2021 14th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies (BIOSTEC 2021)

Healthcare delivery undergoes a rapid change from traditional processes towards the use of digital health interventions and personalized medicine. On the one side, hospitals and health care providers introduce hospital information systems, electronic health records and telemedicine solutions for more efficient workflows within and beyond institutions. On the other side, patients may choose between a wide range of digital health applications provided by wearables and mobile phone applications supporting their self-management, health and well-being. A particular solution to support the patient, given the lack of always available caregivers or in scenarios where their absence is not avoidable or even desired (see the case of far-distance support in a pandemic situation), are conversational agents (also known as relational agents, virtual humans or chatbots). Conversational agents are computer programs that imitate the interaction with humans and provide guidance or coaching for patients on rule- or machine learning-based system. However, the question of how to sustainably implement, adopt and diffuse digital health solutions amplified with conversational agent functionalities is not sufficiently solved yet. Our workshop seeks for submissions dealing with this question. We welcome research and theory papers as well as case studies and best practice examples.