PROJECTS
Bridging theory and practice: Our research projects are embedded in practical settings and require a multi-disciplinary approach. Industry provides inspiration and infrastructure for our ideas and experiments.
FLIRT: A Feature Generation Toolkit for Wearable Data
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, [...]
HYPEX: Hypoglycemia Prediction During and After Exercise
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 [...]
MobileCoach Open Source Platform
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 [...]
Prediction and Prevention of Non-Adherence to Digital Health Interventions
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) – [...]
Towards a Digital Biomarker for COPD
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 [...]
Breeze: A Gameful Biofeedback Breathing Training for Mental and Physical Well-being
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 [...]
Using Voice Assistants for the Management of Chronic Diseases: is it possible?
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 [...]
Elena+ A Pandemic Lifestyle Care Intervention
The current COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic is an emergency on a global scale, with huge swathes of the population required to remain inside for prolonged periods at a [...]
Sweetgoals: A Conversational Agent for Young Adults with Type 1 Diabetes
Many young adults with type 1 diabetes (T1D) struggle with the complex daily demands of adherence to their medical regimen and face challenges achieving glycemic control at [...]
WAVE: Wearable-based Risk Assessment for COVID-19 inpatients
To provide effective care for COVID-19 inpatients, clinical practitioners need systems that monitor patient health and subsequently allow for risk scoring. Existing approaches for risk scoring in [...]
Adaptive Digital Assistants for Type-2 Diabetes Patients
Diabetes is rising globally, with 422 million adults’ worldwide currently living with the condition, equating to 1 in 11 individuals. In Switzerland, diabetes is likewise becoming more [...]
Mental Well-being During an Entrepreneur’s Career
An individual’s mental well-being refers to the individual’s psychological state in terms of cognitive thoughts and affective feeling about life. It is strongly connected to work motivation, [...]
Towards the personalisation of the chatbot-patient relationship
Conversational agents (CAs) for chronic disease management are receiving increasing attention in academia and industry. However, long-term adherence to CAs is still a challenge and to be [...]
HEADWIND: A Vehicle Hypoglycemia Warning System
Main goals: Hypoglycemia is among the most relevant acute complications of diabetes mellitus. It affects the neurocognitive and psychomotor function and has consistently been shown to be [...]
Evaluation Criteria for Digital Health Interventions
Today, there is a massive amount of digital health interventions available. For example, more than 300,000 so-called "health apps" can be found in Google's Play Store and [...]
Simon: A Digital Protocol for Predicting Suicidal Ideation
Digital technology provides an unparalleled opportunity to collect data in individuals’ everyday lives. This includes information derived from passive mobile sensing (e.g., activity, screen lock events, light [...]
Digital Physiotherapy Coaching with Alex
Physiotherapy is a widespread and efficient method for the rehabilitation of various health problems, such as chronic diseases, injuries, and age-related health issues. In addition to face-to-face [...]
OPTIMAX: Optimising Outcomes in Psychotherapy for Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety disorders, such as phobia, panic disorder or generalized anxiety disorder, are the most common class of mental disorders present in the general population. They are hugely [...]
MCTeen: A Digital Coach for Adolescent Substance Use in the US
Youth substance use (SU) is a major public health concern in the U.S. given its association with morbidity and mortality outcomes as well as a range of [...]
Benefit Move: Deposit Contracts for Health Behaviour Change
There is overwhelming evidence that adding financial incentives to existing interventions for health behaviour change improves their efficacy. However, there are still questions regarding the sustainability of the [...]
Benefit StepCoach: A study to understand the working alliance of a virtual/human coach with the user.
The study focuses on eHealth, or more specifically, the comparison between guided (human-supported) and unguided (self-help) digital eHealth interventions. Previous research has shown that when comparing the [...]