New project to promote COVID-19 vaccination

Jessie Chin
Jessie Chin, Assistant Professor

Patients with compromised health conditions, such as multiple sclerosis, are at enhanced risk of contracting COVID-19. Unfortunately, these patients are also hesitant to take the COVID-19 vaccine because of their condition. A new project, led by Assistant Professor Jessie Chin, aims to develop an accessible, generalizable, and efficient digital health solution for promoting vaccination among vulnerable populations.

The project, "Building a Motivational-Interviewing Conversational Agent (MintBot) for Promoting COVID-19 Vaccination Among People with Multiple Sclerosis," has received a $74,992 grant through Jump ARCHES, a partnership between OSF HealthCare and the Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and its College of Medicine in Peoria. Collaborators include co-principal investigators Suma Bhat (Electrical and Computer Engineering) and Chung-Yi Chiu (Kinesiology and Community Health) from UIUC and co-investigator Dr. Jared Rogers and consultant Dr. Brian Laird from OSF HealthCare Heart of Mary Medical Center.

According to Chin, Motivational Interviewing (MI) is an efficient and effective approach to address vaccine hesitancy and promote vaccine uptake. For this project, the researchers are developing an MI conversational agent, MintBot, for COVID-19 vaccination promotion. MintBot will initially be deployed in an OSF HealthCare clinic as a mobile/tablet application.

"Literature has shown that the motivational interview for vaccination decision can be done in 10-15 minutes," said Chin. "The best way to link patients' behavioral intentions to actual vaccination is to make the actions available to them immediately. Patients who come to the hospital and have concerns about the vaccines can talk with the MintBot. Once they have the intention to take the vaccine, they will be able to get vaccinated in the hospital pharmacy right away."

MintBot will be deployed later to specific groups who also have concerns about the vaccines, including people from underserved communities and those with disabilities and/or other health conditions.

"Our future plans are to work with the community/organizations to deliver MintBot to these specific populations, with cooperation with the local health departments," she said.

Chin holds a BS in psychology from National Taiwan University, an MS in human factors, and a PhD in educational psychology with a focus on cognitive science in teaching and learning from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

Wong co-edits new edition of Reference and Information Services

Adjunct Lecturer Melissa Wong (MSLIS '94) and Laura Saunders, professor of library and information science at Simmons University, are the co-editors of Reference and Information Services: An Introduction, Seventh Edition, which was recently published by Bloomsbury Libraries Unlimited. The textbook provides a comprehensive update to the previous edition, also co-edited by Wong and Saunders, and serves as an essential resource for LIS students and practitioners alike.

Melissa Wong

iSchool researchers to present at ASSETS 2024

iSchool faculty and students will present their research at the 26th International Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group (SIG) ACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2024), which will be held on October 28-30 in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The conference is the premier forum for presenting research on design, evaluation, use, and education related to computing for people with disabilities and older adults.

MSIM students win Chicago round of NASA hackathon

A team including MSIM students Kritika Singh and Jainam Rajput won the Chicago hackathon of the NASA Space Apps Challenge, which was held in over 450 locations worldwide on October 5-6. The students partnered with computer science master's students Shraddhaa Mohan, Jinang Gandhi, and Sai Krishna Rohith and engineering in autonomy and robotics master's student Jugal Upadhyay to form Team Cuberts.

Members of Team Cuberts:  Jugal Bipinkumar Upadhyay, Jainam Rajput, Sai Krishna Rohith Kattamuri, Shraddhaa Mohan, Kritika Singh, and Jinang Gandhi.

Spectrum Scholar Spotlight: Armaan Singh Kalkat

Twelve iSchool master's students were named 2024-2025 Spectrum Scholars by the American Library Association (ALA) Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services. This "Spectrum Scholar Spotlight" series highlights the School's scholars. MSLIS student Armaan Singh Kalkat graduated from the University of Florida with a BA in linguistics and BS in psychology (with an emphasis on neuroscience).

Armaan Singh Kalkat

iSchool well represented at ASIS&T 2024

iSchool faculty, staff, and students will participate in the 87th Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T), which will be held on October 25-29 in Calgary, Canada. The theme of this year's conference is "Putting People First: Responsibility, Reciprocity, and Care in Information Research and Practice." The meeting is the premier international conference dedicated to the study of information, people, and technology in contemporary society.

iSchool Building