Lizz – A Digital Health Coach for Elderly Therapy Adherence

Use Case:

Assist elderly patients in therapy adherence task management and self-care through a conversational AI interface that integrates speech recognition intent detection.

Outcome:

• Increased patient compliance and reduced relapse rates;
• Enhanced quality of life for patients and caregivers;
• Measurable impact on cost reduction per patient (via Social Return on Investment analysis);
• Demonstrated operational feasibility via pilot with 5+ patients.

Ecosystem Support:

• StairwAI support program;
• Collaboration with AI expert Preste for backend integration;
• Pilot conducted with rehabilitation center Basalt.

AI Relevance:

This success story showcases the practical and ethical integration of AI in eldercare by:

1. Enabling voice-based human-computer interaction for vulnerable users;
2. Leveraging both open-source and commercial NLP technologies (e.g., Whisper, GPT-3);
3. Applying stakeholder-centric evaluation via SROI models;
4. Planning future scaling and reimbursement validation with healthcare insurers.

Summary:

ConnectedCare, a Dutch SME, tackled the challenge of ensuring therapy adherence among elderly patients by developing Lizz, a voice-enabled digital health assistant. Supported by the StairwAI project and AI partner Preste, Lizz evolved into an interactive system powered by speech-to-text (STT), text-to-speech (TTS), and dialog management capabilities. Technologies like Whisper (offline) and Google STT (online) were tested and deployed, alongside a backend integrating multilingual NLU and GPT-based NLG models for both predefined and free-form dialog. A proof-of-concept system was validated through a small pilot involving five elderly users and caregivers at the Basalt rehabilitation center. The integration enabled Lizz to handle daily routine reminders, personalized messages, and interactive prompts—all linked to a caregiver dashboard through WebSocket and cloud deployment. A Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis revealed measurable gains: patient compliance increased significantly, leading to improved health outcomes and a reduction in required clinician time. With a net benefit of €195 per patient from improved QALYs and €50 per patient per year saved in clinician time, Lizz demonstrated clear value for healthcare providers and insurers. The success of the pilot sets the stage for a larger trial in 2023–2024 with over 50 participants, aiming to establish the foundation for long-term reimbursement and integration into national healthcare systems.