MediBot: An Ontology-Based Chatbot to Retrieve Drug Information and Compare its Prices

Abstract

In this article, we present the MediBot. MediBot is a chatbot for querying drugs information. The presented system acted as a single access point for natural and simplified information retrieval of drugs, prices, and its risks. The chatbot has two modes of operation: Quick Response and Interactive modes. The first answers questions asked in natural language, while the second has three interactive tasks, namely Browser, Query, and Price Comparison. We present here the system architecture, the Linked Data Mashup’s construction process, and Chatbot MediBot’s activities modes, focusing on the new Price Comparison’s task. This task presents the best prices for medicines and their best potential substitutes extracted in real-time from the Web with the help of the information obtained from a linked data mashup.