WP 6 - University: WUR-2
Faculty: Social Sciences Group
Adaptive Lifestyle Interventions Empowering Patients
Many health challenges, such as cardiometabolic diseases, are complex, dynamic, and vary over time and individuals. To address this, our research focuses on developing adaptive lifestyle interventions tailored to patient and healthcare needs. These interventions move beyond a one-size-fits-all by delivering personalized behavior change strategies. This innovative approach combines sensing technology with personalized care to address patients’ needs and improve health outcomes.
Work Package Overview
Our goal is to explore how to transition from patient needs, different contexts and technology into actionable recommendations for adaptive lifestyle interventions. This involves:
- Understanding the mechanisms driving behavior change in complex conditions.
- Aligning the intervention with principles of an adaptive intervention, using data-driven approaches to deliver personalized care
- Developing decision rules to optimize the intensity, type, and delivery of treatment based on clinical decisions and continuous patient data
To achieve this, we use a participatory research approach where patients and healthcare practitioners are actively involved in the design and development process, as well as innovative trial methods such as micro-randomized trials, and n-of-1 trials.
What We’ve Achieved So Far
Over the past two years, we’ve laid a solid foundation through two key phases:
1. Contextual Exploration
o Conducted a systematic realist review to articulate the mechanisms by which adaptive interventions are developed, focusing on how they work, for whom, and under what circumstances in patients with metabolic syndrome. For this we first gathered information from stakeholders in healthcare context.
- We built a network of patients and healthcare practitioners, fostering collaboration to align with real-world needs.
- Assembled a multidisciplinary research team to ensure diverse perspectives guide the intervention’s development.
o Explored initial technical development by creating a reinforcement learning algorithm for self-monitoring physical activity.
2. Understanding Value Drivers
o Conducted and worked closely with patients and healthcare practitioners to identify core needs, preferences, and values in an adaptive lifestyle intervention.
A Holistic Approach to Development and sustained Implementation
While designing the intervention, we’ve also prioritized its long-term feasibility by:
- Investigating the business model to support its scalability and sustainability over time
- Exploring platform opportunities to ensure seamless collaboration and integration into the healthcare ecosystem.
This dual focus on personalized care and practical implementation brings us closer to delivering an intervention that can truly make a difference in patients' lives.
Current Status
The project is now transitioning into the design and testing phases. We are refining the patient and healthcare practitioner values into design requirements for the intervention.