"The pursuit of knowledge is hopeless and eternal"
Hubert J. Farnsworth
Hello.
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This is Emre Sezgin.
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I am a scientist and innovator focusing on digital health research & development and implementation among adult and pediatric populations with a keen interest in remote care, patient-generated health data (PGHD), digital behavior & engagement, digital equity, and inclusion using a digital ecosystem of mobile devices, wearables, sensors, and conversational AI.
Currently, I am working as a Principal Investigator at Nationwide Children's Hospital & Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine.
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Research updates
DAPHNE chatbot is available for community use, collaboration and research
09/2025
You can contact Nationwide Children's Office of Technology Commercialization to learn more about how to adapt DAPHNE for providing services to the communities for addressing health-related unmet needs and help to find and navigate community resources.
Pilot RCT with AI Chatbot for health related social needs among primary care populations
08/2025
We are starting a new phase with DAPHNE project. With a new federal funding, we will conduct a pilot RCT among caregivers of pediatric primary care patients having unmet health related social needs. This 2 year project will provide new insight on acceptance, feasibility and utility of chatbots in care, as well as measure health outcomes of using an AI chatbot with supporting social care navigation.
New findings on AI Chatbot and user experiences
06/2025
Our new preprint reports latest evidence on DAPHNE, AI Chatbot for Social Needs Navigation. We conducted a cross-sectional, mixed-methods study evaluating DAPHNE, a retrieval-augmented AI chatbot designed to identify unmet health-related social needs (HRSNs) and connect people to community-based resources. Details: link.
Conversational agent for self care and chronic disease management
05/2025
Our new study reports the investigation of 24,000+ chatbot users and their engagement for chronic disease and self management. This has been one of a kind study investigating large-scale chatbot engagement and there are many takeaways reported. For details: link.
App, demo & proof-of-concepts
DAPHNE - AI Chatbot for social care and resource navigation
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The new, refined and ready-to-deploy DAPHNE chatbot is supported by empirical evidence and available to be used for communities and research. The video presents a demo and details.
SpeakHealth - demo video
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This project won HRSA Care coordination challenge Phase 1&2 prize. It aims to improve health diary and note taking for families with children having medical complexities
DigaMedico - demo video
This project received AHRQ transition to home care challenge phase 1 prize. It aims to improve communication between provider and non-English speaking caregivers of children with medical complexities.
SMILE- Introduction video
SMILE project received HIMSS Developer challenge 1st prize. It aims to use voice assistant based intervention for stress management to reduce infant mortality among underserved communities
