An AI-assisted chatbot for radiation safety education in radiotherapy

Abstract

Purpose. We created a virtual assistant chatbot that will serve as a tool for radiation safety training for clinical staff, including radiation oncologist, radiotherapist and medical physicist, in cancer treatment. The Bot can also be used to test their knowledge on radiation safety. Methods. The Bot was constructed using IBM’s Watson Assistant functionalities on the IBM cloud. A layered structure approach was used in the workflow of the Bot to interact with the user. Through answering various questions concerning radiation safety in radiotherapy, the users can learn the essential information to gain knowledge, when working in a cancer centre/hospital. Results. The user interface of the Bot was a front-end window operating on Internet, which could easily be accessed by any Internet-of-things such as smartphone, tablet or laptop. The Bot could communicate with the user for radiation safety Q&A. If the Bot could not identify what the user needed, the Bot would provide a list of options as a guidance. Using the natural language processing in communication, knowledge transfer from the Bot to user could be carried out. Conclusion. It is concluded that the radiation safety chatbot worked as intended, utilizing all the tools provided by the IBM Watson Assistant. The Bot could provide radiation safety information to the radiation staff effectively, and be used in staff training in radiotherapy.