Leveraging ChatGPT and Amazon Alexa to Empower Healthcare Workers in Sierra Leone

Abstract

The majority of the population in Sierra Leone lives below the poverty line, with poor access to secondary education and the public healthcare system. Community Health Workers bridge the gap between the communities and clinics that are led by Clinical Officers or nurses. These frontline healthcare workers receive little formal training themselves and are often unable to provide adequate guidance to their communities. How might we leverage rapidly growing Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and technologies to educate and empower frontline healthcare workers and their communities? AI tools can be affordable, easy to use, quick to distribute, and can share healthcare information verbally, particularly helpful in regions with low literacy rates and strong oral traditions. This article describes an early attempt at using Amazon Alexa devices to respond to health-related questions with vetted responses in English and Krio. For the first phase, our application focuses on women’s health issues such as pregnancy, cervical cancer, and STIs. The initial bank of ~350 questions and answers were generated by the AI chatbot, ChatGPT, and validated through conversations with nonprofit leaders and an informal group of healthcare workers who were fascinated by a small device talking to them in their local language!

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