Improving Knowledge and Decision Support for Healthy Lifestyles
to become a leading web-based weight control, food intake monitor, lifestyle assistant and certified information provider positioned on the European market
PROJECT SUMMARY
The global objective of the project is supporting health care professionals and nutritionists in their effort to i m p r o v e t h e q u a l i t y of life of the European citizens. The platform will provide the target users with a powerful tool to assist a complete process of changing their lifestyle, laying the emphasis on personalized approach and credibility of provided information by: • A large number of trustworthy and personalized information coming from certified medical sources and scientifically approved food databases and linking thus the latest scientific knowledge with the best practices in medical and nutritional fields; • Fostering a proactive approach of European citizens to their health – as a response to the demand of the “new consumer” of the 21st century, who will take up their own role in the management of their own health.
SCIENTIFIC BACKGROUND OF PROJECT
O v e r w e i g h t , o b e s i t y are i n c r e a s i n g at an alarming rate in Europe becoming major p u b l i c h e a l t h p r o b l e m : • In EU-15 at least 135 million citizens are affected, while perhaps another 70 million are to be found in EU-10. The increase of children’s obesity and overweight is exceedingly alarming. • Wrong nutrition and a lack of exercise are the main reasons of increasing obesity both in adults and in children in Europe. Overweight and obesity involve a substantial risk factor for many chronic diseases and present a significant barrier to the prevention and treatment of them. • Obesity involves important budgetary and economic cost estimated to 2-8 % of the health care expenses. • The modern environment indirectly favours wrong nutritional habits and unhealthy lifestyle leading to overweight and obesity. European health care is unfit to prevent the epidemic due to poor level of overweight / obesity knowledge and prevention.
MAIN PROJECT OBJECTIVES AND GOALS
The HEALTH+ project is aiming at filling the gap - need for effective therapeutic management of weight control and healthy lifestyle - through the a c t i v e s u p p o r t t o h e a l t h c a r e a n d nutritional professionals involved in weight control and lifestyle m a n a g e m e n t a n d i n t h e p r e v e n t i o n i n i t i a t i v e s by providing a substantial contribution to the research and development of advanced ICT-based systems and services in the eHealth area and providing a substantial contribution in the area of integrated information systems. The HEALTH+ platform provides the target users with a powerful tool to assist a complete process of changing their lifestyle, laying the emphasis on personalized approach and credibility of provided information by: • Setting up an integrated knowledge management platform for assisting health care professionals, nutritionists and other users. The platform performs assessment of nutritional habits of target citizens’ and patients’ groups, and provides certified and localized scientific information on food composition and lifestyle management. • Providing support to health care professionals producing tailored nutritional plans, providing specialized counselling for efficient weight control and support to health care professionals dealing with diseases closely connected with nutrition, lifestyle and obesity (cardiovascular or metabolic diseases etc.).
PROJECT IMPACTS
The HEALTH+ project potential impact lies in contributing to the f i g h t a g a i n s t o v e r w e i g h t , o b e s i t y a n d u n h e a l t h y l i f e s t y l e through the establishment of a knowledge and decision support systems especially targeted for patient-focused weight prevention and healthy lifestyle information and counselling. The HEALTH+ supports p r e v e n t i o n initiatives for o v e r w e i g h t h i n d r a n c e in children and adults and p r o m o t e s l i f e s t y l e c h a n g e m a n a g e m e n t . In this way the system aims to offer a s o l u t i o n to one of the main s o c i e t a l and e c o n o m i c p r o b l e m s o f t h e E U , to improve the level of health care systems by the provision of advanced services and to boost the research in the field of human nutrition and lifestyle management. By supporting evidence-based and patient-focused decisions, fostering high level of health and well-being for citizens and providing better, safer and higher prevention and quality care for all, the project especially refers to the chance of creating a n e w s t r a t e g y for b e t t e r h e a l t h c a r e t r e a t m e n t and to promote the centrality of patient in medical care; it also grants best practices for state, regional and local authorities in dealing and modernizing the health care system.
