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. 2011 Apr;44(2):183-97.
doi: 10.1016/j.jbi.2010.12.006. Epub 2011 Jan 8.

A reusable framework for health counseling dialogue systems based on a behavioral medicine ontology

Timothy W Bickmore  1 , Daniel Schulman, Candace L Sidner
Affiliations

A reusable framework for health counseling dialogue systems based on a behavioral medicine ontology

Timothy W Bickmore et al. J Biomed Inform. 2011 Apr.

Abstract

Automated approaches to promoting health behavior change, such as exercise, diet, and medication adherence promotion, have the potential for significant positive impact on society. We describe a theory-driven computational model of dialogue that simulates a human health counselor who is helping his or her clients to change via a series of conversations over time. Applications built using this model can be used to change the health behavior of patients and consumers at low cost over a wide range of media including the web and the phone. The model is implemented using an OWL ontology of health behavior change concepts and a public standard task modeling language (ANSI/CEA-2018). We demonstrate the power of modeling dialogue using an ontology and task model by showing how an exercise promotion system developed in the framework was re-purposed for diet promotion with 98% reuse of the abstract models. Evaluations of these two systems are presented, demonstrating high levels of fidelity to best practices in health behavior change counseling.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Reusable Knowledge in Health Counseling Dialogue Systems
Figure 2
Figure 2
Core Concepts in Ontology (Theory- and Behavior- Neutral) Ovals represent concepts; solid arcs represent subclass relations.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Ontology Extensions for Transtheoretical Model Applied to Exercise Promotion Ovals represent concepts; boxes are instances. Solid arcs represent subclass relations; dotted arcs are instance relations.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Fragment of the Task Model Hierarchy for Negotiating Goals Boxes represent recipes; ovals represent goals.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Task model pseudocode showing the high-level structure of a counseling dialogue.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Example recipe for motivational interviewing
Figure 7
Figure 7
Example pseudocode for a high-level recipe and a low-level dialogue specification
Figure 8
Figure 8
Embodied Conversational Agent Interface
Figure 9
Figure 9
Example Turn-by-Turn Retrospective Review
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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