AI-powered digital healthcare platform that delivers health benefits to Bengali speakers in the UK through voice-driven remote medical triaging, appointment booking and self-care at home.

国家健康与护理卓越研究所(NICE)报告称，仅在英格兰，治疗疾病和由健康不平等引起的疾病就花费了NHS每年约55亿GB[旱獭评论报告，2010年；NHS不平等资源，2018年9月]。几项研究还强调了新冠肺炎疫情如何扩大和放大了固有的性别和种族不平等。语言、文化、法律、针对特定种族的医疗培训不足以及临床医生和卫生专业人员之间的偏见(常规全科医生预约的平均等待时间为10天)是造成这些不平等的一些关键障碍\[影响少数民族的新冠肺炎和差异，[Ali][0]S N&Morales D R，[ALI][0]S N&Morales D R，《柳叶刀》，2021年；使用人工智能系统缓解这些不平等往往无法满足需求，因为现有的医疗数据本身存在种族偏见和不完整。该项目的目的是开发一个医疗语音和实体识别引擎，该引擎将准确地捕获英国孟加拉语使用者的医疗症状。这个症状检查器将是MEDai的一部分，MEDai是一个人工智能驱动的数字医疗平台，用于语音驱动的远程家庭分诊、智能预约请求，并通过量身定制的健康教育在家中更好地管理健康。这种数据驱动的沟通方式和用自己的语言沟通的能力将使患者，特别是来自少数民族的女性患者，能够更好地向医疗保健提供者表达他们的担忧。带有临时诊断的电子会诊请求将帮助管理人员更快地确定预约请求的优先顺序，并分配他们的时间为更脆弱的患者服务。这将使初级保健服务更容易获得，更具包容性，并减少不平等导致的疾病和治疗费用。[0]：https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00949-1/fulltext

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) reported that in England alone treating illness and disease arising from health inequalities cost the NHS an estimated £5.5 billion each year \[ Marmot Review report, 2010; NHS Inequalities Resource, Sep 2018\]. Several studies have also highlighted how the COVID-19 pandemic has widened and amplified the inherent inequalities of gender and race. Language, culture, legal, inadequate race-specific medical training and biases among clinicians and accessibility to a health professional (average 10 days of waiting time for routine GP appointment ) are some of the key barriers contributing to these inequalities \[COVID-19 and disparities affecting ethnic minorities, [Ali][0] S N & Morales D R, Lancet, 2021; \]. Alleviating these inequalities using an AI system often fails to meet the need, because the existing medical data itself is racially biased and incomplete. The aim of this project is to develop a medical speech and entity recognition engine which will accurately capture the medical symptoms of ethnic Bengali speakers in the UK. This symptom checker will be part of MedAi, an AI-driven digital healthcare platform for voice-driven remote at-home triage, intelligent appointment requesting, and better health management at home through tailored health education.This data-driven way of communication and ability to communicate in their own language will empower patients, especially female patients from ethnic minority groups, to better express their concerns to their healthcare providers. Electronic consultation requests with a provisional diagnosis will help the administration staff to prioritize appointment requests faster and allocate their time to serve more vulnerable patients. This will make the primary care service more accessible, and inclusive and reduce the inequality-driven illness and the cost of treating them. [0]: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00949-1/fulltext