Persuasive Technology in Healthcare
The project examines the development and design of novel Persuasive Technology (PT) in order to support children with type 1 diabetes. Behaviour can have a direct impact of individual health. Health can therefore be improved through successful behavioural modification. Behavioural modification with children can be more difficult because they are in the early stages of their communication and cognitive development. As a result, they do not always understand the nature of their illness or the consequences of their actions. The self-efficacy of children needs to be developed in order to enhance their health and minimise the risk of complications arising from improper diabetes management. One method to achieve this is through PT. PT in healthcare can be designed to help and support users by providing education about their illness as well as motivating them to engage in self-monitoring and self-care practises. More specifically, the project aims to identify if and how:
• Information and Communication technology (ICT) can affect children’s everyday management of diabetes; • the proper use of ICT can lead to more effective design improving chronic-care;
• research in PT, in the context of healthcare, can reveal more effective ways to encourage people to acquire and maintain healthy behaviours and improve their quality of life;
• Participatory Design approaches (which involve actively using stakeholders to help develop solutions) can be adequately used to help carry out this type of research.
In essence, the research will test persuasive technological solutions designed to improve children’s understanding of their condition, awareness of risks factors, ability to self-manage and general acquisition of healthy behaviours. This may in turn lead to the development of cost-effective treatments in health care systems as well an increase in the quality of life for patients, their family and other medical and supervisor assistants.
This project is funded by Irish Research Council (IRC).
Duration: 1 September, 2012 -> 30 September, 2015 Webpage: Persuasive Technologies in Healthcare
Main contacts in IDC:
e: cristiano.storni@ul.ie
e: damyanka.tsvyatkova@ul.ie
List of IDC-based members: