Looking into the Future of Health-Care Services: Can Life-Like Agents Change the Future of Health-Care Services?

Abstract

Time constraints on doctor patient interaction and restricted access to specialists under the managed care system led to increasingly referring to computers as a medical information source and a self-health-care management tool. However, research show that less than 40% of information seekers indicated that online information helped them to make a decision about their health. Searching multiple web sites that need basic computer skills, lack of interaction and no face to face interaction in most search engines and some social issues, led us to develop a specialized life-like agent that would overcome mentioned problems.