Creating AI-driven healthcare solutions for Australians

In partnership with Healthdirect, we improved their phone services and user experience by developing a conversational bot powered by natural language processing (NLP). Our solution streamlined healthcare service search, enabling users to find providers through speech, while relieving the workload on call centre staff.

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Healthdirect connects Australians with care services

Healthdirect is a government-owned and not-for-profit organisation that serves as the national health advice service in Australia. Healthdirect operates a range of 24/7 health helplines and offers resources including a symptom checker and a health directory, which lists care services​.

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Empowering staff to tackle complex cases

Healthdirect engaged Airteam to re-engineer their phone services and reduce the workload on their call centre staff.

They faced a resource bottleneck: highly skilled triage nurses were spending valuable time answering routine directory questions rather than addressing urgent clinical cases.

We set out to enhance the user experience by developing a conversational AI bot that could quickly direct customers to the desired services and relieve their staff to focus on specialised healthcare problems. 

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Simplifying healthcare access with artificial intelligence and natural language processing

We addressed Healthdirect's challenges by leveraging our AI and natural language processing expertise. Partnering with their development team, we took an agile approach using the AWS and Google Cloud platforms. 

Our solution involved creating a conversational bot for streamlined healthcare service search. Users could interact with the bot via speech, obtaining responses through voice or SMS.

Our solution was implemented through the following key methods:

• Artificial intelligence: We harnessed AI to develop a conversational bot, to improve the healthcare service search experience for users.
• Natural language processing: Our NLP capabilities enabled accurate understanding and interpretation of user queries, ensuring precise and relevant responses.
• Blended cloud solution: Initially built using AWS (Lex), we transitioned to a blended solution, incorporating the strengths of both AWS and the Google Cloud Platform. This move enhanced voice identification accuracy and performance.
• Open-source libraries: We leveraged open-source libraries to enhance user voice matching, ensuring a seamless and intuitive interaction between users and the conversational bot.
• Iterative prototyping: We followed a customer-centric approach, regularly delivering prototyping and proof-of-concept features to gather valuable feedback. This iterative process allowed us to incorporate customer insights into the final product.

Our solution simplified Healthdirect's phone services, optimised resource allocation, and empowered their staff to focus on specialised healthcare issues.

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Streamlining operations through AI-powered efficiency

Upgrading Healthdirect’s phone services and elevating the user experience resulted in operational impact:

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Conversational bot for service search

The implementation of a conversational bot empowered users to search for medical services by speaking. Results were swiftly delivered through speech or SMS.

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Expansion to drive business growth

The initial success of the service paved the way for future expansion, enabling Healthdirect to extend the solution to other areas of their business. 

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Seamless transition and personalised interaction

Users had the freedom to opt out of the automated conversation at any time and connect directly with a qualified nurse. This personalised touch ensured that users could seek expert guidance whenever required.

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Accurate and intuitive user request handling

Our solution successfully tackled natural variability in speech patterns and timing. Advanced AI and NLP technologies improved the accuracy of user request interpretation, helping deliver more relevant responses.

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Streamlined resource utilisation

By deploying our conversational bot, Healthdirect significantly reduced their reliance on highly trained staff to address common medical service questions. This optimisation allowed their staff to focus on more specialised healthcare matters.

These results demonstrate the operational leverage of conversational AI. By offloading Tier-1 queries to the bot, Healthdirect was able to reallocate clinical staff to complex triage cases.

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Embracing the power of future technology in healthcare

Our partnership with Healthdirect resulted in a solution that improved the experience of finding healthcare providers and opened up their phone services. By leveraging our expertise in AI and NLP, we developed a conversational bot that streamlined service search, reducing the workload on their call centre staff. The success of this project highlights the power of future technology in simplifying processes, enhancing user experiences, and driving efficiency.

If you are exploring how AI can be safely applied within a regulated healthcare or government environment, Airteam works with organisations to design, validate and deliver solutions that meet real operational and clinical needs. You can reach us at hello@airteam.com.au or via our contact form.