Due to necessary scheduled maintenance, the JMIR Publications website will be unavailable from Wednesday, July 01, 2020 at 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM EST. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause you.
Who will be affected?
Readers: No access to all 28 journals. We recommend accessing our articles via PubMed Central
Authors: No access to the submission form or your user account.
Reviewers: No access to your user account. Please download manuscripts you are reviewing for offline reading before Wednesday, July 01, 2020 at 7:00 PM.
Editors: No access to your user account to assign reviewers or make decisions.
Copyeditors: No access to user account. Please download manuscripts you are copyediting before Wednesday, July 01, 2020 at 7:00 PM.
Reducing patient loneliness with artificial agents: design insights from evolutionary neuropsychiatry
Kate Loveys;
Gregory Fricchione;
Kavitha Kolappa;
Mark Sagar;
Elizabeth Broadbent
ABSTRACT
Loneliness is a growing public health issue that substantially increases risk of morbidity and mortality. Artificial agents, such as robots, embodied conversational agents, and chatbots, present an innovation in care delivery and have been shown to reduce patient loneliness by providing social support. However, similar to doctor and patient relationships, the quality of a patient’s relationship with an artificial agent can impact support effectiveness as well as care engagement. Incorporating mammalian attachment building behavior and neurological processes as part of an agent’s capabilities may improve relationship quality and engagement between patients and artificial agents. We encourage developers of artificial agents intended to relieve patient loneliness to incorporate design insights from evolutionary neuropsychiatry.
Citation
Please cite as:
Loveys K, Fricchione G, Kolappa K, Sagar M, Broadbent E
Reducing Patient Loneliness With Artificial Agents: Design Insights From Evolutionary Neuropsychiatry