About the project
The NHS AI Lab introduced the AI Ethics Initiative to support research and practical interventions that complement existing efforts to validate, evaluate and regulate AI-driven technologies in health and care, with a focus on countering health inequalities. People from ethnic minority groups are disproportionately affected by sexually transmitted infections (STIs)/ HIV and experience challenges accessing sexual health services due to discrimination and stigma. The Department of Health and Social Care has identified reducing STI/HIV rates as a priority for improving sexual health and recognised people from ethnic minorities as being vulnerable to these infections.
The AUDITED project is a collaboration between the Universities of Westminster, Sussex and Southampton and is in partnership with Positive East charity who have designed and piloted an automated chatbot, called Pat, to improve knowledge of STIs/HIV and promote online screening services. For the chatbot to make accurate recommendations, users need to disclose personal information about their sexual behaviours. The project seeks to make the chatbot culturally appropriate, acceptable and easy to use for ethnic minorities.
The research programme has three work packages: community engagement, stakeholder consultation and a simulation study on an optimised and enhanced chatbot. It uses multiple research methods such as surveys, interviews and chatbot modelling. The project's aim is to develop an equitable health chatbot implementation roadmap that will guide chatbot developers around co-designing the technology to reduce health inequalities. It engages with a wide range of community organisations and relevant patient and public groups to advise us on every stage of our research and chatbot development. The AUDITED project is funded by NHS AI Lab and the Health Foundation, managed by the National Institute for Health and Care Research, led by Dr Tom Nadarzynski at the University of Westminster.
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