Unhealthy lifestyles endanger the human population in the 21st century; more than 50% of the world’s population live with a non-communicable disease (NCD), often caused by unhealthy routines and behavior. Such NCDs like diabetes, COPD, and cardiovascular diseases cause a significant personal and financial burden. However, [...]
Information technology is changing healthcare in numerous wide-ranging aspects, including significantly improving the overall quality of patient care and therefore helping to reduce limitations in people's daily lives. The Digital Pill reflects on how digital technologies can combat chronic diseases including diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular, respiratory and neurodegenerative diseases [...]
Diabetes mellitus affects approximately 537 million people worldwide, and a doubling of cases is expected within the next 25 years. The economic burden manifests in yearly expenditures of at least USD 966 billion. For most people with diabetes, self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) is of utmost importance [...]
Researchers use wearable sensing data and machine learning (ML) models to predict various health and behavioral outcomes. However, sensor data from commercial wearables are prone to noise, missing, or artifacts. Even with the recent interest in deploying commercial wearables for long-term studies, there does not exist a [...]
Diabetes mellitus affects approximately 460 million people worldwide, of which type 1 diabetes is estimated to impact 1.1 million children and adolescents under the age of 20 worldwide. Hypoglycemia (too low blood glucose levels) is among the most relevant acute complications of type 1 diabetes, that may [...]
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 [...]
Digital health interventions (DHIs) show vast potential in supporting patients and health care systems with the globally increasing prevalence and economic costs of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) – the leading causes of death and disability worldwide [1, 2]. More specifically, Mobile Health Applications (mHealth apps) are now considered [...]
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the leading causes of death and affects 251 million people worldwide. In the United States, the direct costs of COPD were estimated to be $32 billion, with indirect costs (e.g., incurred by lost working days) accounting for an additional [...]
Slow-paced breathing training is an effective method to strengthen cardiac functioning and psychological well-being. It thus addresses two of the most pressing global health challenges: chronic disease and mental illness. Slow-paced breathing training can be self-paced (e.g., during mindfulness meditation), externally-guided by following acoustic, seismic, or visual [...]
Voice assistants (VAs) are increasingly, ubiquitous and accessible in multiple contexts. But can we use them to provide a scalable solution to deliver digital health-interventions? The heterogeneity in research methods used to develop and evaluate voice assistants for health clashes with the demand for more frequent and transparent dissemination of research [...]
