Daniel Schifferdecker
Digital Health
We teamed up with research partners to develop a personalized, app-based assistance system to treat people with bipolar disorders.
New data has to be gathered and assessed and models calculated time and time again to treat conditions such as mental disorders and diabetes in a personalized way. This has to be done in the course of the patient’s day-to-day life over longer periods, which burdens both the patient and therapist.
A personalized assistance system paired with an app helps patients take control and monitor themselves daily. It also brings relatives, therapists, and doctors on board in a simple, straightforward way.
This app-based assistant system taps a treasure-trove of condition-related data collected in the course of the patient’s day-to-day life. Relatives can also contribute their observations to this data pool. Regular reports to the treating physician or therapist provide valuable insight that they can put to good use for the personalized therapy. The app also benefits the patient by affording instant access to tips and first-aid measures. We
The patient can keep a mood diary using a smartphone to record video and audio clips. Emotion recognition software analyzes facial expressions to document the patient’s state of mind.
Treatments tailored to the individual can spare the patient suffering and enhance the quality of life. The app helps the patient throughout the day; the transparent data keeps the therapist in the loop with reports that provide a much better picture over a longer period of time. This information also furnishes indications about whether the medication needs adjusting. And that is the key to preventive rather than merely reactive healthcare.
The described research project was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
