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Journal Article Epublish 6 citations

PubMed: 36301616 DOI: 10.2196/39157

COVID-Bot, an Intelligent System for COVID-19 Vaccination Screening: Design and Development.

JMIR Form Res 6(10):e39157

Authors: Chinedu Wilfred Okonkwo, Lateef Babatunde Amusa, Hossana Twinomurinzi

Affiliations

  • Centre for Applied Data Sciences, College of Business and Economics, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Abstract

BACKGROUND

Coronavirus continues to spread worldwide, causing various health and economic disruptions. One of the most important approaches to controlling the spread of this disease is to use an artificial intelligence (AI)-based technological intervention, such as a chatbot system. Chatbots can aid in the fight against the spread of COVID-19.

OBJECTIVE

This paper introduces COVID-Bot, an intelligent interactive system that can help screen students and confirm their COVID-19 vaccination status.

METHODS

The design and development of COVID-Bot followed the principles of the design science research (DSR) process, which is a research method for creating a new scientific artifact. COVID-Bot was developed and implemented using the SnatchBot chatbot application programming interface (API) and its predefined tools, which are driven by various natural language processing algorithms.

RESULTS

An evaluation was carried out through a survey that involved 106 university students in determining the functionality, compatibility, reliability, and usability of COVID-Bot. The findings indicated that 92 (86.8%) of the participants agreed that the chatbot functions well, 85 (80.2%) agreed that it fits well with their mobile devices and their lifestyle, 86 (81.1%) agreed that it has the potential to produce accurate and consistent responses, and 85 (80.2%) agreed that it is easy to use. The average obtained α was .87, indicating satisfactory reliability.

CONCLUSIONS

This study demonstrates that incorporating chatbot technology into the educational system can combat the spread of COVID-19 among university students. The intelligent system does this by interacting with students to determine their vaccination status.

MeSH

Vaccines, Vaccination, Covid-19, Research, Artificial Intelligence, Universities, Intelligent Systems

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