?" This might sound like ordinary banter between friends. But in these cases, the "friend" speaking was a chatbot created with artificial intelligence. The custom-designed chatbots -- male, female or other -- in this case come from California-based startup Replika and are designed to be companions for people needing a connection. The AI chatbots have drawn increased interest during the global virus pandemic, which has led to a sharp rise in isolation and anxiety. (Photo by Olivier DOULIERY / AFP) (Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)

GPs are still the preferred choice for patients, followed by a GP-chatbot combination and chatbots alone (Photo by Olivier DOULIERY / AFP)

By Paul Gallagher

Health Correspondent

December 8, 2021 6:00 am(Updated 6:02 am)

Patients worried about discussing highly stigmatising health conditions such as sexually transmitted infections with a doctor are more likely to seek help from a chatbot, a study has found.

The findings also suggest that for health conditions that are perceived as highly severe such as cancers, people would be less likely to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms.

Researchers at the University of Westminster in collaboration with UCL said their findings should be used to establish which topics people would more likely use AI to talk about rather than their GP.

The researchers aimed to assess how perceived stigma and severity of various health issues are associated with the acceptability for three sources of health information and consultation: an automatic chatbot, a GP, or a combination of both.

Some private health firms, such as Babylon, already use such technology to triage patients. The researchers said the company’s “GP at Hand” chatbot was able to diagnose the conditions with similar accuracy to human doctors so wanted to assess what system works best for various conditions.

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Some 237 people took part in the study which was carried out through Facebook. The majority were female (73 per cent), aged over 45 years old (65 per cent), and educated with a degree or higher (55 per cent). Most had no prior knowledge of chatbots (60 per cent) but were confident in their understanding of the technology once the concept was explained.

Overall GPs were still the preferred choice for patients, followed by a GP-chatbot combination and chatbots alone. Chatbots were the preferred option for issues such as sexual health.

However, for severe health conditions such as cancers, people would be less likely to use AI algorithms, the researchers found.

Future research about the use of AI in healthcare should establish a set of health topics most suitable for chatbot-led interventions and primary healthcare services, the team concluded.

Dr Tom Nadarzynski, lead author of the study from The University of Westminster, said: “Many AI developers need to assess whether their AI-based healthcare tools such as symptoms checkers or risk calculators are acceptable interventions.

Our research finds that patients value the opinion of healthcare professionals, therefore implementation of AI in healthcare may not be suitable in all cases, especially for serious illnesses.”