New AI chatbot ‘Alni’ could make doctor consultations faster

Alni Alodokter AI
Image by denvitruk | Bigstockphoto

Indonesia-based healthtech startup Alodokter has introduced an AI-based virtual assistant called ‘Alni’ to streamline consultations between patients and doctors.

Patient consultations are an important part of the healthcare process, with doctors needing to understand and diagnose patient complaints in order to provide effective treatment. However, this can be a time-consuming process, from both a doctor and patient standpoint.

Alodokter’s virtual assistant “Alni” aims to bridge that gap with its ability to understand the context of patient questions. Alodokter says this will greatly reduce the amount of time it takes for a doctor to analyze and diagnose patient complaints.

Next-level patient-doctor interactions

Alodokter chief medical officer Louise Hewitt explains that the company developed Alni to take patient-doctor interactions on the Alodokter platform to the next level.

“Alni is a clinical decision tool capable of interacting with patients regarding health conditions, as an initial step for consultation and assisting doctors’ workflow in treating patients,” she said in an official statement.

According to Hewitt, Alni is like ChatGPT, an AI-based chatbot capable of carrying on conversations and providing answers to the needs of its users’ questions. Alni is currently only available exclusively for teleconsultation services.

Alni is powered by natural language processing (NLP) technology, which enables it to understand contextual information so that it can converse with patients, analyze their symptoms and provide medical advice accordingly. More importantly, it is also supported by algorithms and giant data sets of conversation interactions between patients and doctors in the Alodokter ecosystem.

This allows Alni to categorize patient complaints into minor, urgent and life-threatening levels based on the data it has analyzed. “With this sophistication, Alni is able to have a dialogue and ask critical questions about the patient’s health both symptoms and conditions, to understand and carry out in-depth medical assessments,” said Hewitt.

Alni has ‘good track record’

Doctor-patient conversations on Alni are securely stored, with every conversation containing sensitive patient data analyzed and managed safely. This aligns with classic standards of confidentiality and privacy, while also allowing Alodokter to further improve and refine the AI-powered assistant.

Hewitt added that Alni has a good track record so far, and that the company has managed to improve the accuracy of medical procedures significantly.

“The patient satisfaction rate increased by 15% when using Alni compared to this assistantless consultation, and 100% of doctors work more efficiently in providing medical care to patients,” she said.

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