Transforming Health Journeys : Behavioral Coaching in HPV and AI in Maternal Health
Empowering health consumers to move from awareness to action in their healthcare journey using Artificial Intelligence & Behavior Science.
TLDR;
Nivi’s CEO and co-founder, Sidd Goyal, writes about what the future holds for askNivi’s health journeys
The askNivi HPV & cervical cancer health journey is undergoing a significant transformation to enhance consumer engagement and drive preventive services uptake using behavioral coaching.
Nivi graduated from the Chat for Impact AI accelerator, successfully integrating AI into the askNivi Maternal Health Journey. Pregnant women and new mothers subscribed to the ANC/PNC health journey can now ask their questions/queries in an accessible text format, and askNivi will use Google's PaLM2 Large Language Model to detect user intent and guide them through the relevant conversation, readily addressing common concerns and questions.
Nivi in the news: The Women's Health and Livelihood Alliance (WoHLA) featured Nivi's contributions to the Contraceptive Market Development Approach spearheaded by FHM (Frontiers Health Markets) Engage on Samhita’s Blog. Read it here.
Founder’s Note
Dear Readers,
We founded Nivi in 2016 with a mission to help people make informed health decisions and foster a deeper connection between health consumers and health systems that serve them. While our mission hasn’t changed, our strategies have evolved to meet the ever-changing landscape of global healthcare.
Over the years, we have continuously strived to innovate and improve our offerings, ensuring that we remain a steadfast partner in each user’s healthcare journey, thus enabling health system stakeholders–from manufacturers to the frontline of healthcare (providers and pharmacists) to reach and engage these health consumers effectively. From our initial days of providing health information and support, we have grown to leverage behavioral science and AI to enhance user engagement and drive improved health outcomes. Our goal is to offer personalized guidance and encouragement at every step of today’s increasingly complex health journey, empowering individuals to take charge of their health with confidence and clarity. Our work in Kenya, Nigeria, and India highlights our commitment to this goal, and we are continuously learning and adapting to serve our communities and partners better.
I am excited about Nivi's potential. The integration of AI (Artificial Intelligence) into askNivi health journeys is particularly promising. We believe that by integrating AI effectively and responsibly, we can overcome many barriers that hinder access to quality healthcare.
Stay tuned to our newsletter and social media feed to learn more about our progress. Your feedback is invaluable to us, and we look forward to hearing your thoughts, comments, and suggestions regarding our work. Together, we can continue to build a healthier future for all.
Regards,
Sidd Goyal
CEO & Co-founder, Nivi.io
askNivi’s HPV and cervical cancer health journey is undergoing a pivotal transformation
Over the last few years, Nivi has worked extensively in Kenya and Nigeria, raising HPV and cervical cancer awareness, gathering consumer insights about health-seeking behavior towards cervical cancer prevention by HPV vaccine and cervical cancer screening.
Expanding in India, we launched our HPV & cervical cancer health journey in March 2024 to uncover insights around consumer health seeking knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors towards HPV vaccination, and cervical cancer prevention. Along with using various social media platforms to create awareness, Nivi partnered with Youth Ki Awaaz (YKA), a leading public polling and storytelling platform that captures youth voices in the country, making the HPV journey accessible to a broader audience. Through these efforts, more than 5,300 individuals interacted with the askNivi HPV & cervical cancer health journey on askNivi, enabling Nivi to uncover key insights, such as readiness to vaccinate against HPV, willingness to pay for vaccination or cervical cancer screening, and barriers to accessing these preventative measures. Our product, Nivi insights, helped discover that while the perceived importance of preventative measures like getting the HPV vaccine and cervical cancer screenings was generally high amongst the health consumers, readiness to act and take up these health services was low. We also discovered that lack of information, concern about side effects, and lack of financial resources were the most significant barriers they faced in accessing care. We invite you to read findings from our work and collaboration with YKA, published here in June 2024.
Today, the askNivi HPV and cervical cancer journey is at a pivotal point -
In Kenya, our work with ARK Venture Studio’s YuBuntu Venture, and APA Insurance is gaining traction, as we onboard more subscribers of the Femina Plus insurance plan on a behavior change journey that is driving the uptake of HPV vaccines, and cervical cancer screenings.
In Nigeria, under the VaxSocial Initiative, and in India, we’ll soon launch a revamped HPV health journey with significant changes that focus on barrier coaching. This revamped HPV health journey has been designed to address the unique needs of individuals across both geographies, informed by Nivi Insights. This journey will support consumers by enabling them to set their own goals in their care-seeking journey, while offering personalized referrals to nearby healthcare providers and allowing them to schedule consultations. The new journey will also have regular reminders and follow-up mechanisms to ensure continuous engagement with askNivi users, helping individuals with varying levels of intent get the care they need at high quality providers.
