Tobias Kowatsch

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Title
Prof. Dr.
Last Name
Kowatsch
First name
Tobias
Email
tobias.kowatsch@unisg.ch
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Phone
+41 71 224 7244
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    To what scale are conversational agents used by top-funded companies offering digital mental health services for depression?
    (SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, 2021-02-11)
    Alattas, Aishah
    ;
    Teepe, Gisbert
    ;
    Leidenberger, Konstantin
    ;
    Fleisch, Elgar  
    ;
    Tudor Car, Lorainne
    There is strong support in the literature for the use of conversational agents (CAs) in digital mental healthcare along with a recent increase in funding within digital mental health, indicating the fast growth of the industry. However, it is unknown to what extent CAs are leveraged in these digital interventions for depression. The aim of this study is to therefore explore the scale of CA use in top-funded digital mental health companies targeting depression and describe what purposes they are used for. Companies were identified through searching venture capital databases and screened for the presence and purpose of use of CAs in their interventions for depression. It was found that only 7 out of the 29 top-funded companies used a CA in their intervention. The most common purpose of CA use was education, followed by assistance, training and onboarding. None of the interventions used CAs for elderly assistance, diagnosis or prevention. These results indicate that the industry uptake of CAs in digital interventions for depression within top-funded companies is low. Future work can look into using CAs in areas which this analysis found they are not currently used such as in tailoring to different target populations and in preventing depression.
    Type:book section
    URI:https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/110651
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    Item type:Publication,
    Are conversational agents used at scale by companies offering digital health services for the management and prevention of diabetes?
    (SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, 2021-02-11)
    Keller, Roman
    ;
    Yao, Jiali
    ;
    Teepe, Gisbert
    ;
    Hartmann, Sven
    ;
    Lohse, Kim-Morgaine
    Successful interventions to prevent and manage type 2 diabetes rely on long-term, day-today decisions which take place outside of clinical settings. In this context, human resources are difficult to scale up, and leveraging Conversational agents (CAs) could be one way to scale up healthcare to tackle the emerging epidemic of type 2 diabetes. The objective of this paper is to assess the degree to which CAs are employed by top-funded digital health companies that target the prevention and management of type 2 diabetes. Companies were identified via two venture capital databases, i.e. Crunchbase Pro and Pitchbook. Two independent reviewers screened results and the final list of companies was validated and revised by three independent digital health experts. The companies' digital services (usually mobile applications) were accessed and reviewed for the utilisation of CAs. To better understand the purpose of identified CAs, relevant publications were identified via PubMed, Google Scholar, ACM Digital Library and on the companies' website. Nine out of 15 companies' digital services were accessible to the authors and only in one case a CA was employed. The uptake of CAs by top-funded digital health companies targeting type-2 diabetes is still low.
    Type:book section
    URI:https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/110654
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    Face(book)ing the truth: initial lessons learned using Facebook advertisements for the chatbot-delivered Elena+ Care for COVID-19 intervention
    (SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, 2021-02-11)
    Ollier, Joseph
    ;
    Santhanam, Prabhakaran
    ;
    Kowatsch, Tobias  
    ;
    Pesquita, Cátia
    ;
    Fred, Ana
    Utilizing social media platforms to recruit participants for digital health interventions is becoming increasingly popular due to its ability to directly track advertising spend, number of app downloads and other metrics transparently. The following paper concerns the initial tests completed on the Facebook Ad Manager platform for the chatbot-delivered digital health intervention Elena+ Care for COVID-19. Eleven advertisements were run in the UK and Ireland during August/September 2020, with resulting downloads, post (i.e. advert) reactions, post shares and other advertisement engagement metrics tracked. Key findings from our advertising campaigns highlight that: (i) static images with text function better than carousel of images, (ii) Android users download and exhibit greater engagement behaviors than iOS users, and (iii) middle-aged and older women have the highest number of downloads and the most engaged behaviors (i.e. reacting to posts, sharing posts etc.). Lessons learned are discussed considering how other designers of digital health interventions may benefit and learn from our results when trialing and running their own ad campaigns. It is hoped that such discussions will be beneficial to other health practitioners seeking to scale-up their digital health interventions widely and reach individuals in need.
    Type:book section
    URI:https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/110655