Reference Design Model for a Smart e-Coach Recommendation System for Lifestyle Support Based on ICT Technologies

Abstract

As acknowledged by the World Health Organization (WHO), the demographic development shows that by 2030, 8 out of the 10 foremost causes of death will be connected to risk conditions of lifestyle diseases, regardless of gender. Chronic illness associated with modifiable lifestyle factors will be accountable for the highest death worldwide. Health behavior change should be given priority to avoid serious reparations. An Electronic Coach (e-Coach) system can empower people to achieve a healthy lifestyle with early risk predictions and appropriate tailored lifestyle recommendations. Research in eHealth has the potential to provide methods in order to improve personal healthcare with Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). An Electronic Health (e-Health) virtual coaching recommendation system can monitor people and convey the appropriate recommendations in context with enough time to prevent, ameliorate the living with non-communicable or lifestyle diseases. This paper addresses the potential of selected emerging information and communication technologies to make e-Health systems smarter, more collaborative and more efficient. As a result of the analysis, a reference design is discussed here to develop and validate the performance of a smart e-Coach system utilizing ICT, Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to provide individual lifestyle recommendations aiming at a healthier lifestyle to prevent obesity and overweight. The healthcare sector is still looking for collaborative, user-friendly, optimized, cost-effective, reliable systems for health e-Coaching with contextual, tailored lifestyle recommendations and our current research is focused on its implementation and validation, considering obesity and overweight as a case study.