PC4HC: Personalized Communication for Health Care

PC4HC (Personalized Communication for Health Care) intends to create a communication platform tailored to people with multimorbidity and healthcare facilities that manage the care process. The project aims at: (1) Providing patients and healthcare facilities with a concise, clear and communicative interpretation of data from heterogeneous sources such as anamnestic, anthropometric, clinical and instrumental data (in particular, data obtainable from wearable sensors and so-called personal health systems). For this purpose, we plan to set up an infrastructure with high computational capabilities that is able to process large amounts of data (Big Data) and identify new associations (Data Mining) between variables that can enrich communication and generate new knowledge. (2) Promoting a patient empowerment approach aimed at making the patient fully aware of the significance of a specific piece of information and the implications that it entails for the patient's state of health and wellbeing. To this end, we applied the principles of persuasive computing technology, i.e. technologies developed in order to influence and possibly modify habits and lifestyle choices through persuasion and awareness. (3) Implementing effective strategies to maintain health and a healthy lifestyle, as well as to provide integrated and optimized management of acute and chronic pathologies with an economic and social benefit for both individuals and the healthcare system. The platform, designed and developed to address multimorbidity, identifies as a validation scope an innovative model of personalized communication for people in dialysis treatment.