The vision of the MobileCoach platform is to create fully-automated digital interventions.

Due to a modular and extendable structure as well as an architecture rooted in the logics and legal claims of open-source software, the MobileCoach lays a fruitful ground for digital interventions in several application domains of behavior change. For example, the MobileCoach can be used to design and evaluate digital health interventions in the context of smoking cessation, nutrition and physical activity, as well as chronic or mental diseases.

Based on personal characteristics and prior behavior assessed when participating in a digital intervention, the MobileCoach uses communication services (e.g. SMS) or sensor services (e.g. physical activity tracker) to monitor central indicators of the particular behavior on a regular basis. Building on individual data, MobileCoach users profit from individualized messages and valuable insights motivating for long-term behavior change.

In the pilot phase, the MobileCoach will support two concrete health behaviors. Due to its open-source character, however, future research teams around the globe may contribute by adding features to the software and broadening the number of supported behaviors.

The current release of MobileCoach platform is available here: www.mobile-coach.eu.

This project received the following awards:

1. The mobile MAX intervention for children with Asthma entitled “MAX – Dein Asthmacoach” received the Intermedia-globe Grand Award 2019 in the category Web at the World Media Festival 2019 in Hamburg, Germany.
2. The mobile MAX intervention for children with Asthma entitled “MAX – Dein Asthmacoach” received the Intermedia-globe Gold Award 2019 in the category Mobile Apps & Interactive Tools at the World Media Festival 2019 in Hamburg, Germany.
3. Impact Award 2018, University of St.Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland (see video clip below)
4. Outstanding Paper Award at the IEEE Wireless Telecommunications Symposium 2015 (WTS 2015), New York, USA.
5. Best Graduate Student Paper Award at the IEEE Wireless Telecommunications Symposium 2015 (WTS 2015), New York, USA.

2020

Rüegger, D., Stieger, M., Nißen, M.K., Allemand, M., Fleisch, E., Kowatsch, T., How Are Personality States Associated with Smartphone Data?, European Journal of Personality, doi.org/10.1002/per.2309. (PDF)

Rassouli, F., Tinschert, P., Barata, F., Steurer-Stey, C., Fleisch, E., Puhan, M., Baty, F., Kowatsch, T., Brutsche, M. (2020) Characteristics of Asthma-related Nocturnal Cough – A Potential New Digital Biomarker, European Respiratory Society International Congress (ERS 2020) (virtual), Barcelona, Spain, September 7-9, 2020. (PDF)

Tinschert, P., Rassouli, F., Barata, F., Steurer-Stey, C., Fleisch, E., Puhan, M., Baty, F., Kowatsch, T., Brutsche, M. (2020) Nocturnal Cough and Sleep Quality to Assess Asthma Control and Predict Attacks, European Respiratory Society International Congress (ERS 2020) (virtual), Barcelona, Spain, September 7-9, 2020. (PDF)

Barata, F., Tinschert, P., Rassouli, F., Brutsche, M., Kotz, D.F., Puhan, M., Fleisch, E., Kowatsch, T. (2020) Automatic recognition, segmentation and sex assignment of nocturnal asthmatic cough and cough epochs in smartphone-based audio recordings: Results from an observational field study, Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR), 22(7):e18082, doi: 10.2196/18082 (PDF)

Stieger, M., Eck, M., Rüegger, D., Kowatsch, T., Flückiger, C., Allemand, M. (2020) Who Wants to Become More Conscientious, More Extraverted, or Less Neurotic With the Help of a Digital Intervention, Journal of Research in Personality, doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2020.103983. (PDF)

Stieger, M., Wepfer, S., Rüegger, D., Kowatsch, T., Roberts, B.W., Allemand, M. (2020) Becoming More Conscientious or More Open to Experience? Effects of a Two-Week Smartphone-Based Intervention for Personality Change, European Journal of Personality 34(3), 345-366, dx.doi.org/10.1002/per.2267.

