{"id":5468,"date":"2024-04-21T10:25:21","date_gmt":"2024-04-21T14:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/designcenter\/?p=5468"},"modified":"2025-01-09T11:35:55","modified_gmt":"2025-01-09T16:35:55","slug":"an-ai-that-really-cares-about-the-big-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/designcenter\/2024\/04\/21\/an-ai-that-really-cares-about-the-big-c\/","title":{"rendered":"An AI That Really Cares About the Big C"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Jaimie Patterson<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though the rise of telehealth has made it easier for patients to access medical care, many still struggle to get timely answers and information from their physicians, especially when dealing with potentially life-threatening diseases like cancer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why a team of Johns Hopkins undergraduate students is developing an empathetic AI-powered chatbot to provide cancer patients and their families with instant, easy access to accurate medical information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their chatbot is based on OpenAI\u2019s GPT model\u2014which powers the famous ChatGPT\u2014but with key differences: Not only has it been trained exclusively on credible, trusted sources of medical information but it is also designed to express sympathy and care. The team will present its finished model at the Whiting School of Engineering\u2019s Design Day<\/a> on May 1, where visitors can give the bot a trial run. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This project is the culmination of the Center for Leadership Education<\/a>\u2019s Multidisciplinary Engineering Design<\/a> course, in which students from different engineering disciplines team up with industry sponsors to tackle real-world problems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team\u2014comprising computer science students Ujvala Pradeep and Dee Velazquez; biomedical engineering student Resham Talwar; and chemical and biomolecular engineering student Himanshi Sharma\u2014partnered with Utah-based Shoreline Health<\/a> to enhance its patient education platform by creating the chatbot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project\u2019s wide reach and possible impact are what originally piqued the students\u2019 interest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a huge amount of people that we can potentially impact,\u201d said Sharma. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She and her teammates were additionally motivated when they discovered through preliminary research that a single doctor is often responsible for an average of 70 cancer patients. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe wanted to minimize the load on these doctors with this project,\u201d Sharma said. \u201cIf patients or their family members have a question, they can immediately learn the answer using our chatbot\u2014rather than having to go through the whole process of getting an appointment and then finally speaking to their health care provider much later.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why not just suggest patients use ChatGPT? The team was concerned about the general-purpose chatbot\u2019s bedside manner (or lack thereof), as well as its tendency to hallucinate<\/a>, or simply make up false information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur chatbot is more empathetic in the sense that the language it uses is more catered towards cancer and cancer patients. We\u2019ve also trained it specifically on trusted, accurate cancer information to prevent it from hallucinating like ChatGPT,\u201d said Sharma. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their bot not only converses with patients, but also has a feature that allows users to upload research papers or medical reports and receive a near-instant\u2014and accurate\u2014summary of the work without having to wade through the challenging technical or clinical jargon themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The students worked closely with real stakeholders throughout the design and testing of their chatbot. For instance, to gain valuable insights into the clinical side of the project, they met with William Nelson, the director of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, and social workers with high caseloads of cancer patients. Currently, they are conducting user testing with cancer patients and survivors, their families, and those who have lost family members to cancer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis work has a real impact on human beings,\u201d Sharma said. \u201cI also would not have imagined myself meeting engineers from different disciplines if this project hadn\u2019t happened; it\u2019s just really cool to see everybody\u2019s skills come together and then make something so interesting and so wonderful. It is very gratifying to have worked on a project like this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
Read more at WSE News<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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