---
title: "Abbi - Patient Support Service for the Chronically Ill"
description: "Abbi - Patient Support Service for the Chronically Ill (Merck, 2015/16): A chatbot in everyday chat apps suggests exercises for people with MS"
url: "https://www.sugar-network.org/en/projects/abbi-patient-support-service-for-the-chronically-ill-2015-16/"
lang: "en"
---

# Abbi - Patient Support Service for the Chronically Ill

**A chatbot in everyday chat apps suggests exercises for people with MS**

_Increasing Abbility_

- **Corporate partner:** [Merck](https://www.sugar-network.org/en/network/partners/merck/)
- **Cohort:** [2015/16](https://www.sugar-network.org/en/projects/cohort/2015-16/)
- **Theme:** [Health & care](https://www.sugar-network.org/en/projects/themes/health-care/)
- **Type:** Digital service
- **Universities:** [University of St. Gallen](https://www.sugar-network.org/en/network/universities/hsg/), [Aalto University · Design Factory](https://www.sugar-network.org/en/network/universities/aalto/), [University of Zurich](https://www.sugar-network.org/en/network/universities/uzh/)
- **Team:** 6 master students
- **Disciplines:** Business Innovation, Service Design, Geoinformatics, Management, Product Development, Informatics

## Challenge

Merck asked for a support service that helps chronically ill patients at every stage of their care and encourages them to take an active role in their everyday life.

## What the team learned

Exercise keeps people with MS independent, but finding out what helps takes extensive research. Most people already chat daily, and chat apps come with built-in accessibility features.

## What they built

Abbi is a chatbot reached through a Telegram link, with no app to install. It learns about the patient's condition, guides them through exercises matched to their current well-being and ability, and records how they are doing for their healthcare professionals.

## Impact

The proof of concept gives Merck a direct line to patients beyond its B2B channels, with real-time insight that respects data protection rules.

## Full project text

The POC provided a working chat bot that allowed Multiple Sclerosis Patients to track their well being for their HCPs while also providing a tailored set of simple exercises to engage them physically in their own healthcare.

### Challenge

“How might we design a support service for chronically ill patients that helps them throughout the patient journey and encourages them to take an active role in bettering their everyday life?”

### Solution

Abbi is the product of nine months of collaborative effort to create a way of communicating and delivering a service that supports chronically ill patients.  
The solution we found in the end is an easy-to-use chatbot. It gives our corporate partner maximum flexibility to further develop the service in the future. The current focus of Abbi lies on exercises for people with MS, and has been proven to addresses real patient needs.

### Impact

Abbi provides a user centered option for people with MS to track their condition regularly, and thus provide the information health care professionals lack most based on our research to further adjust and tailor treatment options. It does so in an inobtrusive fashion guiding its users through a set of exercises tailored to their current well-being and level of physical ability. Being independent of conservative treatments and reaching across the B2B environment of our corporate partner to establish direct B2C relationships this solution allows valuable insight on user behaviour in real time which might be used in an infinitesimal number of ways – while observing data protection laws and ethical standards.

## Who built it.

- Anna Rontojannis, Business innovation (University of St. Gallen)
- Sebastian Rappen, Management, Organisation & Culture (University of St. Gallen)
- Chitrak Mitra, Economics and service design (Aalto University · Design Factory)
- Antti Surma-aho, Product development (Aalto University · Design Factory)
- Xuanbei Lu, Geoinformatics (Aalto University · Design Factory)
- Dang Nguyen, Science in informatics (University of Zurich)

## Sources

Summarised by the SUGAR editorial team from the team’s project page, SUGAR Expo booklet and team brochure.

Open the 2015/16 booklet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mDpRrnbnrRiivF0GiMceRDZbfAmoAFy4/view?usp=sharing