Hauser-Ulrich, S., Künzli, H., Meier-Peterhans, D., Kowatsch, T. (2020) A Smartphone-Based Health Care Chatbot to Promote Self-Management of Chronic Pain (SELMA): Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial, JMIR Mhealth Uhealth 2020;8(4):e15806, doi.org/10.2196/15806. (PDF)

Haug, S., Paz, R., Scholz, U., Kowatsch, T., Schaub, M.P., Radtke, T. (2020) Assessment of the Efficacy of a Mobile Phone-Delivered Just-in-Time Planning Intervention to Reduce Alcohol Use in Adolescents: Randomized Controlled Crossover Trial, JMIR mHealth and uHealth (JMU) 8(5):e16937 doi.org/10.2196/16937. (PDF)

Kramer, J., Künzler, F., Mishra, V., Smith, S.N., Kotz, D.F., Scholz, U., Fleisch, E., Kowatsch, T., Which Components of a Smartphone Walking App Help Users to Reach Personalized Step Goals? Results from an Optimization Trial, Annals of Behavioral Medicine, doi.org/10.1093/abm/kaaa002. (PDF)

Boateng, G., Lüscher, J., Scholz, U., Kowatsch, T. (2020) Emotion Capture among Real Couples in Everyday Life, 1st Momentary Emotion Elicitation & Capture (MEEC) workshop, co-located with the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, April 25th, 2020. (PDF)

Boateng, G., Sels, L., Kuppens, P., Lüscher, J., Scholz, U., Kowatsch, T. (2020) Emotion Elicitation and Capture among Real Couples in the Lab, 1st Momentary Emotion Elicitation & Capture (MEEC) workshop, co-located with the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, April 25th, 2020. (PDF)

Presset, B., Kramer, J., Kowatsch, T., Ohl, F. (2020) The social meaning of steps: User reception of a mobile health intervention on physical activity , Critical Public Health, doi.org/10.1080/09581596.2020.1725445. (Web)

2019

Künzler, F., Mishra, V., Kramer, J.-N., Fleisch, E., Kotz, D.F. & T. Kowatsch (2019) Exploring the State-of-Receptivity for mHealth Interventions, Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies (IMWUT), Issue 4, December. (Web)

Kowatsch, T., Harperink, S., Dittler, U., Xiao, G., Stanger, C., Oswald, H., Möller, A. (2019) A digital assistant for healthcare providers targeting 10 to 15-year-old patients with asthma and their family: results from a pilot study, Abstract published by the Center for Digital Health Interventions, ETH Zurich & University of St.Gallen. (PDF)

Boateng, G., Santhanam, P., Lüscher, J., Scholz, U., Kowatsch, T. (2019) Poster: DyMand – An Open-Source Mobile and Wearable System for Assessing Couples’ Dyadic Management of Chronic Diseases, The 25th Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking (MobiCom), Poster & Demo Paper, Los Cabos, Mexico. (PDF)

Kowatsch, T., Fischer-Taeschler, D., Putzing, F., Bürki, P., Stettler, C., Chiesa-Tanner, G., Fleisch, E. (2019) Die digitale Pille für chronische Krankheiten, in: Digitale Transformation von Dienstleistungen im Gesundheitswesen VI – Impulse für die Forschung, M. Pfannstiel, P. Da-Cruz and H. Mehlich (eds.), Springer Gabler, Heidelberg, Germany, 205-231. (PDF)

Lüscher, J., Kowatsch, T., Boateng, G., Santhanam, P., Bodemann, G., Scholz, U. (2019) Social Support and Common Dyadic Coping in Couples’ Dyadic Management of Type II Diabetes: Protocol for an Ambulatory Assessment Application, JMIR Res Protoc 2019;8(10):e13685 DOI: 10.2196/13685. (PDF)

Boateng, G., Santhanam, P., Lüscher, J., Scholz, U., Kowatsch, T. (2019) VADLite: An Open-Source Lightweight System for Real-Time Voice Activity Detection on Smartwatches, 4th International Workshop on Mental Health: Sensing & Intervention, co-located with the 2019 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp), London, UK. (PDF)

Boateng, G., Santhanam, P., Lüscher, J., Scholz, U., Kowatsch, T. (2019) DyMand: An Open-Source Mobile and Wearable System for Assessing Couples’ Dyadic Management of Chronic Diseases, 14th International Conference on Design Science Research in Information Systems and Technology (DESRIST), June 4-6, Worcester, MA, USA. (PDF).

