Amsterdam UMC launches WhatsApp-like site.
Can you use a debit card in Amsterdam UMC? Can I sleep with my child? What should I bring to my first appointment? The digital assistant (chatbot) answers questions from visitors to Amsterdam UMC. This makes it the first hospital in the Netherlands with a site with the so-called 'conversational chatbot technology': a WhatsApp-like conversation. Basic Orange realised the frontend for the chatbot technology in collaboration with our partner PEXlife.
With the introduction of the conversational websitea digital assistant gives visitors an immediate answer to their question. It's simple: the visitor clicks on one of the seven buttons on the homepage or types his or her question in the appropriate field "ask me a question". Subsequently, the visitor receives an immediate answer via the chatbot technology.
The visitor is also offered extra information via links to deeper pages behind the homepage or a video. For example, the digital assistant takes the visitor by the hand to guide him or her through the various websites of Amsterdam UMC.
A year and a half of testing and analysis
The chatbot technology from supplier Pex Life, which is also used to create the ASR chatbot, was relatively easy to implement from a technical point of view, says Arjen Huizinga, director of Pex Life. But filling the system with recognisable questions and adequate answers turned out to be a tour de force. The preliminary process took a year and a half. Patients were always directly and indirectly involved in this, for example through the Patient Information Department and interviews and tests among visitors to the outpatient clinic.
To make the most of the digital assistant on the website, the homepage has been stripped of distracting content. Theme blocks appear on the screen that visitors can click on with specific information questions. The extra field "ask me a question" will also appear at the bottom, on which your own question can be typed. After more than a year and a half of analysing all site visits and the questions that were asked, it appears that with six blocks, more than 80 percent of all questions are answered. With the seventh block 'ask your question', we expand the content of the digital assistant in order to be able to answer as many questions as possible adequately.
Quality of consultation up
With the chatbot technology, Amsterdam UMC responds better to the current times. Many people, including the elderly, are looking for information on the internet these days. As a hospital, you want to prevent them from going to irrelevant or unreliable websites for their information. Research also shows that the better the patient is informed in advance, the better the quality of the consultation.