Design and Architecture of an Ontology-driven Dialogue System for HPV Vaccine Counseling

Speech and conversational technologies are increasingly being used by consumers, with the inevitability that one day they will be integrated in health care. Where this technology could be of service is in patient-provider communication, specifically for communicating the risks and benefits of vaccines. Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, in particular, is a vaccine that inoculates individuals from certain HPV viruses responsible for adulthood cancers - cervical, head and neck cancers, etc. My research focuses on the architecture and development of speech-enabled conversational agent that relies on series of consumer-centric health ontologies and the technology that utilizes these ontologies. Ontologies are computable artifacts that encode and structure domain knowledge that can be utilized by machines to provide high level capabilities, such as reasoning and sharing information. I will focus the agent’s impact on the HPV vaccine domain to observe if users would respond favorably towards conversational agents and the possible impact of the agent on their beliefs of the HPV vaccine. The approach of this study involves a multi-tier structure. The first tier is the domain knowledge base, the second is the application interaction design tier, and the third is the feasibility assessment of the participants. The research in this study proposes the following questions: Can ontologies support the system architecture for a spoken conversational agent for HPV vaccine counseling? How would prospective users’ perception towards an agent and towards the HPV vaccine be impacted after using conversational agent for HPV vaccine education? The outcome of this study is a comprehensive assessment of a system architecture of a conversational agent for patient-centric HPV vaccine counseling. Each layer of the agent architecture is regulated through domain and application ontologies, and supported by the various ontology-driven software components that I developed to compose the agent architecture. Also discussed in this work, I present preliminary evidence of high usability of the agent and improvement of the users’ health beliefs toward the HPV vaccine. All in all, I introduce a comprehensive and feasible model for the design and development of an open-sourced, ontology-driven conversational agent for any health consumer domain, and corroborate the viability of a conversational agent as a health intervention tool

Conversational ontology operator: Patient-centric vaccine dialogue management engine for spoken conversational agents

BACKGROUND: Previously, we introduced our Patient Health Information Dialogue Ontology (PHIDO) that manages the dialogue and contextual information of the session between an agent and a health consumer. In this study, we take the next step and introduce the Conversational Ontology Operator (COO), the software engine harnessing PHIDO. We also developed a question-answering subsystem called Frankenstein Ontology Question-Answering for User-centric Systems (FOQUS) to support the dialogue interaction. METHODS: We tested both the dialogue engine and the question-answering system using application-based competency questions and questions furnished from our previous Wizard of OZ simulation trials. RESULTS: Our results revealed that the dialogue engine is able to perform the core tasks of communicating health information and conversational flow. Inter-rater agreement and accuracy scores among four reviewers indicated perceived, acceptable responses to the questions asked by participants from the simulation studies, yet the composition of the responses was deemed mediocre by our evaluators. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, we present some preliminary evidence of a functioning ontology-based system to manage dialogue and consumer questions. Future plans for this work will involve deploying this system in a speech-enabled agent to assess its usage with potential health consumer users

Health communication science digest searchable archive

The Health Communication Science Digest (HCSD) Archive includes all Health Communication Science Digest issues in a searchable file.You can search HCSD issues based on author names, keywords appearing in article titles, and/or journals. Information about a specific issue, such as month published or issue number, can also be searched.Navigate to individual HCSD issues using the page icons at the bottom of the screen. Alternatively, you can navigate to an individual HCSD issue using the arrows (left and right) on the screen edge.Double-clicking the issue image in the center of the screen enlarges the issue. Double-clicking again opens the individual issue PDF file.Publication date from document properties.hcsd-earchive.pdf2019672

Health communication science digest searchable archive

The Health Communication Science Digest (HCSD) Archive includes all Health Communication Science Digest issues in a searchable file.Health communication science digest is designed to enhance awareness of emerging health communication and marketing scientific knowledge by providing you easy access to recently published articles and reports with particular relevance for the public health communication community."Publication date from document properties.hcsd-archive.pdf2017809

Health communication science digest searchable archive

To enhance awareness of emerging health communication and marketing scientific knowledge, the Science Team in the Office of the Associate Director for Communication at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention frequently undertakes an extensive scan of the expert literature. Recent publications with particular relevance for the public health communication community are detailed here. Abstracts and PDF copies of most articles are available through the DOI hyperlink included with each citation. In some cases, however, the DOI hyperlink will not work or the publisher charges for the article. The help of your local library staff may be required in such circumstances to secure access to some publications.The Health Communication Science Digest (HCSD) Archive includes all Health Communication Science Digest issues in a searchable file.You can search HCSD issues based on author names, keywords appearing in article titles, and/or journals. Information about a specific issue, such as month published or issue number, can also be searched.Navigate to individual HCSD issues using the page icons at the bottom of the screen. Alternatively, you can navigate to an individual HCSD issue using the arrows (left and right) on the screen edge.Publication date from document properties.hcsd-earchive.pdf201

Usability analysis of contending electronic health record systems

In this paper, we report measured usability of two leading EHR systems during procurement. A total of 18 users participated in paired-usability testing of three scenarios: ordering and managing medications by an outpatient physician, medicine administration by an inpatient nurse and scheduling of appointments by nursing staff. Data for audio, screen capture, satisfaction rating, task success and errors made was collected during testing. We found a clear difference between the systems for percentage of successfully completed tasks, two different satisfaction measures and perceived learnability when looking at the results over all scenarios. We conclude that usability should be evaluated during procurement and the difference in usability between systems could be revealed even with fewer measures than were used in our study. © 2019 American Psychological Association Inc. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

Exploring perspectives of people with type-1 diabetes on goalsetting strategies within self-management education and care

Background. Collaborative goal-setting strategies are widely recommended for diabetes self-management support within healthcare systems. Creating self-management plans that fit with peoples’ own goals and priorities has been linked with better diabetic control. Consequently, goal-setting has become a core component of many diabetes selfmanagement programmes such as the ‘Dose Adjustment for Normal Eating (DAFNE) programme’. Within DAFNE, people with Type-1 Diabetes (T1D) develop their own goals along with action-plans to stimulate goal-achievement. While widely implemented, limited research has explored how goal-setting strategies are experienced by people with diabetes.Therefore, this study aims to explore the perspectives of people with T1D on theimplementation and value of goal-setting strategies within DAFNE and follow-up diabetes care. Furthermore, views on barriers and facilitators to goal-attainment are explored.Methods. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 people with T1D who attended a DAFNE-programme. Following a longitudinal qualitative research design, interviews took place 1 week, and 6-8 months after completion of DAFNE. A recurrent cross-sectional approach is applied in which themes will be identified at each time-point using thematic analyses.Expected results. Preliminary identified themes surround the difference in value that participants place on goal-setting strategies, and the lack of support for goal-achievement within diabetes care.Current stage. Data collection complete; data-analysis ongoing.Discussion. Goal-setting strategies are increasingly included in guidelines for diabetes support and have become essential parts of many primary care improvement schemes. Therefore, exploring the perspectives of people with T1D on the value and implementation of goal-setting strategies is vital for their optimal application