Dec 01, 2009
Expert System, the leading provider of semantic software that searches, discovers, classifies and interprets unstructured text information, today announces the Provincial Agency for Health Services (Azienda Provinciale per i Servizi Sanitari) in Trento, Italy has selected Cogito® Answers to improve use of the organization’s web site for how-to queries and healthcare questions.
Thanks to Cogito Answers’ semantic analysis and natural language interface (NLI), the Provincial Agency’s patients can now find the information they need in the easiest and most natural way possible. The user simply enters a question in everyday language by using the search window available on the homepage. Cogito Answers analyzes the text and provides a quick, accurate response directly to the user’s inbox or mobile device.
For example, a common user question is, “What is the average co-pay for a physical?” Cogito Answers interprets the question and understands the concept of “doctor” is related to a physician, that “co-pay” is an out-of-pocket for the citizens registered in the National Health Services, and that “physical” is a type of healthcare examination.
One month after deploying Cogito Answers, the Provincial Agency for Health Services saw:
- An 80-percent increase in online queries sent through the Cogito search engine, proving the system is being used.
- A 70-percent increase in time spent on Web pages sent by Cogito Answers, proving patients are finding the information provided by the system is valuable and worth reading.
- A 46-percent increase in user visits that start and end on the same page, proving patients are finding exactly what they need in one click.
“Cogito Answers has been able to assist the Agency in the best possible way,” said Emanuele Seu, the IT director who manages the information portal on the Provincial Agency’s Web site. “The system has helped us better connect with users. With its automated semantic understanding, it makes interaction easy and stress-free — and guarantees the best quality of answers.”
“The need to implement an information search service on the portal of the APSS came from observing the difficulties users experienced when connecting to the home page,” said Adriano Passerini, director of the Provincial Agency for Health Services’ Customer Relation Service. “The selected solution, with its ability to query in natural language, seems to be suiting our needs well. The searches are easier and produce accurate answers; moreover, we can rely on the structuring of a permanent system to improve the search, based on a periodic evaluation of the questions posed to the system that don’t result in clear answers.”
About Provincial Agency for Health Services of Trento
The authority of the Provincia Autonoma of Trento (self-governing province of Trento) coordinates public health services and activities for the entire provincial territory, according to the law, to the provincial health plan, and to the directives of the provincial board.
