Taking the time to care: empowering low health literacy hospital patients with virtual nurse agents

Ninety million Americans have inadequate health literacy, resulting in a reduced ability to read and follow directions in the healthcare environment. We describe an animated, empathic virtual nurse interface for educating and counseling hospital patients with inadequate health literacy in their hospital beds at the time of discharge. The development methodology, design rationale, and two iterations of user testing are described. Results indicate that hospital patients with low health literacy found the system easy to use, reported high levels of satisfaction, and most said they preferred receiving the discharge information from the agent over their doctor or nurse. Patients also expressed appreciation for the time and attention provided by the virtual nurse, and felt that it provided an additional authoritative source for their medical information. Author Keywords Universal Access, Relational Agent, Embodied Conversational Agent, Health Literacy, Patient Education, Patient Safety, Hos...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: CHI
• Authors: Timothy W. Bickmore, Laura M. Pfeifer, Brian W. Jack
• Keywords: CHI 2009, Hospital Discharge ACM, Human Computer Interaction, Inadequate Health Literacy, Low Health Literacy