The Virtual Medical Assistant

There is a rise of non-communicable diseases worldwide and with this epidemiological transition, Palestine is no exception. However, in Palestine, there is a form of fragmentation with different health care facilities whether it be clinics, laboratories, or radiology centers. Palestinians find themselves lost trying to find out where they should go to either seek treatment or to seek medical consultation. Additionally, the Israel occupation places challenges and barriers for patients before and during treatments, such as health care accessibility hindered by road restrictions and health attacks (1). Hence, for all Palestinians, it is a must to be aware of the best potential options for treatment, medical consultation, and lab centers before being dragged from one health facility to the next. 

With this thought in mind, a team of public health, biology, and IT experts got together to work on a prototype focused on creating a means for individual Palestinians to input their health information and be updated with the latest evidence-based treatments and the best potential local health care facilities they could go to. Throughout the Data Science Journey, the multidisciplinary team worked on developing this startup. “ In all, this mobile application would work as a diagnostic advisor, a research tool, and also a tool that provides information on doctors and possible services patients may use.”, explained Sama ( a clinical biologist of the team).

The occupation affects the overall sustainability of quality health care and renders our understanding of the specific characteristics of each disease for better preventative public health interventions. Hence, with the use of natural language processing and other aspects of data science, the project also works to aid in better analyzing the health situation of Palestine.  “From a public health perspective, this application will help identify trends and patterns in certain governorates for symptoms/ diseases inputted into the application. This data would be made available to all potential stakeholders and will help in the development of epidemiological research specific to Palestine”, stated Dana (a public health expert of the team). 

At this current moment, this project is still being developed and will be worked on by other future teams of the Data Journey Program to better solidify the prototype and build on the application. 

1. WHO. Right to Health 2018 [Internet]. 2018. 1–76 p. Available from: https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/WHO_Right_to_health_2018_Web-final.pdf