R01MD016037

Rosie the Chatbot: Leveraging Automated and Personalized Health Information Communication to Reduce Disparities in Maternal and Child Health - Project Summary/Abstract

This proposal has the potential to alter the way health information is presented to vulnerable populations. Our proposal promotes a more flexible and tailored approach to reach underserved groups.

Racial/ethnic minority women are at increased risk for postpartum depression, and their children are less likely to have had well-child checkups in the past year. Moreover, racial/ethnic disparities are still prevalent for maternal and infant mortality, as well as various health behaviors such as safe sleep practices, breastfeeding, and infant nutrition.

Currently, some popular programs involve resource-intensive home visits (limited in scale due to staff and cost constraints) or non-personalized text messages (which may not directly address an individual's questions). We propose the development of a chatbot that addresses both of these possible limitations by representing a scalable tool that can have widespread reach across geographies and is personalized and responsive to an individual's specific informational needs.

We have built a prototype of the chatbot, Rosie, capable of engaging in live question-and-answer sessions. Rosie is able to respond to 334 popular questions that new mothers may have. Pretests with mother groups and Mary's Center patients have shown a positive reception to the chatbot.

Over the course of the grant, we will leverage recent advances in natural language processing and the emergence of efforts to aggregate massive amounts of health information to assemble a comprehensive health information library. We will further refine Rosie's dialogue analyzer and response inference engine to robustly recognize and respond to users' questions in the various and complex ways they can phrase a question.

We will test the hypothesis that Rosie may lower the risk of postpartum depression, decrease emergency room visits, and increase attendance of well-baby visits. We will employ primarily a virtual recruitment strategy to conduct a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the impact of this intervention on maternal and infant outcomes.

Our investigative team—comprised of experts in the field of epidemiology, computer science, biostatistics, and maternal and child health experts—is uniquely suited to implement the study aims. Our specific aims are:

1) Develop technology for a chatbot, Rosie, that will provide health informational support to vulnerable mothers the moment they need it.
2) Evaluate the use of Rosie on maternal and infant outcomes.
3) Release an open-source packet for the construction of a chatbot.

Rosie provides informational support to vulnerable moms the moment they need it and safeguards new moms from misinformation that is common on the web, with the ultimate goal of closing the gap in maternal and infant outcomes. Results and tools developed from this proposal can be utilized to inform population-based strategies to reduce health disparities and improve health.

