Behaviour Change Support Systems

Behavioural Change Support Systems (BCSS) is any information and communication technology that helps users target a behavioural change. We are particularly interested in designing Health Behavioural Change Support Systems (HBCSS), which allow implementing a new behaviour to prevent a potential disease, recovering from an illness or increase wellbeing when coping with a disease. Our research interest in this topic is threefold. First, we aim to improve the HBCSS's user interfaces to include interpersonal communication through a Conversational Agent (CA) or even a Virtual Coach (VC) to ensure high usability and connectedness. Second, we aim to facilitate behaviour changes by breaking complex behaviour into smaller habits that patients can quickly implement into their daily lives. With this, our focus lies on implementing digital strategies to foster and strengthen habits. Third, by building on standards like HL7/ FHIR we aim to integrate external sources and adapt the potential HBCSS, e.g., to incorporate Questionnaires and sources from Smart-home and self-monitoring sensors.

Topics

Our research focusses on three HBCSS-areas, which include

• Patient interface: Conversational Agents and Virtual Coaches
• Breaking complex behaviours down into smaller habits
• Integrating external soures such as questionaires or smart-home and self-monitoring sensors

Selected Projects

• vCare (Virtual Coaching Activities for Rehabilitation in Elderly)
• QPath4MS (Pfadgestütztes Qualitätsmanagement in der Versorgung von Patient:innen mit Multipler Sklerose)

Selected Publications

Weimann, T., Stark, J. "Supporting habit formation for long-term weight loss maintenance with a Virtual Coach-A Research Model". In: Proceedings of the Wirtschaftsinformatik Conference (WI 2022). Link to the Paper and Video

Gand, K., Stark, J., Schlieter, H., Gißke, C., Burwith, M. "Using Clinical Pathways To Virtual Coach Patients For Home Rehabilitation". In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 2021). Link to the Paper and Video

Weimann, T., Schlieter, H., and Fischer, M. "Designing an Avatar-Based Virtual Coach for Obesity Patients." International Conference on Design Science Research in Information Systems and Technology. Springer, Cham, 2021. Link to the Paper