How Can Intelligent Conversational Agents Help? The Needs of Geriatric Patients and Their Caregivers

Gerhard Eschweiler, Leo Wanner
2018 International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents & Multiagent Systems  
The population in Europe grows older; only between the years 2007 and 2017 the number of people aged 65 and older increased by 2.4%. With the increasing age, the time that an average individual suffers from illnesses, loss of autonomy, deterioration of mental capacity, etc., and is thus in need of care in their old age also increased substantially. This calls for qualified care personnel. However, qualified personnel is scarce. To alleviate the situation, embodied conversational agents (ECAs)
more » ... at are able to interact with care recipients, their carers and medical personnel would be a great asset -for instance, by acting as social companions, coaches or medical assistants. In any of these roles, ECAs must be guided by the needs of the targeted interaction partner and act within a well-defined strict ethical and legal framework. Especially the interaction with geriatric patients requires an acquaintance with the basics of geritatric medicine, its ethical aspects and the available models that help to assess them.
dblp:conf/atal/EschweilerW18 fatcat:f3xnnbrbwvhg3oczgoo62v3t7u