Künzler, F. (2019) Context-aware notification management systems for just-in-time adaptive interventions, IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications Workshops (PerCom Workshops). IEEE, 2019, Kyoto, Japan. (PDF)

Kramer, J., Künzler, F., Mishra, V., Presset, B., Smith, S.N., Scholz, U., Kotz, D.F., Kowatsch, T., Investigating Intervention Components and Exploring States of Receptivity for a Smartphone App to Promote Physical Activity: Protocol of a Microrandomized Trial, JMIR Research Protocols, 8(1), e11540. (PDF)

Tinschert, P., Rassouli, F., Barata, F., Steurer-Stey, C., Fleisch, E., Puhan, M., Brutsche, M., Kowatsch, T., Prevalence of Nocturnal Cough in Asthma and its Potential as a Marker for Asthma Control (MAC) in Combination with Sleep Quality: Protocol of a Smartphone-based, Multi-Centre, Longitudinal Observational Study with Two Stages, BMJ Open. (PDF)

Kowatsch, T., D. Fischer-Taeschler, F. Putzing, P. Bürki, C. Stettler, G. Chiesa-Tanner and E. Fleisch (forthcoming) Die digitale Pille für chronische Krankheiten, in: Digitale Transformation von Dienstleistungen im Gesundheitswesen, M. Pfannstiel, P. Da-Cruz and H. Mehlich (eds.), Springer: Heidelberg, Germany.

Kramer, J., Künzler, F., Tinschert, P., Kowatsch, T. (2019) Trajectories of Engagement with a Digital Physical Activity Coach: Secondary Analysis of a Micro-Randomized Trial, Abstract presented at the International Society for Research on Internet Interventions (ISRII) Meeting 2019, Auckland, New Zealand. (PDF)

Tinschert, P., Barata, F., Kramer, J., Rassouli, F., Steurer-Stey, C., Puhan, M., Brutsche, M., Kowatsch, T. (2019) Don’t Lose Heart: Preliminary Engagement Results in an Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) Study Evaluating Digital Biomarkers for Asthma, Abstract presented at the International Society for Research on Internet Interventions (ISRII) Meeting 2019, Auckland, New Zealand. (PDF)

2018

Boateng, G., Santhanam, P., Lüscher, J., Scholz, U., Kowatsch, T. (2018) Poster: Multimodal Affect Detection among Couples for Diabetes Management. Black in AI Workshop, Neural Information Processing Systems Conference, (NIPS) 2018. (PDF)

Buhmann, J., Felix, J., Gächter, T., Kowatsch, T., Lehmann, R., von Lutterotti, N., Schedler, K., Steurer, J., Wolfrum, C. (2018) Digitalisierung der Medizin: Konsequenzen für die Ausbildung, Schweizerische Ärztezeitung 99(42), pp. 1441-1444. (PDF)

Stieger, M., Nißen, M.K., Rüegger, D., Kowatsch, T., Flückiger, C., Allemand, M. (2018) PEACH, a smartphone- and conversational agent-based coaching intervention for intentional personality change: study protocol of a randomized, wait-list controlled trial, BMC Psychology 6(43), pp. 1-15. (PDF)

Kowatsch, T., M. K. Nißen, D. Rüegger, M. Stieger, C. Flückiger, M. Allemand and F. von Wangenheim (2018) The Impact of Interpersonal Closeness Cues in Text-based Healthcare Chatbots on Attachment Bond and the Desire to Continue Interacting: An Experimental Design, 26th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS 2018), Portsmouth, UK. (PDF)

Shih, I., Nißen, M.K., Büchter, D., Durrer, D., l’Allemand, D., Fleisch, E., Kowatsch, T., Smartphone-based Biofeedback Breathing Training for Stress Management, Poster presented at the Applied Maschine Learning Days, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland. (PDF)

