Log in to the vaccination: the chatbot will select the appropriate vaccine during the cold season

Russian doctors have developed a bot that provides users with information about all vaccines registered in the Russian Federation and information about the dangers of diseases requiring vaccination. As the authors told Izvestia, none of the existing digital assistants provides such a complete amount of information about all drugs, timing and side effects. In the future, the program will allow you to make an appointment for an injection and get feedback from a doctor. However, according to experts, it is necessary to determine the target audience of the technology.

Chatbot will talk about vaccines

Young scientists of the Digital Department of Sechenov University have created a smart assistant to disseminate reliable information about vaccination.

According to the developers, the advantage of the developed Telegram bot "Vaxi" in comparison with similar digital solutions is its versatility. It contains information about all vaccines registered in Russia, Anastasia Gircha, the author of the project, a graduate of the Digital Department of Sechenov University, told Izvestia.

The telegram bot can respond to requests regarding national calendars of preventive vaccinations recommended for children and adults, emergency vaccination, vaccinated diseases and preparations for them. It also has a separate section dedicated to adverse reactions and complications after vaccination. In it, users will be able to find out which body's response to vaccination is absolutely normal, and in which cases they should consult a doctor.

— To date, there are no solutions like our chatbot, - said the developer. — None of the existing digital vaccination assistants provides such a complete amount of information. We have collected everything in it that can be useful both for parents of the youngest patients before the start of the first vaccinations, and for adults who want to protect themselves. The bot can also answer the most frequently asked questions, and not just operate with facts about the schedule of vaccinations, methods of drug administration and possible complications.

Sign up for a vaccination via a chatbot

The chatbot is constantly updated and contains only up-to-date data based on scientific research, the developers told Izvestia. In the future, they plan to expand its functionality. Using the bot, patients can, for example, make an appointment for a vaccination, receive feedback from a doctor, or monitor their well-being after the procedure.

According to the authors, the bot will also be able to receive personalized notifications about upcoming vaccinations and information about the release of new drugs. In the future, the team plans to create a full-fledged application with all the functions of a chatbot. It will be able to be used by polyclinic health workers to relieve part of the routine workload of medical staff.

For most doctors, vaccination is a familiar, routine tool for preventing infections, it is an obligatory part of relevant clinical recommendations and standards. And chatbots are a promising tool for educating and supporting informed and informed consumer decisions, including in the field of health, commented Andrey Martyushev-Poklad, a leading market expert at NTI Helsnet and the Union of Healthy People. According to him, "Vaxi" is a digital tool that is useful in improving the health of the population and preventing infectious diseases.

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The project represents a cost-effective solution to an urgent problem: the bot requires minimal development and support costs, and the potential increase in vaccination coverage by even 1-2% will significantly exceed investments, says Maxim Kolyasnikov, associate professor at the UrFU Institute of Economics and Management and the Department of Future Technologies at MIPT.

"The planned integration with recording and feedback systems is of the greatest value, but it requires serious resources and approvals," he told Izvestia.

The key aspects of such solutions are functionality and user—friendliness, said Stanislav Stragnov, head of the Laboratory for the Analysis of Public Health indicators and Digitalization of Healthcare at MIPT. Gathering useful information in one place is a time—consuming task, but not difficult.

— Integration of feedback functions with medical staff and registration for vaccination are significantly more complex tasks that are still in the planning stage. To create a sought-after and popular product, a serious analysis of the target audience is necessary. It is not yet clear who will become a chatbot user: people who are interested in vaccination will get through it anyway, and often they already have knowledge of the subject, while those who are not interested are unlikely to spend time on a chatbot," the expert noted.

A free chatbot is already available for users.