Nigerian health care venture, mDoc, has launched an AI-powered chatbot to leverage accessibility to preventative care for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). Kem, mDoc’s virtual health coach, uses the large language model (LLM) of ChatGPT-4 to enable people living with or at risk of chronic health conditions to lead healthy lives.
Noncommunicable Diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa
Diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular diseases are the prime cause of mortality across sub-Saharan Africa today. Between 2000 and 2019, the number of deaths from such NCDs has increased from 24% to 37%.
Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, said, “The growing burden of noncommunicable diseases poses a grave threat to the health and lives of millions of people in Africa: over a third of deaths in the region are due to these illnesses”.
“What is particularly concerning is that that premature deaths from noncommunicable diseases are rising among people younger than 70 years,” Dr Moeti added.
Each year close to 17 million lives are lost prematurely, and about 86% of these are from developing countries lacking critical care infrastructure. However, a majority of these lives can be saved by early diagnosis and preventative measures.
Role of AI in Early Intervention
The round-the-clock availability of Kem, the chatbot, on mobile phones and its ability to answer in simple terms makes the application an effective solution for remote communities for primary health advice at any time of the day or night.
L. Nneka Mobisson, Co-founder and CEO of mDoc, said, “We recognized that by investing in preventative care and focusing on behavior change and nudges, we’d be able to stop what happened to my father from happening to other families.” Mobisson’s father suffered a massive stroke and succumbed prematurely after a brief period of paralysis and psychosis.
Dr Aldo Faisal of the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in AI for Healthcare at Imperial College London said that deploying AI can “improve the cost of care and improve outcomes” by enhancing the efficiency of diagnostic methods.
AI is currently being used in health care ecosystems to assist during surgeries, develop pharmaceuticals, automate outbreak response, transcribe medical records and promote communication between patients and doctors. The market for AI-assisted health care is estimated to grow from $11 billion in 2021 to $187 billion by 2030.
AI in Health Care To Ensure Equality
AI technology can potentially promote equality in health care in low- and middle-income countries by reducing the cost of medical treatment. However, the bulk of the research on such technologies is largely limited to developed, wealthy nations.
Philanthropist and co-founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, has said, “The world needs to make sure that everyone—and not just people who are well-off—benefits from artificial intelligence. Governments and philanthropy will need to play a major role in ensuring that it reduces inequity and doesn’t contribute to it.”
The Way Forward for Nigeria
mDoc Healthcare received funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in July 2023 to onboard the LLM of ChatGPT into their virtual self-care assistant Kem. Integration with artificial intelligence has allowed Kem to solve a wide range of queries with evidence-based precision. It has interpreted user behaviors to evolve into a culturally relevant product. Mobisson’s team is running a community trial to escape the loop of human bias that LLMs are often prone to. Further developing such systems can greatly strengthen the AI-enabled health care infrastructure in Nigeria and minimize inequalities in health care outcomes.
– Soham Mitra
Photo: Flickr
