Achieving healthy behavior change is an ongoing challenge for the medical profession.  I wrote recently about an interesting study looking at the role weight can play, with obese patients turned off by overtly sporty doctors for fear that they will be judged.

Might a machine do a better job?  That was the question posed by a recent study published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.  The study saw a digital tool developed to create personalized workout guides for patients at risk of heart disease.

“Exercise reduces cardiovascular risk, improves body composition and physical fitness, and lowers mortality and morbidity,” the authors say. “But surveys have shown that many clinicians experience great difficulties in prescribing specific exercise programmes for patients with multiple cardiovascular diseases and risk factors.”

Personalized medicine

The tool, known as The European Association of Preventive Cardiology Exercise Prescription in Everyday Practice and Rehabilitative Training (or thankfully EXPERT for short), aims to generate a personalized exercise plan for patients with a range of cardiovascular risk factors or diseases.

The tool, which is designed to be used on computers rather than tablets/smartphones, is operated by the clinician, who inputs in various characteristics of the patient, including their cardiovascular history and risk factors.

The tool takes all of this into account and then automatically develops an exercise program specifically for each patient.  The plan includes the ideal exercise type, intensity, frequency, and duration of each session. Safety precautions are also given for patients with certain conditions. The advice can be printed out and given to the patient to carry out at home, and reviewed by the clinician in a few months.

“EXPERT generates an exercise prescription and safety precautions since certain patients are not allowed to do certain exercises. For example a diabetic patient with retinopathy should not do high-intensity exercise,” the team say.

“This tool is the first of its kind,” they continue. “It integrates all the international recommendations on exercise to calculate the optimum training programme for an individual patient. It really is personalised medicine.”

Each condition comes with specific goals to achieve, so for instance, if you have diabetes and are overweight, the goals might be to reduce blood glucose, fat mass and blood pressure.

“EXPERT provides the exercise prescription a patient needs to meet their particular exercise goals, which should ultimately help them to feel better and reduce their risks of morbidity and mortality. By prescribing an exercise programme that really works patients are more likely to be motivated to continue because they see that it is improving their health,” the team say.

Of course, providing the recipe is one thing, but helping the patient to adhere to that regimen is another thing entirely.  Whilst it isn’t at all clear whether the EXPERT tool taps into various other support mechanisms to support the individual, whether that’s analog things such as personal trainers, or digital support from wearable devices and so on.

There is certainly no doubt that greater support is needed to encourage us to live a healthier lifestyle, and whilst tools like EXPERT can help, it needs to be looked at holistically for it to be as effective as it might be.