Tim Bickmore

Tim Bickmore in the Press

Health care organizations face a cybersecurity mandate

But Teladoc’s new partnership with Amazon — allowing millions of consumers to dial up doctors on a smart speaker — is unlikely to improve care beyond well-heeled consumers who already have plenty of access. “People who have Alexas already both have the means to afford these technologies and they have high technical literacy,” which is typically correlated with health literacy, Northeastern […]

For the Elderly Who Are Lonely, Robots Offer Companionship

“Robots that help people connect with and maintain their relationships with others are becoming increasingly important,” says Timothy Bickmore, a professor at Northeastern University who is developing a digital assistant to help the elderly navigate the final stages of life.

The New Yorker

Automated Health Care Offers Freedom from Shame, But Is It What Patients Need?

A few years ago, Timothy Bickmore, a computer scientist at Northeastern University, developed an artificial-intelligence program to help low-income patients at Boston Medical Center prepare for their return home from the hospital. The virtual nurse, alternately called Louise or Elizabeth, was embodied as an animated figure on a screen. It began by asking patients whether […]

An artificial intelligence created for the end of life is already here

Over the next three years, Northeastern University professor Timothy Bickmore and Boston Medical Center doctor Michael Paasche-Orlow will distribute Microsoft Surface tablets preloaded with a chatbot to about 360 patients who have been told they have less than a year to live.

Smithsonian Magazine

Can a chatbot help you prepare for death?

That’s an idea that a team at Northeastern University in Boston is exploring. They’ve begun a trial in which they’re introducing terminally ill patients to chatbots—computer programs able to converse with humans.

New chatbots will help people accept death

Consider the chatbot developed by researchers at the Boston Medical Center and Northeastern University, which was recently presented at the International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents in Stockholm. According to the researchers’ paper, the chatbot is explicitly meant to replicate conversing with a “palliative care coach” that answers questions about things like preparing a will […]

CNET News

New chatbots will help people accept death

The Washington Times

Boston scientists test ‘chatbot’ that offers spiritual, emotional guidance to terminally ill

A group of researchers in Massachusetts are testing a “chatbot” with terminally ill patients who struggle with funeral arrangements and spiritual questions. Timothy Bickmore of Boston’s Northeastern University has worked with a team of scientists, doctors and hospital chaplains to come up with the tablet-based chatbot. Promising results from a group of 44 patients paved […]

International Business Times

This chatbot could help the elderly make difficult end-of-life decisions

A team from the Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, has created a chatbot to help people through their end-of-life decisions. It is set to be trialled with terminally ill patients in the Boston area over the next two years, reports New Scientist. Besides offering spiritual guidance, the tablet-based chatbot helps people who are nearing death, […]

End of life chatbot can help you with difficult final decisions

People near the end of their lives sometimes don’t get the chance to have these important conversations before it’s too late, says Timothy Bickmore at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. So Bickmore and his team – which included doctors and hospital chaplains – built a tablet-based chatbot to offer spiritual and emotional guidance to people […]