A Conversational Agent for Medical Disclosure of Sexually Transmitted Infections

Joan C. Moreno, Víctor Sánchez-Anguix, Juan M. Alberola, Vicente Julián, Vicent J. Botti

Abstract: Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are serious health problems worldwide, increasing the risk of infection by Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Despite the significant efforts to address the pandemic, especially with sex education programs, STI and HIV remain a significant concern. Meanwhile, conversational agents are becoming popular in healthcare to interact with users and improve their health. This paper reports the design, implementation, and evaluation of VIHrtual-App: an online conversational agent which uses user-centered development and supervised machine learning to offer an engaging sex educational tool to promote awareness and prevention. VIHrtual-App can identify more than 250 STI/HIV-related questions and respond accordingly, attractively providing reliable information.