Washington Post Features Ellie and ICT Research to Improve Health Care Communication

A story in the Washington Post featured Ellie, an ICT virtual human created to help patients feel comfortable talking about themselves so they’ll be honest with their doctors. The story states that Ellie was born of two lines of findings: that anonymity can help people be more truthful and that rapport with a trained caregiver fosters deep disclosure.
According to the story, technology can help people feel comfortable sharing private information.
“Some people make the mistake when they see Ellie — they assume she’s a therapist and that’s absolutely not the case,” says Jonathan Gratch, director for virtual human research at USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies.