Responsible AI for Person Empowerment on Health and Wellbeing (RIPE)

Rapid technological advancements are transforming consumer health and wellbeing, yet a considerable divide persists between traditional disease-centric healthcare and an empowered holistic approach to health and wellbeing. This newer perspective seeks to empower individuals by enabling them to take greater control of their health.
Presently, there is a scarcity of applications dedicated to patient empowerment. In most cases, the general public, including patients, turns to generic web searches for health information, resulting in overwhelming, outdated, and low-quality outcomes.
To bridge this gap, the “Responsible AI for Person Empowerment on Health and Wellbeing (RIPE)” project combines the potential of AI with the wealth of health information available on the web. Its objective is to enhance user empowerment by delivering personalized and reliable health information that is easily comprehensible. This is achieved through the design of an Intelligent Empowering Agent which:
– Engages with the user to understand their profile and information requirements.
– Retrieves information from the web and applies a responsible AI algorithm to generate customized, simple, and trustworthy output for the user.
– Presents this information to the user in a manner that promotes understanding, informed decision-making, and actionable follow-up.
A demonstrator of the agent has been developed to showcase its effectiveness, accessible at http://cohealth.ivi.ie/chape/. The agent has undergone testing with various user groups, including senior citizens from Age Friendly Ireland and HSE employees enrolled in a Digital Health Master’s program. The results of these tests have been highly satisfactory, demonstrating the agent’s usability, user experience, and perceived value.