We look forward to empowering individuals with the tools and support they need to make informed health decisions and improve their health outcomes.
Integrating AI into the Maternal Health Journey to address concerns and questions of pregnant women & new mothers
We are thrilled to announce that Nivi has graduated from the highly competitive Chat for Impact GenAI Accelerator, a program co-sponsored by Turn.io and OpenAI. This accelerator has been a significant milestone in Nivi's journey, enhancing our capabilities to leverage AI-driven chat solutions to address global health challenges, particularly in maternal health. Nivi's participation in the accelerator has been instrumental in refining our approach to maternal health. The program provided expert-led training and OpenAI API credits, enabling us to integrate generative AI into our maternal health journey.
Nivi’s AI Strategy: Ethical AI Use in Line with WHO Guidelines
Nivi’s vision of integrating GenAI into our health journeys is strategic, and in line with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) advisory on the ethical use of AI. The WHO emphasizes the importance of transparency, inclusion, public engagement, expert supervision, and rigorous evaluation in AI deployment. We recognize the concerns around using large language models (LLMs) in healthcare, such as data bias, accuracy, and protection, and strive to use LLMs in a safe, effective, and ethical manner.
Behind The Scenes: Using PaLM 2 for Enhanced User Interaction
Nivi is also leveraging Google’s next-generation large language model, PaLM 2, which has been rigorously evaluated for potential harms, biases, capabilities, and downstream uses in research and in-product applications. Using PaLM2 and VertexAI by Google, askNivi’s Maternal Health Journey now empowers pregnant women to input free text to the chatbot during each weekly interaction, where they can ask questions or express concerns they face during pregnancy. For example, a pregnant woman might send a query like “I am feeling tired” or “Will I feel tired during pregnancy?” By incorporating GenAI capabilities into the journey, askNivi can then direct her to a conversation that provides information about fatigue during pregnancy, offering guidance on managing tiredness.
Similarly, askNivi can address other common concerns such as nausea, dietary needs, exercise guidelines, and emotional well-being. By constantly updating our library of FAQs and creating new conversations, we aim to address a wide range of questions that pregnant women or couples may have.
Ensuring Accuracy and Safety
It’s important to note that LLMs can sometimes generate information that appears authoritative but is incorrect, a phenomenon known as “hallucination.”
Hallucinations pose risks, not only for the patient, but also for healthcare organizations. That’s why we’ve taken a strategic approach to leveraging GenAI first to understand users' intentions in the questions they ask. To further mitigate this risk, we ensure that all information provided by askNivi is verified by healthcare professionals.
Commitment to Continuous Improvement
Graduation from the Chat for Impact GenAI Accelerator is just the beginning. Nivi is dedicated to continuous improvement and expansion across various health domains. The insights gained from participating in the accelerator will drive the evolution of askNivi, ensuring that our platform remains at the forefront of AI-driven health communications. As we move forward, we will continue to focus on sustainable impact, using AI to enhance our services and drive positive change in global health.
Here’s the demo-day video our team made that covers more about how the AI-enabled Maternal Health Journey will help pregnant women and new mothers :
Nivi in the News: Featured by Samhita
We are thrilled to share that Nivi was recently featured in a blog post by the Women's Health and Livelihood Alliance (WOHLA) on Samhita's platform, titled "Paving the Way for a Bustling Health Marketplace" that highlights Nivi's innovative approach to connecting individuals in India with vital sexual and reproductive health (SRH) information and services through askNivi.
The blog details our collaborative efforts with WOHLA to revolutionize how young women in India access SRH products and services. It underscores our commitment to overcoming barriers, such as lack of information, social stigma, and limited access to quality healthcare. By leveraging digital tools and behavioral science, askNivi is making a significant impact, engaging over 6.25 million individuals through various awareness campaigns, and providing personalized referrals to local healthcare providers.
We are glad to be recognized for our contributions to strengthening local health marketplaces across India, and are dedicated to continuing our mission to empower health consumers.
That’s a wrap for the July 2024 edition of the Nivi Newsletter. We hope you found value in reading about updates, insights, and news from Nivi. If you did, please use the share button below to share it with your network.
We partner with Health Promoters, Healthcare providers, and Pharmaceutical Manufacturers to integrate askNivi into their health interventions and produce insights about health consumers and their health-seeking behaviors. Explore solutions relevant to your organization below.
Are you unsure how to reach your target populations at scale or trying to figure out how to deploy digital health interventions in your health and therapeutic programs? Click the button below to let us know what you need, and we’ll get in touch right away!