Intelligent Futures Research Lab

• Our lab will be at AMIA 2025 this November! We will present our recent findings from AI Chatbot user testing with participants having unmet health-related social needs. We will also present synthetic conversational data generation approaches.
• Sezgin was awarded the K12 grant by the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (OSU) to run a pilot RCT for a social needs chatbot, DAPHNE, at pediatric primary care clinics (2025).
• Research Associate Daniel I. Jackson accepted a PhD program at OSU in computer science & engineering starting in Fall 2025.
• Read our latest work on evaluating performance of AI and Large Language Models in pediatric oncology domain. Open access paper available at Cancer Medicine (2025).
• Our new study examined the perceptions of caregivers of young childhood cancer survivors regarding the use of virtual assistant technology for health information seeking and care Open access paper available at Digital Health (2025).
• The Society of Behavioral Medicine honored our work (DAPHNE) with the Excellence in Digital Health Publication Award (2025)
• Becker’s Hospital Review recognized Dr. Sezgin and Nationwide Children’s Hospital in their list of “6 Children’s Hospitals Leading in AI” for innovation in healthcare technology.

1. Colakoglu S, Durmus M, Polat Z, Yildiz A, Sezgin E** . User Engagement with A Multimodal Conversational Agent for Self-Care and Chronic Disease Management: A Retrospective Analysis. Journal of Medical Systems. 2025 Jun 9;49(1):76.
2. Sezgin E, Jackson DI, Hussain SA, Kocaballi AB, Richardson C, Skeens M, Fosler-Lussier E, Ewing AP, Donneyong M, Pai A. Evaluating User Experiences with an AI Chatbot for Health-Related Social Needs: A Cross-Sectional Mixed Methods Study. medRxiv. 2025 Jun 17:2025-06.
3. Sezgin E, Jackson DI, Kocaballi AB, Bibart M, Zupanec S, Landier W, Audino A, Ranalli M, Skeens M. Can Large Language Models Aid Caregivers of Pediatric Cancer Patients in Information Seeking? A Cross‐Sectional Investigation. Cancer Medicine. 2025;14(1):e70554.
4. Sezgin E, Jackson DI, Kaufman K, Skeens MA, Gerhardt CA, Moscato E. Perceptions about the use of virtual assistants for seeking health information among caregivers of young childhood cancer survivors. Digital Health. 2025 Mar;11:20552076251326160.
5. Sezgin E, Kocaballi AB. Era of Generalist Conversational Artificial Intelligence to Support Public Health Communications. Journal of Medical Internet Research. 2025;27:e69007.

View the full list of publications and abstracts

The Intelligent Futures Research Lab is not currently accepting applications for any positions. However, you can send a message detailing your interest with specifics and to be considered for future opportunities. If you are interested in collaborating with the lab, connect with us via the form below.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Emre Sezgin

The Dialog-based Assistant Platform for Healthcare and Needs Ecosystem (DAPHNE) is the first conversational agent designed to identify social needs, provide personalized resources, and autonomously follow up with users about resource utilization. The goal of the project is to streamline connections between parents and caregivers with public services and clinical services to improve health outcomes of populations with high need.

Research activities are currently funded by the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at The Ohio State University (K-12). This project has previously been funded by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (Building Bridges to Better Health: A Primary Health Care) and The Ohio State University TDAI BIIG Award. It is also supported by FindHelp.org fellowship, received AWS Social Responsibility and Impact (SRI) Credits.

This technology is ready for licensing and research collaborations! For details, please visit our Available Technologies page or contact Tech.Commercialization@NationwideChildrens.org.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Emre Sezgin
Co-Investigators: Anup Patel, MD & Dr. Zach Grinspan (Weill Cornell Medicine)

This project leverages natural language processing and large language models to automate the creation of a comprehensive clinical registry for Lennox Gastaut Syndrome, a severe pediatric epilepsy disorder. By enhancing an existing epilepsy data framework (PELHS) with LGS-specific features and deploying a hybrid LLM/NLP pipeline, the project aims to extract critical clinical data from electronic medical records efficiently. The registry will support future research, precision medicine and improved care delivery. This project is funded by Lennox Gastaut Syndrome Foundation.

Principal Investigators: Micah Skeens, PCPNP and Dr. Emre Sezgin

This study’s goal is to develop and evaluate a novel AI-based chatbot that aids families of children with cancer about finding community resources for social needs and toxic stress focused mental health interventions. In phase 1 of this study, we are engaging stakeholder focus groups to inform the co-design of the chatbot. In phase 2, we will explore feasibility and acceptability of through user testing and thematic content analysis with caregivers of children with cancer. Funded by the World Cancer Research Fund.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Emre Sezgin

Documentation burden is especially high in settings like emergency departments, primary care triage, and mental health triage, where clinicians must capture complex, time-sensitive conversations while making critical decisions. These challenges highlight the need for AI tools that can generate accurate, real-time clinical summaries to support care and reduce workload. Our digital scribe project aims to develop and evaluate AI models that generate real-time clinical summaries from triage conversations. The goal is to improve documentation quality, reduce clinician workload and support timely decision-making across diverse care settings.

• The Innovations in Future Ready Healthcare Lab (IFRL) is actively engaged in several interdisciplinary, federally and institutionally funded projects that leverage digital health, AI and behavioral science to advance patient-centered care.
• Through an NIH R21 (PI: Skeens), IFRL is contributing to the feasibility and usability testing of BMT4me, a Spanish-transcreated mobile app supporting post-transplant adherence among pediatric HSCT caregivers. (Co-I: Sezgin)
• As part of an ongoing NIH R01 (PI: Nahata), the lab is helping adapt and implement FAST, a web-based decision tool to support sperm banking decisions for adolescent males with cancer, tailored for diverse care settings. (Co-I: Sezgin)
• In partnership with the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation (PI: Maa), IFRL supports the development of a VR-based training platform for situational awareness and de-escalation to reduce workplace violence in health care. (Co-I: Sezgin)
• Internally funded by The Ohio State University, IFRL contributes to EpiBot (PI: Paige), an AI chatbot guiding acute care decisions during seizures, and to the CRC Digital Decision Aid project (PI: Ewing), aimed at increasing colorectal cancer screening rates through digital transformation. (Co-I: Sezgin)