Vitalog has opened a new unit to focus on European research activities and projects.
The Brussels-based company, which specialises in IT-enabled health promotion and support programmes, says the new unit will participate in research on subjects such as the determinants of health, lifestyle, nutrition, e-health, education and e-inclusion.
“Medical research shows that the most efficacious way to promote a healthy lifestyle is a structured behavioural programme,” the company says in a press release.
“However, the intensity of care [this requires] is usually localised near research-base universities and hospitals and is cost-prohibitive. With Vitalog, real behaviour modification programmes for the masses have become a realistic possibility.”
Vitalog argues that the Internet and mobile phones are the best way to disseminate state-of-the-art programmes to larger populations. More than 300 million Europeans have Internet access and mobile phone penetration has reached almost 100% across the EU.
Its main product is Vitalog Pss, a software as a service platform that provides a database and management centre to handle users and lifestyle programmes, a portal for registering web-users and mobiles, and a communication layer to interact with them.
It offers Vitalog Pss HealthCoach to consumers and Vitalog Pss HealthCoachPro to the medical market. Both programs provide a "personal health coach" to users to encourage them to make behaviour changes and adopt a healthier lifestyle.
Link