Project Overview
Tackling obesity: Mobile app myPace enables overweight patients to manage weight loss
With funding from the European Food Information Council (EUFIC), Brunel University undertook some research into the role of dietitians in addressing obesity, and how the concept of the patients’ energy balance relates to this.
myPace is the energy balance app designed in partnership with dieticians, enabling health professionals to stay connected with their clients between consultations. It provides dieticians with an innovative way to set-up and record objectives for their patients, track clients’ progress and moods, and send motivational messages. For more information about myPace go to www.myPaceapp.com. [102]
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
A collaborative project between EUFIC (European Food Information Council), Brunel University, Bath University and White October.
Julie Barnett, Professor of Health Psychology is a key stakeholder. Was at University of Brunel, now at University of Bath, fyi.
White October is the digital agency. With an expert team of 28 software developers and user experience designers, based in Oxford for the last ten years.
Project Brief
The research showed that dietitians felt the consultations with their clients were sometimes not very productive. Overweight patients would learn about energy balance i.e. calorific intake versus calorific output through movement and exercise. Goals would be set, based on small steps of relevant behavioural change, such as getting off the bus one stop early, or cutting out biscuits. At subsequent consultations the clients were often unable to recall the details of the small steps of behaviour change achieved since the last appointment, or the detail of the problems they had experienced. With insufficient information, it was difficult for the health professional to recommend new courses of action.
These sometimes unproductive consultations led to the idea that if the consultations could become more productive, the clients would be more likely to succeed with their goals. More specifically, the partnership wanted to find a way for weight loss patients to monitor their progress in relation to their goals, and to prolong the motivation and support received from their dietician.
The other part of the challenge was to design solutions that led to greater efficiencies for dietitians. The NHS now has less money and so it was important that the solutions being developed led to saving time and money, not costing more.
Project Need
Working with EUFIC and White October, Brunel University started to develop a digital platform. Its focus would be on enhancing the relationship between dieticians and their patients by enabling greater adherence to the agreed behaviour change goals. The ability to track success relating to long term goals and activity is fundamental to patients learning to manage their weight.
- Enable overweight patients to lose weight through the enhanced relationship with their healthcare professional
- Reduce the time taken by patients to achieve their weight loss goals, thereby reducing the volume of healthcare resources required
- Help tackle obesity by educating patients about energy balance
- Improve healthcare by extending the application areas of myPace to address other health issues
User Experience
“The core premise we were interested in exploring was how to extend the impact of the relationship between the client and the health professional. Our work with dietitians and with people who were trying to lose weight gave us plenty of ideas as to how this might be done. We concluded that enabling and monitoring progress on agreed goals between appointments, with personalised support from the health professional would result in a consultation that was more constructive and more focussed, and ultimately lead to attaining a healthier weight.”
Dr. Julie Barnett, Professor in Health Research, Brunel University (now at University of Bath)
“myPace enables patients to stay connected with health professionals. Having agreed on their goals, the client can record their successes, their failures, and track their weight and measurements. We hope that this will increase the impact of the expertise of the dietician and thus play at least a small role in helping to tackle the obesity problem.”
Dr. Julie Barnett, Professor in Health Research, Brunel University (now at University of Bath)
Project Marketing
It’s still early days, but it is hoped that myPace will help to enhance and prolong the impact of the relationship between health professionals and their patients. For dietitians this means their clients being more successful in managing their weight. myPace could then play a small part in addressing the growing obesity problem in the UK.
Plans are in place to link myPace to other related apps, such as food databases to log calorific intake, and fitness apps to log exercise. This will add to the value that patients can gain from using myPace.
“We are also identifying other areas within the healthcare sector that could benefit from this type of app to improve the effectiveness of the relationship between health professional and patient, and ultimately help improve the health of our population.”
Dr. Julie Barnett, Professor in Health Research, Brunel University (now at University of Bath) [147]
Project Privacy
During the consultation with an overweight or obese client, the dietician will use the myPace web interface to enter basic weight information and record a series of personalised small steps relating to food intake and exercise. These will have been agreed with the client and will form goals to be achieved before the next consultation. In addition:
The dietician can also set up automated but personal messages for the client to be delivered at a time of their choosing.
The patient can then access the various features within the myPace app and will receive daily reminders of the small steps they have agreed to and receive the messages that the dietician has sent.
The small steps function enables the patient to log his/her achievements against their goals.
The good days / bad days feature enables the patient to makes daily notes about their progress, which they can share with their health professional if they wish
Motivational messaging is personalised for the client by the dietician, and is delivered directly to the phone (or other mobile device) at the chosen times.
myPace also has a report facility which will create graphs showing the patient’s weight over time and their small steps success. This is accessible to both dietician and client. [209]
Medical
This category relates to applications that provide or promote a medical service or information.
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