Severance Hospital said it became the first tertiary-level hospital in Korea to introduce an artificial intelligence (AI) voice bot, AI Serabot, to help manage patients' medical schedules, including check-ups and changing appointment dates.

This system aims to assist patients who may forget their medical appointments. There are often cases where patients cannot receive treatment due to personal circumstances or other events scheduled on the same day as their appointment.

AI Serabot is powered by KT's Speech To Text (STT) engine and Natural Language Processing (NLP) solution, enabling natural conversations between voice bots and patients, as well as stable operation and AI quality control throughout the year. 

For example, Severance Hospital's AI Serabot calls patients who are due for an appointment and informs them of the schedule and the doctor in charge. If the patient requests to change or cancel the appointment, it immediately supports the change or cancellation. It also provides one-stop information on necessary documents and notes required for a convenient medical visit.

Acknowledging that many patients may be unfamiliar with AI technologies, Severance Hospital said that they plan to expand the service beyond the medical information service to automatically connect professional counselors to patients who need individual counseling.

In this regard, Severance Hospital will collaborate with KT to develop AI solutions to improve patient satisfaction by providing customized medical services.

The robot service was launched in October last year but the hospital plans to expand the work of AI Serabot to introduce an AI reservation center. In particular, the hospital will conduct joint research to operate the reservation center more efficiently by combining the AI -based system with its medical big data business currently being developed.

"We have introduced digital technology to patient services so that patients who use the hospital can experience better services before treatment," said Severance Hospital General Director Ha Jong-won.

Ha added that the hospital will continuously strive to present next-generation customer services by utilizing IT throughout the medical health system.