Fighting Against Cardiovascular diseases with new Technology Support
Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide. Obesity and diabetes have become real epidemics of the century. Changes in lifestyle that promote a heart-healthy diet and regular physical activity and lack of therapeutic adherence, remain as an outstanding issue in scientific surveys. The lack of patient empowerment and responsibility is demanded from various health sectors. The prolongation of the current status will affect the economic support of the national health systems. The use of new technologies scientifically backed appears as a solid alternative to empowerment of patients and fight with this situation; but they require adequate scientific validation in clinical trials. It is imperative to face educational programs and direct actions to achieve this empowerment and patient co-responsibility in changing lifestyle and the treatment of their disease.
The proposed project is to design clinical studies to validate new technologies in/and patient empowerment, and scientifically evaluate whether they introduce clinically relevant changes in lifestyles and in patient therapeutic adherence and in reducing cardiovascular events in a six months follow-up.
Research protocols and applications designed will be targeted for primary prevention to treatment of cardiovascular risk factors: hypertension, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, smoking, obesity, sedentary lifestyle and in secondary prevention for treatment and follow-up of myocardial infarction and heart failure.
New technologies used here will be: distributed system accessible by technology web, smartphone applications and set-top box for interaction with television, sensor networks, WiFi networks. Fusion techniques incorporating artificial intelligence information to the data analysis will be applied. They were designed to bring scientific information about each risk factor and / or established disease; taking medication reminder; collecting patient data (heart rate, blood pressure, weight, daily physical activity); program will have a heart-healthy diet advice and attractive alternatives varied culinary possibilities and caloric values. They will also have a program of periodic physical activity offering the best alternatives for achieving the objectives patient. All studies will last six months.