Korean J Clin Pharm.  2020 Dec;30(4):243-249. 10.24304/kjcp.2020.30.4.243.

Development of Warfarin Talk: A Messenger Chatbot for Patients Taking Warfarin

• Lee HS
• Kim YR
• Shin EJ
• Jang HW
• Jo YH
• Cho YS
• Kim JH
• Lee JY

• KMID: 2510427
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.24304/kjcp.2020.30.4.243

Abstract

Background
Despite the increased use of direct-acting oral anticoagulants, warfarin is still recommended as first-line therapy in patients with mechanical valves or moderate to severe mitral stenosis. Anticoagulation management services (AMSs) are warranted for patients receiving warfarin therapy due to the complexity of warfarin dosing and large interpatient variability. To overcome limited health care resources, we developed a messenger app-based chatbot that provides information to patients taking warfarin.
Methods
We developed “WafarinTalk” as an add-on to the open-source messenger app KakaoTalk. We developed the prototype chatbot after building a database containing seven categories: 1) dosage and indications, 2) drug-drug interactions, 3) drug-food interactions, 4) drug-diet supplement interactions, 5) monitoring, 6) adverse events, and 7) precautions. We then surveyed 30 pharmacists and 10 patients on chatbot reliability and on participant satisfaction.
Results
We found that 80% of the pharmacists agreed on the consistency of chatbot responses and 44% agreed on the appropriateness of chatbot. Furthermore, 47% of pharmacists said that they were willing to recommend the chatbot to patients. Of the seven categories, information on drug-food interaction was the most useful; 90% of patients said they were satisfied with the chatbot and 100% of patients said they were willing to use it when they were unable to see a pharmacist. We updated the prototype chatbot with feedback from the survey.
Conclusion
This study showed that warfarin-related information could be provided to patients through a messenger applicationbased chatbot.

Keyword

Warfarin; chatbot; medication consultation