PRECIOUS

PREventive Care Infrastructure based On Ubiquitous Sensing (PRECIOUS) project is funded by European Union and part of eHealth and Ageing initiative.

Healthier lifestyles – including more exercise, a better diet and reduced stress – are associated with the reduced risk of diseases such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. However, adopting healthier behaviours is a challenge! Advances in technology have made it easier for individuals to monitor lifestyle attributes (e.g. through smart phone applications and wearable technology); however, one of the main challenges is motivating people to make lifestyle changes before risk factors develop into life threatening and expensive diseases.

To solve this challenge, PRECIOUS aims to improve motivation using a combination of motivational interview and gamification principles, as well as creating a personalized system that adapts to the users’ goals and preferences. The system will collect information about the user from a variety of devices and applications (sensors) that measure food intake, physical activity, stress levels and sleep patterns. Links between these key lifestyle aspects will also be important in delivering an overall picture of the users’ health status. Furthermore, the system and it’s sensors should be user-friendly and reduce the burden of recording where possible.

The main objective of PRECIOUS is to provide a preventive health care system that will improve the health of the user, and deliver cost savings in the public health sector.