Purdue professor brings sci-fi robots to life

A Purdue professor with a love of science fiction is finding ways to deploy robots in a field as human-centric as any: health care.

Assistant Professor of Computer Science Sooyeon Jeong makes virtual assistants and social robots to help patients, and she says the robots have a few abilities that can aid their human counterparts in the field.

Namely, they don’t have the capacity to be judgmental toward patients, which helps them act as a sort of middle man between patients and human care. They can also be programmed to succeed at communicating with both doctors and patients.

“There’s still a lot of stigma against receiving mental health care, like seeking a therapist or a counselor,” Jeong said. “But after talking to the robots, you might think, ‘That wasn’t too bad.’ ‘Maybe I’ll find a therapist and see how that goes.’”

According to Jeong, breast cancer is one of the most prominent types of cancer among Latina women in the U.S. Many of these patients struggle with health literacy, the ability to understand medical information related to one’s health. Jeong’s virtual assistant is meant to assist patients while creating a judgment-free environment.

“These robots can help (people) learn how to ask doctors questions,” she said. “You need to know what the visit was about and the next steps. Understanding this requires health literacy, which is not like day-to-day language.”

Movies showed Jeong that robots could help people.

“I grew up really liking sci-fi movies, so that was always on my mind,” she said. “Then I watched the movie ‘A.I. Artificial Intelligence’ by Steven Spielberg. I got excited about the concept of social advocacy.”

This fascination would evolve into a career dedicated to harnessing technology for social advocacy. After realizing the effect social robots have on people’s decisions, Jeong embarked on her mission to create physical robots.

“There are a lot of pre-existing health apps. I have a Fitbit, which, you know, I sometimes ignore,” she said. “But previous research has shown that robots are persuasive compared to screen-based devices.”

Jeong’s long-term project has been creating a virtual assistant to empower Latina breast cancer patients during their doctor visits. She is currently continuing this project for Latina women in Greater Lafayette and in Chicago to help them better understand their cancer diagnoses.

Jeong and her collaborators have found that many patients feel reluctant to ask their practitioners questions beyond health illiteracy due to cultural barriers.

“There are existing gaps and holes in the system that people fall through. Some people are especially vulnerable, like minorities or people with special needs,” she said. “We want to use interactive technologies and AI-based agents to fill those holes so they can still be supported.”