BonsAi: Quebec-based chatbot hopes tackle access to health care

A Quebec-based company hopes to improve access to health care with an AI-powered assistant launched over the weekend that can assess health issues.

Headache, fever, cough… Rather than immediately going to the emergency room or consulting a doctor, a new chatbot could become an intermediate step to assess symptoms and refer patients to the appropriate resources.

At least, that is the challenge taken on by Bonjour-santé, based in Boucherville, with its chatbot BonsAi, available on the company’s website since Saturday.

Benoit Brunel, founder of Bonjour-santé and initiator of BonsAi, wants above all to steer Quebecers away from Google and ChatGPT when it comes to health issues.

“Right now, (people) are making decisions with Dr. Google or Dr. ChatGPT. Often, they’re not making the right decisions,” he explained over the phone.

Like any chatbot, BonsAi will engage in dialogue with the person, but first it will check for red flags to ensure that the case is not an emergency.

“It will continue to ask you questions and suggest different possible causes for your symptoms. For each cause, it will suggest professionals you can consult,” said Brunel.

According to him, checking for red flags sets BonsAi apart from other AI search tools.

“We have several engines working in the background, and they have to reach a consensus before we present you with the possible causes of your symptom,” he said.

“This means we avoid any hallucinations (inaccurate information) that could occur with generic tools,” said the tool’s creator, adding that BonsAi has been trained with 30 million medical records.

Created in Quebec, the chatbot is also adapted to the province’s laws, Brunel said.

“When we say you can go see a pharmacist, it’s because we’ve verified that the pharmacist has the right, in these cases, to give you a consultation,” he explained.

The AI tool is also hosted in Montreal in a Canadian data center, which prevents access to the data under the U.S. Cloud Act.

This U.S. law allows the government to request access to information held by organizations on its territory, but also to hand over data held abroad by U.S. companies.

A plus for reducing congestion in the system?

According to Brunel, BonsAi is a way to help people make decisions at home, rather than going to the emergency room.

“A good 70 per cent of cases in Quebec (…) are minor, semi-urgent, or not urgent at all, yet they end up in hospital emergency rooms. So that’s a problem,” he said.

“Often, we go to see a doctor when another professional could have served us just as well, such as a nurse, pharmacist, or other professional,” he added.

He believes that this could also help family doctors, as 30 per cent of patients could often be seen by someone else, according to him.

“It gives medical clinics a lot of breathing room. We hope that this will allow doctors to take on more patients,” said Brunel.

Quebec is the first province in Canada to adopt such an AI tool, according to the founder of Bonjour-santé. However, the concept exists in other countries, including Sweden, Singapore, and India.

Brunel pointed out that there are currently no established standards for the use of conversational agents in healthcare.

However, he added that he would be willing to undergo inspections if the health ministry were to look into the matter.

When asked about the launch of this tool, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had not yet responded at the time of writing.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews