Enhancing Pediatric Communication: The Role of an AI-Driven Chatbot in Facilitating Child-Parent-Provider Interaction

Communication with child patients is challenging due to their developing ability to express emotions and symptoms. Additionally, healthcare providers often have limited time to offer resources to parents. By leveraging AI to facilitate free-form conversations, our study aims to design an AI-driven chatbot to bridge these gaps in child-parent-provider communication. We conducted two studies: 1) design sessions with 12 children with cancer and their parents, which informed the development of our chatbot, ARCH, and 2) an interview study with 15 pediatric care experts to identify potential challenges and refine ARCH’s role in pediatric communication. Our findings highlight three key roles for ARCH: providing an expressive outlet for children, offering reassurance to parents, and serving as an assessment tool for providers. We conclude by discussing design considerations for AI-driven chatbots in pediatric communication, such as creating communication spaces, balancing the expectations of children and parents, and addressing potential cultural differences.