Barata, F., Tinschert, P., Rassouli, F., Baty, F., Brutsche, M., Steurer-Stey, C., Puhan, M., Fleisch, E., Kowatsch, T., Smartphone-based Cough and Sleep Quality Detection, Poster presented at the Applied Machine Learning Days, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland. (PDF)

Haug, S. & Paz, R., Eggli, P. & Schaub, M. (2018) Drinking Goal Trajectories and Their Association with Client Characteristics and Outcomes among Clients in Outpatient Alcohol Treatment, Substance Use & Misuse 53(10):1-12. (PDF)

Haug, S., Paz, R., Wenger, A. & Schaub M. P. (2018) Efficacy of a mobile phone-based life-skills training program for substance use prevention among adolescents: study protocol of a cluster-randomised controlled trial, BMC Public Health 18:1102. (PDF)

Haug, S. & Paz, R. (2018) Erreichbarkeit Jugendlicher für ein mobiltelefonbasiertes Programm zur Suchtprävention durch die Förderung von Lebenskompetenzen, Sucht 64(3), 129-139. (Web)

2017

Kowatsch, T., Barata, F., Tinschert, P., Dittler, U., Egger, J.M., Meyer, F., Schaub, M., Fleisch, E., Oswald, H., Möller, A., Digital Health Literacy Intervention for Children with Asthma, Poster presented at the CSS Health Insurance meets CDHI Event, Lucerne, Switzerland. (PDF)

Paz, R., Haug, S., Filler, A., Kowatsch, T., Schaub, M.P. (2017) Engagement within a Mobile Phone-based Smoking Cessation Intervention for Adolescents and Its Association with Participant Characteristics and Outcomes, Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) 19(10):e356. (PDF)

Künzler, F., Kramer, J., Kowatsch, T. (2017) Efficacy of Mobile Context-aware Notification Management Systems: A Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis, Fifth International Workshop on Pervasive and Context-Aware Middleware (PerCAM’17), co-located with the IEEE 13th International Conference on Wireless and Mobile Computing, Networking and Communications (WiMob 2017), Rome, Italy, 131-138. (PDF)

Haug, S., Paz, R., Meyer, C., Filler, A., Kowatsch, T., Schaub, M.P. (2017) A Mobile Phone-Based Life Skills Training Program for Substance Use Prevention Among Adolescents: Pre-Post Study on the Acceptance and Potential Effectiveness of the Program Ready4life, JMIR Mhealth Uhealth 5(10):e143. (PDF)

Kowatsch, T., Nißen, M.K., Shih, I., Rüegger, D., Volland, D., Filler, A., Künzler, F., Barata, F., Haug, S., Büchter, D., Brogle, B., Heldt, K., Gindrat, P., Farpour-Lambert, N., l’Allemand, D. (2017) Text-based Healthcare Chatbots Supporting Patient and Health Professional Teams: Preliminary Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial on Childhood Obesity, Persuasive Embodied Agents for Behavior Change (PEACH 2017) Workshop, co-located with the 17th International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA 2017), Stockholm, Sweden. (PDF)

Kowatsch, T., Wahle, F., Filler, A. (2017) Design and Lab Experiment of a Stress Detection Service based on Mouse Movements, The 11th Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems (MCIS), Genoa, Italy ***Best Paper Award*** (PDF)

Haug, S., Paz, R., Kowatsch, T., Filler, A., Schaub, M.P. (2017) Efficacy of a Technology-based Integrated Smoking Cessation and Alcohol Intervention for Smoking Cessation in Adolescents: Results of a Cluster-randomised Controlled Trial, Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment 82(11), 55-66. (PDF)

