Member Article

Cera has partnered with a London AI startup for its new social care chatbot

London-based healthtech business Cera has today (23 May 2017) launched its social care artificial intelligence (AI) assistant in partnership with Bloomsbury AI as it continues to build out its tech-enabled care platform.

The startup, which has so far raised £2.7m in funding, has developed Martha, its social care chatbot which can address patient care enquiries and provide information in real-time through its chat interface.

Utilising deep learning and machine reading, Cera claims that the chatbot will be able to advise users and care workers on specific care needs, while further developments of its underlying tech will soon see it predicting health deteriorations and accessing patient care records to flag concerns and advice.

Built in conjunction with Entrepreneur First graduate Bloomsbury AI, the healthtech firm has committed to continuous upgrades to Martha, with the system continually updating its data points and expertise from the data entered by users and carers.

Cera Co-Founder and President, Dr Ben Maruthappu, said that the launch marked the first steps in unleashing the benefits of AI on the social care sector, which thus far had remained relatively untouched by the potential of machine learning.

He said: “We’ve begun to witness how AI is transforming healthcare, both in the NHS and internationally. However, these capabilities have yet to venture into the social care space.

“With the launch of Martha that’s set to change, allowing the elderly and their loved ones to benefit from cutting-edge technology in a way that’s life-enhancing, while easing demands on busy A&E departments.

“We look forward to working even more closely with Bloomsbury AI not only to optimise Martha for the benefit of our patients, but also to empower our care workers to provide best-in-class care that is consistently high quality, reliable and transparent.”

The AI startup, Bloomsbury AI, was part of the sixth cohort of the Entrepreneur First incubator which pitched their innovations last September.

According to its website, the company has developed machine learning tech that can read and analyse text through its Natural Language Programming system, and can then automatically answer questions about the text which has just been read.

Guillaume Bouchard, Co-founder and Chief Executive at the startup said that Martha transcends less advanced chatbots which can only answer a set of predefined questions, with its ability to adapt over time a key part of its appeal to older, less tech-savvy users.

He commented: “What we have developed is different to the standard chatbot, which can only answer a small number of pre-defined questions. Our algorithms learn to answer more and more questions over time, and our system integrates seamlessly with Cera’s existing communication channels.

“This happens by reading Cera’s comprehensive documents, which are continuously updated as they grow their services and by asking questions to Cera’s experts when the answer is not obvious. With Cera’s users in mind we have worked to ensure that Martha responds in simple and clear language so that informed decisions can safely be made.”

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