MAJOR INNOVATIONS AND ADDED VALUE
The HEALTH+ platform includes a trustworthy scientific context for information connecting nutrition, health, lifestyle, localized food databases, an easy to use designer for creation of food frequency questionnaires and food diaries collecting data from the users, and a tool to analyze the multidimensional food intake data. The platform covers a knowledge management system for clinical and scientific information sharing among health care professionals, nutritionists and researchers and nutritional plan builder for health care professionals, nutritionists and other users to support them in defining and implementing personal nutritional and lifestyle plans, based on patient’s nutritional profile, needs, preferences, tastes, country, caloric consumption, allergies etc. and using the decision support tool. The system includes i n n o v a t i v e s o f t w a r e f u n c t i o n s : • a s o p h i s t i c a t e d a d v i s o r for healthy life style and improvement of health using diet and p h y s i c a l a c t i v i t y p l a n b u i l d e r , with interactive functionalities providing personalized advice, • professional tools and instruments for dieticians, physicians a including a s e m i -a u t o m a t i c n u t r i t i o n p l a n b u i l d e r , • applied n e w d e c i s i o n c r i t e r i a respecting the global strategy on diet, physical activity and health as stated in the most recent scientific evidence based knowledge, a • basic p s y c h o s o c i a l s u p p o r t t o o l s and s e l f -a s s e s s m e n t tools to inform citizens about healthy nutrition and lifestyle habits and a u t o m a t i c a l e r t i n g m e c h a n i s m s to improve the communication between professionals and citizens/patients so encouraging the maintenance of the undertaken nutritional programs, • P D A and m o b i l e d e v i c e s u p p o r t to ensure 24 hours and 7 days availability of the service, • s m a r t s e a r c h t o o l able to manage different document types and sources .
TARGET AUDIENCE
The HEALTH+ system foresees t w o l e v e l s of usage. The main level is s c i e n t i f i c a n d c l i n i c a l , targets h e a l t h c a r e p r o f e s s i o n a l s a n d n u t r i t i o n i s t s , offers access to specialized and localized food/weight related knowledge, food composition and analysis, diseases and risk factors depending on unhealthy nutritional behaviours and epidemiological data. The system will also implement tools to match scientific data with users’ profiles for personalized medical and nutritional advice. The secondary level is i n f o r m a t i v e a n d e d u c a t i o n a l . It will address educators, teachers, psychologists, trainers, instructors, advisers and other operators supporting the process of overweight and obesity prevention and reduction. The system will offer tools to implement lifestyle change support and to increase awareness around weight related issues.
USER SCENARIOS
There are four scenarios intended: Research subsystem, Operative subsystem Promotional subsystem, Knowledge subsystem
PROJECT PARTNERS
The HEALTH+ project can boast a prestigious transnational consortium, combining competencies and experience in all relevant scientific and technological strategic fields to offer an integrated, standard, open and interoperable solution. The project has a strong academic support, as it gathers three prestigious academic departments involved in human nutrition and weight control strategies: A g r i c u l t u r a l U n i v e r s i t y o f K r a k o w performing research in the area of human nutrition and will focus on Polish young people aged from 10 to 18 aiming at evaluation of nutritional status, theoretical nutritional knowledge, actual food intake, nutritional habits and lifestyles, average energy and nutrient intake of the subjects. U n i v e r s i t y o f P a r m a active in human nutrition research and will validate the HEALTH+ concept and platform among children aged from 6 to 12 by assessing children eating and lifestyle habits, implementing corrective measures targeting all children in a given environment in general and overweight children in particular. C h a r l e s U n i v e r s i t y i n P r a g u e concentrating to the dissemination in medical scientific and research sector and focusing on Czech adults aged from 18 to 60 and on obese patients with metabolic syndrome.
Coordinator: IDS Scheer CR Czech Republic Contact details: Ing. Milena Hrbackova, MSc. Videnska 55, 639 00 Brno Tel.: + 420 543 524 630 Fax: + 420 543 524 601 E-mail: milena.hrbackova@ids–scheer.com
Partner name IDS SCHEER CR CHARLES UNIVERSITY IN PRAGUE, 1st FACULTY OF MEDICINE AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY OF KRAKOW INFORMATION COMMUNICATIONS EPIS LTD. DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH, UNIVERSITY OF PARMA WORLD MATCH R&S INFO S.R.L. ISH L.T.D. QUALITY & RELIABILITY S.A. PROFESSIONAL CLINICAL SOFTWARE GMBH
Partner country Czech Republic Czech Republic Poland Greece Italy Malta Italy Hungary Greece Austria