” The development of medical chatbots has been a real challenge, both technologically and in terms of the interaction between the healthcare professional and the technology professional. We worked together to the point where we managed to find the common language, integrating the provisions of the legal documents we process, with the common language of doctors and pharmacists. There were hundreds of hours, which the Apollo team and the team of doctors and pharmacists dedicated to the development of this tool, Pharmachat, to benefit the health community, but also to be validated by them”, described Mihaela Onofrei, founder of Apollo AI Technologies, the process of developing the first NAMMD-approved medical chatbots in Romania.
The adventure of developing chatbots in the medical field started a year and a half ago, when, after experience gained in the academic segment in the field of artificial intelligence, in the area of natural language processing, Mihaela Onofrei decided to get involved in a project that would be useful and used by as many specialists as possible. The healthcare sector was the one that needed such tools the most and this is how Diabeta, the first medical chatbot in Romania, appeared. “Together with a team of extraordinary doctors, coordinated by Assoc. Prof. Anca Pantea Stoian, PhD, we developed the first NAMMD approved chatbot, which slowly became a reference tool for the community of diabetologists in Romania. The area very often accessed by doctors was the one dedicated to questions about medication, drug interactions and associations of various molecules“, continued Mihaela Onofrei.
The Apollo team decided then that it was time to move to the next level and started developing Pharmachat, a product that contains in the database all SPCs approved by the NAMMD and which addresses both doctors and pharmacists in Romania.
“It was a road with many descents and climbs, but in the end, we stabilized, both technologically and in terms of communication and intense work with the community of health professionals. However, I want to emphasize that without the support of people in the health area, we could not have gotten here. There were tens of hours, maybe even hundreds, that both we Apollo team and the team of doctors and pharmacists dedicated to working together, developing products that would benefit the health community, but which would be validated and intensively tested by them“, described Mihaela Onofrei, founder of Apollo, the whole process of the appearance of medical chatbots.
PHARMACHAT’S DEVELOPMENT CONTINUES
The development of this tool dedicated to professionals does not stop here. “Pharmachat is a tool that helps the daily work of healthcare professionals, but which aims to constantly improve, become more and more friendly and easier to use. Moreover, we want to improve the database, add guidelines, official protocols, so that chatbot answers become more and more complex, both for pharmacists and doctors,” added the founder of Apollo AI Technologies.
“I believe that together we can continue to make a difference in this field, make an impact and ease the professional’s work. We all want both the doctor and the pharmacist to have the necessary time and spend as much time as possible with the patient, not to search the amalgam of websites and official documents that exist at this moment,” said the Apollo CEO at the end of the Farmacia Viitorului webinar on November 15, 2023.
Dedicated to discussing “The impact of technology in pharmacy and optimizing data processing”, the webinar Farmacia Viitorul on November 15 analyzed how technological advances influence the work of pharmacists, focusing on optimizing data processing.
The Pharmachat chatbot launched this summer is a product developed by Apollo AI Technologies, a revolutionary digital tool that provides information about medicines authorized in Romania in a fast and efficient way.
Pharmachat processes over 8,500 medical leaflets for all medicines authorized in the country. Using this tool gives you instant access to over 1.7 million drug interactions, and Pharmachat can be an essential tool for doctors, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals.
Pharmachat was created by the Romanian company Apollo AI Technologies, specialized in developing professional applications based on artificial intelligence, and with the support of partner Alphega Pharmacie is made available to all healthcare professionals, free of charge.
