Integration of Recommendation Systems Into Connected Health for Effective Management of Chronic Diseases

• Main Authors: Adekunle O. Afolabi, Pekka Toivanen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 2019-01-01
• Series: IEEE Access
• Subjects: Recommender systems; connected health real-time recommendations; ReTReSCAP; ReSCAP; healthcare
• Online Access: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8691403/

An important trend in meeting the needs of modern caregiving is providing a well-rounded care delivery. In doing this, access to data of care receiver is important. This, however, has been shown to be possible with connected health with the aid of modern technology. In this paper, we are presenting a design that will expand on the opportunities for better data accessibility and use, by integrating the recommendation system into connected health. In order to ensure a design that meets the needs of care receivers, we conducted two independent surveys with a view to gathering requirements for the design. The result has shown the relevance of timeliness in caregiving along with what the care receivers are interested in such as what their data say about their conditions, the immediate and future expectation of their conditions, and collaborative efforts in managing their conditions. The requirements gathered were used in the design and implementation of the mobile app called Recommendations Sharing Community for Aged and Chronically Ill People (ReSCAP). The benefits of this solution have been real-time recommendations' availability, cost saving, adequate care, and access to health data and information for better care decision-making.