Kowatsch, T., Volland, D., Shih, I., Rüegger, D., Künzler, F., Barata, F., Filler, A., Büchter, D., Brogle, B., Heldt, K., Gindrat, P., Farpour-Lambert, N., l’Allemand, D. (2017) Design and Evaluation of a Mobile Chat App for the Open Source Behavioral Health Intervention Platform MobileCoach, In: Maedche A., vom Brocke J., Hevner A. (eds) Designing the Digital Transformation. DESRIST 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 10243. Springer: Berlin; Germany, 485-489. (Paper-PDF | Poster-PDF | Slide-PDF | Screencast)

Kowatsch, T., Wahle, F., Filler, A. (2017) stressOUT: Design, Implementation and Evaluation of a Mouse-based Stress Management Service, In: Designing the Digital Transformation: DESRIST 2017 Research in Progress Proceedings, Maedche, A., vom Brocke, J., Hevner, A. (eds), KIT Scientific Working Papers; 64, Karlsruhe, Germany, 37-45. ***Nominee for the Best Research-in-Progress*** (PDF)

Haug, S., Paz, R., Kowatsch, T., Filler, A., Dickson-Spillmann, M., Dey, M., Schaub, M.P. (2017) Efficacy of a web- and text messaging-based intervention to reduce problem drinking in adolescents: Results of a cluster-randomised controlled trial, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 85(2),147-159. ***Wilhelm Feuerlein Award 2018*** (PDF)

Paz, R., Haug, S., Kowatsch, T., Filler, A., Schaub, M.P. (2017) Moderators of Outcome in a Technology-based Intervention to Prevent and Reduce Problem Drinking Among Adolescents, Addictive Behaviors 72: 64-71. (PDF)

Tinschert, P., Barata, F., Kowatsch, T., Enhancing Asthma Control through IT: Design, Implementation and Planned Evaluation of the Mobile Asthma Companion, in Leimeister, J.M.; Brenner, W. (Hrsg.): Proceedings der 13th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik (WI 2017), St. Gallen, 1291-1294. (PDF)

Künzler, F., Kramer, J., Mishra, V., Presset, B., Smith, S.N., Kotz, D.F., Scholz, U., Fleisch, E., Kowatsch, T., Ally: A Smartphone-based Physical Activity Intervention, Poster presented at the CSS Health Insurance meets CDHI Event, Lucerne, Switzerland. (PDF)

Shih, I., Volland, D., Rüegger, D., Künzler, F., Barata, F., Filler, A., Büchter, D., Brogle, B., Heldt, K., Gindrat, P., Farpour-Lambert, N., Fleisch, E., l’Allemand, D., Kowatsch, T., Therapy Adherence of Obese Children in a 6-Month High-Frequency Intervention, Poster presented at the CSS Health Insurance meets CDHI Event, Lucerne, Switzerland. (PDF)

2016

Barata, F., Kowatsch, T., Tinschert, P., Filler, A., (2016) Personal MobileCoach: Tailoring Behavioral Interventions to the Needs of Individual Participants, UbiComp ’16 Proceedings of the 2016 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing: Adjunct Workshop Designing, Developing, and Evaluating The Internet of Personal Health (IoPH), Heidelberg, Germany, 1089-1094. (PDF)

2015

Kowatsch, T., Wahle, F., Filler, A., Kehr, F., Volland, D., Haug, S., Jenny, G., Bauer, G., Fleisch, E., (2015) Towards Short-Term Detection of Job Strain in Knowledge Workers with a Minimal-Invasive Information System Service: Theoretical Foundation and Experimental Design, 23rd European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Münster, Germany. (Paper-PDF) (Poster-PDF)

Haug, S., Paz, R., Kwon, M., Filler, A., Kowatsch, T., Schaub, M.P. (2015). Smartphone use and Smartphone addiction among young people in Switzerland. Journal of Behavioural Addictions 4(4), pp. 299-307. (PDF)

Filler, A., Kowatsch, T., Haug, S., Wahle, F., Staake, T. & Fleisch, E. (2015) MobileCoach: A Novel Open Source Platform for the Design of Evidence-based, Scalable and Low-Cost Behavioral Health Interventions – Overview and Preliminary Evaluation in the Public Health Context. Wireless Telecommunications Symposium 2015 (WTS 2015), New York, USA. *** Outstanding Paper Award & Best Graduate Student Paper Award*** (PDF)

