In chronic diseases, obtaining a correct diagnosis and providing the most appropriate treatments often is not enough to guarantee an improvement of the clinical condition of a patient. Poor adherence to medical prescriptions constitutes one of the main causes preventing achievement of therapeutic goals. This is generally true especially for certain diseases and specific target patients, such as children. An engaging and entertaining technology can be exploited in support of clinical practices to achieve better health outcomes. Our assumption is that a gamified session with a humanoid robot, compared to the usual methodologies for therapeutic education, can be more incisive in learning the correct inhalation procedure in children affected by asthma. In this perspective, we describe an interactive module implemented on the Pepper robotic platform and the setting of a study that was planned in 2020 to be held at the Pneumoallergology Pediatric clinic of CNR in Palermo. The study was canceled due to the pandemic and the subsequent and permanent closure of the clinic. Our long-term goal is to assess, by means of a qualitative-quantitative survey plan, the impact of such an educational action, evaluating possible improvement in the adherence to the treatment.

翻译：在慢性疾病中，即使获得正确诊断并提供最合适的治疗，往往也不足以保证患者临床状况的改善。对医疗处方的依从性差是阻碍实现治疗目标的主要原因之一。这一现象尤其适用于某些疾病和特定目标患者群体，例如儿童。一种富有吸引力和趣味性的技术可用于支持临床实践，以获得更好的健康结果。我们的假设是，与传统治疗教育方法相比，使用类人机器人进行游戏化互动，能更有效地帮助哮喘儿童掌握正确的吸入操作流程。基于这一视角，我们描述了在Pepper机器人平台上实现的交互式模块，以及原计划于2020年在巴勒莫CNR儿科肺过敏诊所进行的研究设置。该研究因疫情以及该诊所随后的永久关闭而被取消。我们的长期目标是，通过定性-定量结合的调查方案，评估此类教育干预的影响，并评估治疗依从性可能改善的程度。