AI-Enabled Conversational Journaling for Advancing Parkinson's Disease Symptom Tracking
Journal:
arXiv
Published Date:
Mar 5, 2025
Abstract
Journaling plays a crucial role in managing chronic conditions by allowing
patients to document symptoms and medication intake, providing essential data
for long-term care. While valuable, traditional journaling methods often rely
on static, self-directed entries, lacking interactive feedback and real-time
guidance. This gap can result in incomplete or imprecise information, limiting
its usefulness for effective treatment. To address this gap, we introduce
PATRIKA, an AI-enabled prototype designed specifically for people with
Parkinson's disease (PwPD). The system incorporates cooperative conversation
principles, clinical interview simulations, and personalization to create a
more effective and user-friendly journaling experience. Through two user
studies with PwPD and iterative refinement of PATRIKA, we demonstrate
conversational journaling's significant potential in patient engagement and
collecting clinically valuable information. Our results showed that generating
probing questions PATRIKA turned journaling into a bi-directional interaction.
Additionally, we offer insights for designing journaling systems for healthcare
and future directions for promoting sustained journaling.