College Park University Of Maryland

TO SUPPORT BASIC, CLINICAL, SOCIAL, AND BEHAVIORAL RESEARCH, PROMOTE RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE AND TRAINING, FOSTER EMERGING PROGRAMS, DISSEMINATE INFORMATION, AND REACH OUT TO MINORITY AND OTHER HEALTH DISPARITY COMMUNITIES. THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON MINORITY HEALTH AND HEALTH DISPARITIES (NIMHD) HAS ESTABLISHED PROGRAMS TO PURSUE THESE GOALS: (1) THE CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE PROGRAM PROMOTES RESEARCH TO IMPROVE MINORITY HEALTH AND/OR REDUCE AND ELIMINATE HEALTH DISPARITIES, BUILDS RESEARCH CAPACITY FOR MINORITY HEALTH AND HEALTH DISPARITIES RESEARCH IN ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS, ENCOURAGES PARTICIPATION OF HEALTH DISPARITY GROUPS AND COMMUNITIES IN BIOMEDICAL AND BEHAVIORAL RESEARCH AND PREVENTION AND INTERVENTION ACTIVITIES, AND BRINGS TOGETHER INVESTIGATORS FROM RELEVANT DISCIPLINES IN A MANNER THAT WILL ENHANCE AND EXTEND THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THEIR RESEARCH, (2) NIMHD RESEARCH ENDOWMENT PROGRAM BUILDS RESEARCH CAPACITY AND INFRASTRUCTURE AT ELIGIBLE NIMHD CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE OR ELIGIBLE SECTION 736 HEALTH PROFESSIONS SCHOOLS (42 U.S.C. 293) TO FACILITATE MINORITY HEALTH AND OTHER HEALTH DISPARITIES RESEARCH TO CLOSE THE DISPARITY GAP IN THE BURDEN OF ILLNESS AND DEATH EXPERIENCED BY RACIAL AND ETHNIC MINORITY AMERICANS AND OTHER HEALTH DISPARITY POPULATIONS, PROMOTES A DIVERSE AND STRONG SCIENTIFIC, TECHNOLOGICAL AND ENGINEERING WORKFORCE, AND EMPHASIZES THE RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION OF UNDERREPRESENTED MINORITIES AND OTHER SOCIO-ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED POPULATIONS IN THE FIELDS OF BIOMEDICAL AND BEHAVIORAL RESEARCH AND OTHER AREAS OF THE SCIENTIFIC WORKFORCE, (3) THE CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE ON ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH DISPARITIES RESEARCH TO STIMULATE BASIC AND APPLIED RESEARCH ON ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH DISPARITIES, (4) MINORITY HEALTH AND HEALTH DISPARITIES INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH TRAINING PROGRAM (MHIRT) AWARDS ENABLE U.S. INSTITUTIONS TO TAILOR SHORT-TERM BASIC SCIENCE, BIOMEDICAL AND BEHAVIORAL MENTORED STUDENT INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES TO ADDRESS GLOBAL ISSUES RELATED TO UNDERSTANDING, REDUCING, AND ELIMINATING HEALTH DISPARITIES, (5) SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION RESEARCH (SBIR) PROGRAM INCREASES PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIALIZATION OF INNOVATIONS DERIVED FROM FEDERAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, ENCOURAGES SMALL BUSINESS PARTICIPATION IN FEDERAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, AND FOSTERS AND ENCOURAGES PARTICIPATION OF SOCIALLY AND ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS AND WOMEN-OWNED SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS IN TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION, (6) SMALL BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER (STTR) PROGRAM STIMULATES AND FOSTERS SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION THROUGH COOPERATIVE RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT CARRIED OUT BETWEEN SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS AND RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS, FOSTERS TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER BETWEEN SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS AND RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS, INCREASES PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIALIZATION OF INNOVATIONS DERIVED FROM FEDERAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, AND FOSTERS AND ENCOURAGES PARTICIPATION OF SOCIALLY AND ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS AND WOMEN-OWNED SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS IN TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION, (7) HEALTH DISPARITIES RESEARCH PROJECT GRANTS (RPG) SUPPORT INNOVATIVE PROJECTS TO ENHANCE OUR UNDERSTANDING OF BIOLOGICAL MECHANISMS, SOCIAL, BEHAVIORAL, AND HEALTH SERVICES THAT CAN DIRECTLY AND DEMONSTRABLY CONTRIBUTE TO THE IMPROVEMENT IN MINORITY HEALTH AND THE ELIMINATION OF HEALTH DISPARITIES WHICH INCLUDES THE (8) RESEARCH CENTERS IN MINORITY INSTITUTIONS (RCMI) BUILD CAPACITY FOR BASIC BIOMEDICAL AND/OR BEHAVIORAL RESEARCH, CLINICAL AND TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH (RCTR) AND A NETWORK (RCTN) BY FOCUSING ON INSTITUTIONAL RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT, SUCH AS SUPPORTING CORE RESEARCH FACILITIES AND STAFF, PURCHASING ADVANCED INSTRUMENTATION, AND LABORATORY RENOVATIONS/ALTERATIONS (9) CLINICAL RESEARCH EDUCATION AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT (CRECD) AWARDS PROVIDE DIDACTIC TRAINING AND MENTORED CLINICAL RESEARCH EXPERIENCES TO DEVELOP INDEPENDENT RESEARCHERS WHO CAN LEAD CLINICAL RESEARCH STUDIES, ESPECIALLY THOSE ADDRESSING HEALTH DISPARITIES, (10) PATHWAY TO INDEPENDENCE AWARDS (K99/R00) TO INCREASE AND MAINTAIN A STRONG COHORT OF NEW AND TALENTED, NIH-SUPPORTED, INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATORS. (11) NIH RESEARCH CONFERENCE GRANT AND NIH RESEARCH CONFERENCE COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT PROGRAMS SUPPORT HIGH-QUALITY CONFERENCES THAT ARE RELEVANT TO THE MINORITY HEALTH AND HEALTH DISPARITIES, (12) TRANSDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATIVE CENTERS FOR HEALTH DISPARITIES RESEARCH COMPRISE REGIONAL COALITIONS OF ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS, COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS, SERVICE PROVIDERS AND SYSTEMS, GOVERNMENT AGENCIES AND OTHER STAKEHOLDERS CONDUCTING COORDINATED RESEARCH, IMPLEMENTATION AND DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES THAT TRANSCEND CUSTOMARY APPROACHES AND SILO ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES TO ADDRESS CRITICAL QUESTIONS AT MULTIPLE LEVELS IN INNOVATIVE WAYS FOCUSED ON PRIORITY RESEARCH AREAS IN MINORITY HEALTH AND HEALTH DISPARITIES, (13) RUTH L. KIRSCHSTEIN NRSA INDIVIDUAL PREDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP

93.307 - Minority Health and Health Disparities Research

National Institute for Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) [HHS - NIH]

College Park, Maryland 207425103 United States

Single Zip Code

Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Clinical Trial Required) (PA-20-183)

Amendment Since initial award the total obligations have increased 449% from $597,635 to $3,278,620.