Digital Health and Wellbeing
Digital Transformation for Person-Driven Integrated Health and Wellbeing
It leverages digital technologies to empower individuals take control of their integrated health and wellbeing. It recognises that health is not just about physical wellness, but it also encompasses mental, emotional, and social aspects.
MOTIVATION
There is a growing body of evidence to support the effectiveness of an integrated approach to health and wellbeing that addresses all aspects of a person’s life, rather than just treating specific symptoms or diseases. This approach recognizes that physical health is interconnected with emotional, mental, social, and emotional health, and that all of these aspects must be in balance in order for an individual to achieve optimal health and wellbeing.
The motivation for a integrated approach also stems from a desire to empower individuals to take an active role in their own health and wellbeing. By focusing on prevention and self-care, individuals can better understand their health and wellbeing, make informed decisions, and make positive changes that can improve their overall quality of life.
Digital technologies can support integrated health and wellbeing by providing tools and platforms that, among others, promote healthy habits, encourage social connection, and support mental and emotional wellness.
More digital health and wellbeing activities can be found here.
Email info@ivi.ie/ marco.alfano@mu.ie for collaboration opportunities.
Â
RESEARCH
Digital Transformation for Person-Driven Holistic Health and Wellbeing leverages digital technologies to empower individuals to take control of their integrated health and wellbeing. It is based on three fundamental components:
1. Integrated Health and Wellbeing Model
Suggested Solution: An integrated health and wellbeing model is a framework that takes into account all aspects of an individual’s life, including physical, mental, social, and emotional health. It recognizes that these different aspects of health are interconnected and must be in balance in order for an individual to achieve optimal health and wellbeing.
Activity: An integrated health and wellbeing model is being developed with its health dimensions (e.g., physical, mental, social, and emotional), health statutes (e.g., poor, fair, good), and health aspects/drivers (e.g., vital signs, food, physical activity, sleep). An example can be found at this address.
2. Digital Health and Wellbeing Environment
Suggested Solution: AÂ digital health and wellbeing environment refers to a system that leverages digital technologies to support and enhance various aspects of health and wellbeing. It may include applications, devices, and online resources that provide information, tools, and services aimed at promoting and managing health.
Activity: A digital health and wellbeing environment is being created. It is an interconnected system of people, institutions, applications/services, data, and infrastructure. It allows individuals to use technology for understanding, monitoring, and improving their overall health and wellbeing. An example of the environment can be found at the Co-health website.
3. Intelligent Empowering Agent
Suggested Solution: An intelligent empowering agent is a digital system that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms to provide personalized guidance and support to individuals in all aspects of their health and wellbeing.
Activity: An intelligent empowering agent is being developed. It helps individuals understand their integrated health status, make informed choices, and keep/improve their quality of life by enabling connection/interaction with suitable people, apps, and data of the digital health and wellbeing environment. A prototype of the agent can be found at this address.
One of the key benefits of digital transformation for person-driven integrated health and wellbeing is the ability to personalize health and wellbeing objectives. Digital tools can collect data on an individual’s health and wellbeing, which can then be analyzed and used to provide personalized information and recommendations for diet, exercise, and lifestyle modifications. This approach empowers individuals to achieve their health and wellbeing goals in a way that is tailored to their unique needs and preferences.
Researchers:
Dr Marco Alfano
Professor Markus Helfert
Maryam Nawaz
Simon Hanratty
List of Publications:
General Public Articles
M. Alfano, How the internet can help us to stay healthy.RTE Brainstorm. 4 October 2019.
Scientific Publications
- Alfano, M., Kellett, J., Lenzitti, B., Helfert, M. (2023). Intelligent Provision of Tailored, Easily Understood, and Trusted Health Information for Patient Empowerment. In Proceedings of the 16th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies – HEALTHINF, ISBN 978-989-758-631-6; ISSN 2184-4305, pages 384-391. DOI: 10.5220/0011694300003414
- Alfano, M., Kellett, J., Lenzitti, B., Helfert, M. (2023). An Intelligent Empowering Agent (IEA) to Provide Easily Understood and Trusted Health Information Appropriate to the User Needs. In: Longo, L., O’Reilly, R. (eds) Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science. AICS 2022. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1662. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26438-2_14l
- Alfano, M., Kellett, J., Lenzitti, B., Helfert, M. (2022). Characteristics and Subjective Evaluation of an Intelligent Empowering Agent for Health Person Empowerment. Studies in health technology and informatics, 299, 177–182. IOS Press.
- Alfano M., Kellett J., Lenzitti B., Helfert M. (2021) Proposed Use of a Conversational Agent for Patient Empowerment. In Proceedings of the 14th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies – Volume 4: Scale-IT-up, ISBN 978-989-758-490-9, pages 817-824. DOI: 10.5220/0010414408170824
- Alfano M., Lenzitti B., Taibi D., Helfert M. (2021) On-Line Retrieval of Health Information Based on Language Complexity, Information Customization and Information Quality. In: Ziefle M., Guldemond N., Maciaszek L.A. (eds) Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health. ICT4AWE 2020. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1387. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70807-8_1
- M. Alfano, B. Lenzitti, D. Taibi and M. Helfert. (2020)Â Language Complexity in On-line Health Information Retrieval.. In: Ziefle M., Maciaszek L. (eds) Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health. ICT4AWE 2019. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1219. Springer, Cham
- M. Alfano, B. Lenzitti, G. Lo Bosco, C. Muriana, T. Piazza, G. Vizzini. (2020) Design, Development and Validation of a System for Automatic Help to Medical Text Understanding. International Journal of Medical Informatics, Vol. 138, pp. 104109. Elsevier BV.
- M. Alfano, B. Lenzitti, D. Taibi and M. Helfert (2020). Tailored Retrieval of Health Information from the Web for Facilitating Communication and Empowerment of Elderly People.In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health – Volume 1: ICT4AWE, ISBN 978-989-758-420-6, pages 205-216. DOI: 10.5220/0009576202050216.
- M. Alfano, B. Lenzitti, D. Taibi, M. Helfert. (2019) ULearn: Personalized Medical Learning on the Web for Patient Empowerment. In: Herzog M., Kubincová Z., Han P., Temperini M. (eds) Advances in Web-Based Learning – ICWL 2019. ICWL 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 11841. Springer, Cham.
- S. Togneri MacMahon, M. Alfano, B. Lenzitti, G. Lo Bosco, F. McCaffery, D. Taibi, and M. Helfert. (2019) Improving Communication in Risk Management of Health Information Technology Systems by means of Medical Text Simplification. Proc. of 4th IEEE Workshop on ICT Solutions for e-Health (ICTS4eHealth 2019), 30 June 2019, Barcelona.
- M. Alfano, B. Lenzitti, D. Taibi and M. Helfert. (2019) Provision of Tailored Health Information for Patient Empowerment: An Initial Study. Proc. of ACM International Conference on Computer Systems and Technologies (CompSysTech’19), 21-22 June 2019, Ruse.
- M. Alfano, B. Lenzitti, D. Taibi, M. Helfert. (2019) Facilitating access to health web pages with different language complexity levels. Proc. of the 5th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health (ICT4AWE 2019), 2-4 May 2019, Heraklion-Crete.
