Programmatic Theme: Informatics Implementation

Abstract: The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is the most effective way to prevent HPV-related cancers. Integrating provider vaccine counseling is crucial to improving HPV vaccine completion rates. Automating the counseling experience through a conversational agent could help improve HPV vaccine coverage and reduce the burden of vaccine counseling for providers. In a previous study, we tested a simulated conversational agent that provided HPV vaccine counseling for parents using the Wizard of OZ protocol. In the current study, we assessed the conversational agent among young college adults (n=24), a population that may have missed the HPV vaccine during their adolescence when vaccination is recommended. We also administered surveys for system and voice usability, and for health beliefs concerning the HPV vaccine. Participants perceived the agent to have high usability that is slightly better or equivalent to other voice interactive interfaces, and there is some evidence that the agent impacted their beliefs concerning the harms, uncertainty, and risk denials for the HPV vaccine. Overall, this study demonstrates the potential for conversational agents to be an impactful tool for health promotion endeavors.

Learning Objective: Understand the prospect of a conversational agent for HPV vaccine counseling for advancing effective health promotion tools for patients and health consumers.

Authors:

Muhamamd Amith (Presenter)
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

Rebecca Lin, Johns Hopkins University
Rachel Cunningham, Texas Children's Hospital
Qiwei Wu, Texas A&M University
Lara Savas, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Yang Gong, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Julie Boom, Texas Children's Hospital
Lu Tang, Texas A&M University
Cui Tao, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston