Affiliation:
1. Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia named after Patrice Lumumba, Moscow, Russia
Abstract
The article discusses the use of chatbots for a variety of tasks in the medical field – such as scheduling doctor’s appointments, monitoring patients with chronic conditions, and providing healthy lifestyle recommendations – and in pharmacy operations, including verifying pharmacy addresses and hours, searching for and ordering products, and accessing information about delivery and payment, as well as operator consultations. It identifies several challenges faced in pharmaceutical counseling: time constraints, lack of motivation, absence of a dedicated counseling space, and low demand for the service. Chatbots are proposed as a solution to these issues, offering the benefit of pre-determined specific questions to address the time shortage, while the virtual nature of counseling negates the need for a physical space. Pursuant to recommended standards and legal requirements, we have developed a seven-stage model for remote pharmaceutical counseling, tailored for digital implementation. When integrated into a website, mobile app, messenger, or other online pharmacy services as a chatbot, this model enables pharmacists to consider individual client needs and provide comprehensive pharmaceutical care remotely without significantly extending consultation times. Integration with online pharmacy services is suggested to be facilitated through an API (Application Programming Interface). Furthermore, the article describes a mechanism to safeguard user personal data in the application of this algorithm.