{"id":669189,"date":"2026-10-29T20:32:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T20:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/669189\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T20:32:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T20:32:16","slug":"spike-in-demand-to-nurse-advice-line-leads-to-ai-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/669189\/","title":{"rendered":"Spike in demand to nurse advice line leads to AI launch"},"content":{"rendered":"

A gynaecological cancer charity has launched an artificial intelligence (AI) tool to ease pressure on its specialist nurses amid a dramatic increase in demand.<\/p>\n

The Eve Appeal has seen a 1,141% rise in enquiries to its nurse-led advice line, Ask Eve<\/a>, from members of the public with gynaecological health concerns over the past two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cAsk Eve Assist has helped us manage this pressure by safely answering routine questions\u201d<\/p>\n

Helen Hyndman<\/p>\n

The spike in demand has been fuelled by the 2024 closure of a different gynaecological cancer charity, Jo\u2019s Cervical Cancer Trust, which had provided a similar advice service.<\/p>\n

Following its liquidation, Jo\u2019s Cervical Cancer Trust gifted all of its content to the Eve Appeal and its now-defunct website points people directly to Ask Eve.<\/a><\/p>\n

The resulting surge in enquiries to Ask Eve had placed \u201csignificant pressure\u201d on the two nurses who run it, one of whom only works part time, said the Eve Appeal.<\/p>\n

In a bid to ease this pressure, the charity has launched a new AI-powered information service called Ask Eve Assist that is available 24\/7 and gives people immediate answers to common questions.<\/p>\n

The charity said Ask Eve Assist only drew from its own validated health information, rather than the internet as a whole, which it believed made it more trustworthy than generic AI platforms.<\/p>\n

Specialist nurses, as well as people with lived experience of gynaecological cancers, were involved in the design of Ask Eve Assist, said the charity.<\/p>\n

The nurse-led service is still available for those who would prefer that over AI, and people whose case is too complex for Ask Eve Assist will be referred to the nurses.<\/p>\n

During a trial involving 359 users, Ask Eve Assist \u201csuccessfully\u201d handled nearly 95% of enquiries without requiring nurse intervention, while 19 cases were escalated to the nurse service, reported the charity.<\/p>\n

Helen Hyndman, Ask Eve lead nurse, said: \u201cAs a nurse, one of the hardest parts of the growing demand for Ask Eve was knowing that many people required more intensive support than we had time to provide.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Helen Hyndman<\/p>\n

\u201cAsk Eve Assist has helped us manage this pressure by safely answering routine questions, allowing us to spend more time with those who need specialist care.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing can replace speaking to a nurse, but Ask Eve Assist helps us make immediate support available to people when they need it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The charity said its decision to launch the AI platform was also inspired by concerns about people getting inaccurate health advice from unreliable AI sources.<\/p>\n

It conducted an investigation posing as patients and found that \u201cred flag\u201d symptoms of gynaecological cancer were missed by one popular generic AI platform.<\/p>\n

The launch follows new research published by Columbia University School of Nursing in New York<\/a> this month showing that most patients prefer to wait for medical advice from a health professional rather than get it immediately from AI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A gynaecological cancer charity has launched an artificial intelligence (AI) tool to ease pressure on its specialist nurses…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,61,60],"class_list":["post-669189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}