A GPT-reinforced social robot for patient communication: a pilot study

Problem: Quality healthcare requires effective patient communication. However, lack of personnel and increasing demands on healthcare professionals (HCPs) create a need for innovative solutions that enhance accessibility and delivery of information to patients.

Goal: We propose an innovative method to convey treatment and disease information using an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven social robotic physical interface. The aim of this study is to develop and test the feasibility of using a social robot that can convincingly provide health information in patient dialogues within clinical practice, to support patient communication and information exchange.

Methods: This paper sets out the architectural approach of an AI-reinforced social robot connected to whitelisted validated clinical sources using a Generative Pre-training Transformer (GPT)-based Large Language Model (LLM). We describe experimental results in a lab-based pilot feasibility study, and then highlight related results for user experience in clinical practice implementation for an osteoarthritis (OA) use case, in which the robot answers osteoarthritis-related questions. Results were obtained after end-user engagement using the User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ) and semi-structured interviews.

Results: UEQ results were obtained in a lab-based pilot test (n = 20) and with OA patients (n = 21) and healthcare professionals (n = 7). Above average/good attractiveness, perspicuity and stimulation were reported in the pilot test; novelty was excellent, yet dependability and efficiency were reported below average. In the clinical setting, Patient UEQ score resulted in mean 2.13 with values ranging from 1.7 to 2.5, indicating a positive trend in efficiency, inventiveness and acceptability. HCPs UEQ scores reached mean 1.89, with all values above 1 except for excitement of usage, which scored 0.8 (SD 1.3). Semi-structured interviews added in-depth enrichment of the data.

Conclusion: In summary, this paper demonstrates the feasibility of implementing a GPT-reinforced social robot for patient communication in clinical practice.