Research Appraisalother

Japanese-Language AI Agent System for Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Infoveillance and Public Communication: Development and Feasibility Evaluation

JMIR infodemiologyLiu, Junyu, Yang, Siwen, Ma, Dexiu et al.21 May 2026DOI

Clinical Snapshot

80CEBM
Evidence: Moderateother

PICO Framework

P — PopulationJapanese-speaking public seeking HPV vaccine information and healthcare institutions requiring infoveillance data
I — InterventionAI agent system with conversational interface and automated report generation for HPV vaccine communication
C — ComparatorTraditional public health communication strategies (implied comparison)
O — OutcomesSystem performance metrics (relevance, routing, reference quality, correctness, professional identity), report generation quality scores, and feasibility assessment

Bottom Line

This feasibility study demonstrates promising technical performance of an AI-powered system designed to address HPV vaccine hesitancy in Japan through dual functions of public communication and social media monitoring. The system achieved high performance scores across multiple evaluation domains, with particularly strong results for accuracy, relevance, and professional identity maintenance. However, the study's limitation to controlled testing environments without real-world user validation significantly limits immediate clinical applicability. While the technical foundation appears robust, prospective deployment studies with actual vaccine-hesitant populations are essential to determine real-world effectiveness and safety. The integration of infoveillance capabilities with direct public communication represents an innovative approach that could inform similar initiatives in other healthcare contexts, though careful consideration of algorithmic bias and health misinformation risks remains crucial.

Evidence: Moderate

Key Findings

  • P Value: Not reported - descriptive feasibility study

  • Effect Size: Overall mean performance scores: 4.80 (single-turn) and 4.98 (multi-turn) on 0-5 scale

  • Primary Outcome: System feasibility demonstrated with high performance scores across all evaluation domains

  • Nnt Or Sensitivity: Reference validity: 100% accuracy; Citation correctness: 4.21/5.0 (95% CI 3.96-4.46)

  • Confidence Interval: Single-turn overall: not specified; individual domains range from 4.27-4.99

Clinical Application

High technical feasibility demonstrated but requires real-world validation with actual users Limited direct applicability due to Japanese language focus, but methodology could inform similar systems for Australian multicultural populations. Relevant to TGA vaccine communication strategies and RACGP patient education initiatives Healthcare institutions requiring HPV vaccine infoveillance and Japanese-speaking populations seeking vaccine information

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine hesitancy remains a significant public health challenge in Japan, where proactive vaccination recommendations were suspended between 2013 and 2021. The resulting information gap between medical institutions and vaccine-hesitant populations is exacerbated by misinformation on social media platforms. Traditional public health communication strategies cannot address individual queries while simultaneously monitoring population-level discourse. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to develop and conduct a feasibility evaluation of a dual-purpose artificial intelligence agent system that delivers verified HPV vaccine information to the public through a conversational interface while generating infoveillance reports for medical institutions based on user interactions and social media discourse. METHODS: We implemented a system with 3 components: a vector database integrating 139,803 documents, including academic papers, Japanese government sources, news media, and social media posts; a retrieval-augmented generation chatbot using a ReAct agent architecture with iterative multitool orchestration across 5 specialized knowledge sources; and an automated report generation system with modules for news analysis, research synthesis, social media sentiment analysis, including stance classification and topic modeling, and user interaction pattern identification. System performance was assessed using both automated and manual evaluation protocols on a scale from 0 to 5. RESULTS: The entire system functioned as expected. For single-turn evaluation, the chatbot achieved mean scores of 4.83 (SD 0.67; 95% CI 4.71-4.93) for relevance, 4.89 (SD 0.53; 95% CI 4.79-4.97) for routing, 4.50 (SD 1.29; 95% CI 4.27-4.70) for reference quality, 4.90 (SD 0.62; 95% CI 4.78-4.99) for correctness, and 4.88 (SD 0.54; 95% CI 4.78-4.96) for professional identity, with an overall mean of 4.80. Multiturn evaluation yielded higher mean scores: 4.94 for context memory (SD 0.25; 95% CI 4.84-5.00) and an overall mean of 4.98, with topic centering and identity achieving 5.00. The report generation system achieved high scores across all sections: 4.83 for completeness (SD 0.37; 95% CI 4.73-4.94), 4.88 for correctness (SD 0.33; 95% CI 4.77-4.96), and 4.12 for helpfulness (SD 0.48; 95% CI 3.98-4.27). Reference validity achieved perfect scores (5.00) across all periods, with citation correctness averaging 4.21 (SD 0.58; 95% CI 3.96-4.46). CONCLUSIONS: This feasibility study demonstrated that an integrated artificial intelligence agent system can support both public HPV vaccine communication and social media infoveillance in a Japanese-language context. Prospective deployment with real users is needed to assess actual public health impact.

References

  1. 1.Liu, J., Yang, S., Ma, D., Niu, Q., Zhang, Z., Nagai-Tanima, M., & Aoyama, T. (2026). Japanese-Language AI Agent System for Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Infoveillance and Public Communication: Development and Feasibility Evaluation. JMIR Infodemiology. https://doi.org/10.2196/90295
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