Create and Deploy a Healthcare Chatbot with Azure Health Bot: Step-by-Step Guide

#azure #mentalhealth #tutorial #chatbot

In this blog, you will learn how to create a Healthcare chatbot and how to deploy it to a website in some very simple steps.

No Programming/Coding background is needed!

Prerequisites:

An Azure subscription.

If you don’t already have one, you can sign up for an Azure free account.
For students, you can use the free Azure for Students offer which doesn’t require a credit card only your school email.

Summary of the steps:

Step 1: Open your Azure Portal and Sign in
Step 2: Create an Azure Health Bot Instance
Step 3: Create a Mental Health Bot using templates
Step 4: Deploy it to the internet and use its Endpoint

Step 1: Open your Azure Portal and Sign in

Go to the Azure portal and sign in.
Choose your preferred account and proceed.

Now you are inside the Azure portal!

Step 2: Create an Azure Health Bot Instance

Search for Azure Health bot and select it.
Select Create to create a new instance from the service.
Perform the following tasks to create the resource:
- Select an Azure Subscription (learn more: here)
- Select a Resource Group (learn more: here)
- Enter a Name (Unique name that matches the constraints for naming on Azure)
- Select a Region (Choose the region closest to you and your customers)
- Select a Plan (learn more: here)
Select Review + Create.
Wait for the deployment to finish then select Go to resource.

Step 3: Create a Mental Health Bot using templates

Navigate to the health bot management portal using the Management portal link.
Select Template catalog from the left side menu to navigate to the available templates.
Here, you can find multiple templates that can be used to create a separate chatbot or even build your custom template.
Scroll down and select the Mental Health screener template.
Select Import from the pop-up window.
Test it from the chat window on the bottom right of the screen.

Congratulations you have created your first healthcare bot!!

Step 4: Deploy it to the internet and use its Endpoint

Fork this GitHub repository github.com/microsoft/HealthBotContainerSample it's a simple deployable container website that allows users to communicate with the Azure Health Bot through Web Chat.
Select Deploy to Azure after you create a fork from the repository's readme.

No need to edit anything in the repo!
Select the same resource group you used for creating the Azure health bot.
Add your chatbot credentials which are the App Secret and the WebChat Secret.
You can find the secrets required inside the Azure health bot management portal under the Integration tab from the left side panel then choose Secrets and Keys and scroll down.
Select Review + Create.
Select Create and wait for the provisioning to finish.
Open the Web App page and get the Default Domain name.
Test the deployed website and share it with others to test it and give you their feedback!