Remote Medical Interview System for Dental Phobia Detection

Dental phobia is considered a global public health problem because it causes avoidance of dental visits, and avoidance behavior leads to deterioration of the oral environment and oral-related quality of life. On the other hand, patients with dental phobia are considered to have characteristics in digital phenotyping data such as facial expressions, speech, emotions, and reaction. Therefore, the goal of this study is to develop a method to diagnose the severity of dental phobia objectively and quantitatively at an early stage by using digital phenotyping data for analysis. In this paper, we discuss the development results of a remote medical interview system for collecting the data necessary for the diagnosis as a first step. This system acquires digital phenotyping data by having an avatar on a tablet PC ask questions by voice and capturing the responses with a camera. It was confirmed that the obtained video information during the medical interview could be quantified for analysis by OpenFace.