Bridging the Gap: AI-Powered Digital Health Assistants in Men’s Preventive Care—A Narrative Review of Integration with Nursing, Laboratory Systems, and Public Health Surveillance

Abstract

Background: Men experience significant health disparities, including higher mortality from preventable causes, later diagnosis of chronic conditions, and lower engagement with preventive services. This "men’s health gap" is exacerbated by barriers to healthcare access, health literacy, and help-seeking behaviors. Concurrently, artificial intelligence (AI) has catalyzed the development of sophisticated digital health assistants (DHAs)—chatbots, virtual agents, and mobile apps—capable of delivering personalized, scalable health promotion. Aim: This narrative review synthesizes current evidence on the role of AI-powered DHAs in advancing men’s preventive care, with a specific focus on their integration with nursing practices, medical laboratory data systems, and public health surveillance infrastructures. Methods: A comprehensive search of PubMed, IEEE Xplore, CINAHL, Scopus, and ACM Digital Library was conducted. Results: AI-DHAs show promise in improving men’s engagement with preventive screenings, mental health support, and chronic disease management through 24/7 accessibility and personalized dialogue. Effective integration hinges on secure, bidirectional data flow: DHAs can collect patient-reported outcomes, trigger nursing follow-up for high-risk cases, ingest and interpret lab results (e.g., PSA, lipid panels) to provide contextualized feedback, and contribute anonymized aggregate data to public health dashboards for monitoring men’s health trends and disparities. Conclusion: AI-DHAs represent a transformative tool for men’s preventive health but function optimally as a node within a connected care ecosystem. Success requires robust technical integration, ensuring security and interoperability, alongside a redefined nursing role that blends virtual triage with human empathy.

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