ESTRO 2025 - Abstract Book

S4059

RTT - Patient care, preparation, immobilisation and IGRT verification protocols

ESTRO 2025

920

Proffered Paper Perceptions of patients and healthcare professionals on the use of chatbots as a supportive tool for patients undergoing pelvic radiotherapy Claire Farrugia 1,2 , Mark Micallef 3 , Susan Mercieca 4 1 Radiotherapy, Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Hospital, Msida, Malta. 2 Department of Computer Science, Faculty of ICT,, University of Malta, Msida, Malta. 3 Department of Computer Science, Faculty of ICT, University of Malta, Msida, Malta. 4 Radiography Department, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Malta, Msida, Malta Purpose/Objective: Patients undergoing pelvic radiotherapy often experience complex side effects and emotional challenges. High workloads often limit healthcare professionals' (HCPs) ability to provide timely, personalized support to cancer patients. Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered conversational agents (Chatbots) could bridge this gap by delivering instant information to empower patients while allowing HCPs to focus on complex cases [1]. This study aimed to evaluate the perceptions of patients and HCPs on the feasibility and design of integrating a chatbot within the radiotherapy department as an additional supportive tool for patients receiving radiotherapy at a local oncology hospital. Material/Methods: The study was conducted in three phases. Phase 1 involved distributing a self-designed questionnaire to patients and HCPs to assess the feasibility of using a chatbot as a supplementary support tool for cancer patients undergoing pelvic radiotherapy. In the second phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 5 patients and 8 HCPs to inform the chatbot's content and design. A prototype chatbot was developed using the Dialogflow platform [2]. In the final phase, patients and HCPs were asked to rate the chatbot's usability using the 10-item System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire [3] and to provide feedback for further improvements. The SUS score ranges from 0 to 100 with higher scores indicating higher usability. Results: A total of 46 patients and 47 HCPs completed the phase 1 questionnaire. Overall, 78.7% of HCPs and 71.7% of patients found using chatbots to provide information to patients feasible. The participants identified “obtaining information about the radiotherapy department”, “Inform patients about lab or imaging results” and “informing the patient about treatment preparation or appointments” as the 3 most useful features. These features were incorporated in the chatbot as shown in Fig.1. Phase 2 interviews highlighted the importance of a simple, user friendly design that could be used by all patients even those with limited digital literacy. Participants preferred integrating the chatbot into a dedicated hospital mobile application specifically designed for patients undergoing radiotherapy (Fig.1). The final chatbot prototype received a SUS score of 82 from patients and 75.5 from HCPs, indicating good usability.