2014

Haug, S., Paz, R., Filler, A., Kowatsch, T., Fleisch, E., Schaub, M.P. (2014) Efficacy of an integrated smoking cessation and alcohol intervention compared to a smoking cessation only intervention for smoking cessation in young people delivered via Internet and mobile phone: Study protocol of a two-arm cluster RCT, BMC Public Health 14 (1140), 1-8. (PDF)

Filler, A., Haug, S., Kowatsch, T. (2014) The MobileCoach – An Open Source Solution for Behavioral Change Interventions, Abstract presented at the 7th Scientific Meeting of the International Society for Research on Internet Interventions (ISRII), Symposium on Interactive Technology-Driven Interventions for Smoking Cessation: An Interdisciplinary Approach, Valencia, Spain. (PDF)

Kowatsch, T., Wahle, F., Filler, A., Fleisch, E. (2014) Predicting Adverse Behavior with Early Warning Health Information Systems by Mining Association Rules on Multi-dimensional Behavior: A Proposal, Poster presented at the 7th Scientific Meeting of the International Society for Research on Internet Interventions (ISRII), Valencia, Spain. (PDF)

Haug, S., Kowatsch, T., Paz, R., Filler, A., Schaub, M.P. (2014) Efficacy of a web- and text messaging-based intervention to reduce problem drinking in young people, BMC Public Health (14:809), 1-8. (PDF)

2013

Haug, S. (2013). Mobile phone text messaging to reduce alcohol and tobacco use in young people – a narrative review. Smart Homecare Technology and TeleHealth, 1(1), 11-19. PDF Intervention Focus

Haug, S. Bitter, G., Hanke, M., Ulbricht, S. Meyer, C. & John, U. (2013). Kurzintervention zur Förderung der Tabakabstinenz via Short Message Service (SMS) bei Auszubildenden an beruflichen Schulen: Longitudinale Interventionsstudie zur Ergebnis- und Prozessevaluation. Das Gesundheitswesen, 75(10), 625-631. Intervention Focus

Haug, S., Schaub, M.P., Venzin, V. Meyer, C. & John, U. (2013). Differenzielle Wirksamkeit eines Short Message Service (SMS)-basierten Programms zur Förderung des Rauchstopps bei Jugendlichen. Psychiatrische Praxis, 40(6), 339-346. Intervention Focus

Haug, S., Schaub, M.P., Venzin, V., Meyer, C., John, U. & Gmel, G. (2013). A pre-post study on the appropriateness and effectiveness of a web- and text messaging-based intervention to reduce problem drinking in emerging adults. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 15(9), e196. PDF Intervention Focus

Haug, S., Schaub, M.P., Venzin, V., Meyer, C. & John, U. (2013). Efficacy of a text message-based smoking cessation intervention for young people: a cluster randomized controlled trial. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 15(8), e171. PDF Intervention Focus

2012

Prabhakaran Santhanam, Sascha Gfeller, Filipe Barata, Dominik Rüegger, George Boateng, Florian Künzler, Chen-Hsuan (Iris) Shih, Prof. Dr. Florian von Wangenheim, Prof. Dr. Elgar Fleisch & Prof. Dr. Tobias Kowatsch

since December 2013

Petra Irène Lustenberger, Davide Stallone, and Dr. Robert Vorburger (ZHAW Life Sciences und Facility Management), Andreas Filler, Dr. Dirk Volland (Pathmate Technologies), PD Dr. Dr. Severin Haug (Swiss Institute of Public Health and Addiction, University of Zurich), Prof. Dr. Birgit Kleim (University of Zurich & Psychiatric University Hospital Zurich), Prof. Dr. Mathias Allemand, Prof. Dr. Christoph Flückiger, Prof. Dr. Urte Scholz (University of Zurich) Varun Mishra and Prof. David F. Kotz, PhD (Dartmouth College), Nathalie Gasser & Philippe Giroud (Swiss Lung League)

Tobias Kowatsch