PathMate: Effects of Ubiquitous Healthcare Information Systems on Performance of Obesity Expert and Teenager Teams
Type
applied research project
Start Date
01 March 2012
End Date
28 February 2015
Status
ongoing
Keywords
Ubiquitous
Healthcare
Information Systems
Performance
Obesity
Overweight
Expert
Teenager
Team
Small Group
Description
Limited personnel resources and costs have a negative impact on the health supply in obesity therapy and prevention programs for teenagers. However, multi-professional and moderate to high-intensity interventions are strongly recommended to have positive effects on outcomes.

This project has therefore the objective to build and evaluate a Ubiquitous Healthcare Information System (UHIS) that has direct effects on the performance of obesity expert and teenager teams and indirect effects on the outcomes of obesity programs in Switzerland.

It will be investigated how to design UHIS collaboratively with obesity experts and obese teenagers by applying design science research. During the evaluation phase, special emphasis is given to the investigation of direct effects of UHIS on the communication, collaboration and mutual understanding between obesity experts and teenagers. The effects on group performance are measured by group cohesion and group commitment. Furthermore, indirect effects on general obesity program outcomes will be investigated.

Direct and indirect effects of the UHIS are evaluated by pre-tests and two in-depth longitudinal case studies with teenagers as part of an exiting individual obesity therapy at Ostschweizer Kinderspital in St. Gallen and an obesity prevention program at the Gymnasium du Bugnon in Lausanne led by the University of Lausanne. Thus, the UHIS will be available in German- and French­speaking versions at the end of the project. Finally, recommendations are discussed for improved obesity programs and a special emphasis will be given on the broader impact of team performance enhanced by UHIS on therapy outcomes of other diseases.
Leader contributor(s)
Member contributor(s)
Partner(s)
Ostschweizer Kinderspital, St. Gallen
University of Lausanne
ETH Zurich
Funder(s)
Topic(s)
Designing ubiquitous healthcare information systems
impact evaluation
research in small groups
cross-understanding
Method(s)
Qualitative and quantitative lab and field experiments
creativity workshops
longitudinal case studies
Range
HSG Internal
Range (De)
HSG Intern
Division(s)
Eprints ID
207948
Reference Number
CR10I1_135552

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  • Publication
    PathMate: Effects of Ubiquitous Healthcare Information Systems on Performance of Obesity Expert and Teenager Teams
    ( 2013-10-21)
    Maass, Wolfgang
    The prevalence of overweight and obesity in childhood has increased dramatically over the last decade (Sassi 2010). The PathMate project has therefore the objective to build and evaluate a healthcare information system (HIS) that has direct effects on the performance of obesity expert and teenager teams and indirect effects on the outcomes of obesity programs in Switzerland. A structured design-science methodology for the development of the HIS is adopted (Janzen et al. 2010). Design workshops with eight overweight children, their parents and obesity experts were conducted. A pretest has shown that the HIS supports perceived group cohesion and that the children are emotionally activated during HIS use and that this arousal had a positive valence. Methodological questions are discussed with regard to transdisciplinary research approaches.
    Type: presentation
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/88562
  • Publication
    Design and Preliminary Evaluation of a Mobile Application for Obesity Experts and Children Teams (Poster)
    ( 2013-09-12)
    Kowatsch, Tobias orcid-logo
    ;
    Büchter, Dirk
    ;
    Pletikosa Cvijikj, Irena
    ;
    Xu, Runhua
    ;
    Brogle, Björn
    ;
    Dintheer, Anneco
    ;
    Wiegand, Dunja
    ;
    l'Allemand, Dagmar
    ;
    Maass, Wolfgang
    Childhood obesity is one of the major disease patterns of the twenty-first century. Due to the need for multi-professional therapies requiring intensive personnel and financial resources, IT-supported interventions promise help. Meta analyses, however, show their limited impact on health outcomes up till now. The current work aims therefore to design and evaluate a mobile application that in-creases the cooperation between obesity experts and children. For that purpose, four IT experts, five therapists, nine obese children 10 to 14 years old and their parents adopted a structured design-science methodology. Perceived characteristics of the application and direct effects on cooperation of therapists and children were evaluated. The resulting application provides recipe recommendations based on ingredients available at home and desired by children. It further allows to document groceries and meals via a photo functionality. All interactions with the application were recorded to document screen time and utilization for efficient shopping and healthy meals. First feedback from seven therapists, six children and their parents indicates that the application is perceived useful, easy and fun to use. With regard to direct effects on the cooperation between obesity expert and children teams, there is evidence that the appli-cation supports shared understanding and cross understanding. Future work will incorporate further components of therapy programs, such as physi-cal activity or relaxation, but will also investigate in a longitudinal field study how the use of this application within a therapy program influences health condition of obese children.
    Type: presentation
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/88729