Campus Review Vol 30. Issue 01 | January 2020 | Page 19

industry & research campusreview.com.au Digital scales How avatars could help with the battle of the bulge. By Wade Zaglas S evere diets, fasting, diet pills and gastric bands – these are some of the lengths people with obesity have gone to in order to lose weight and regain their health. But now there may be more effective treatments on the way, with a major research project investigating how digital tools – such as avatars – could be used to assist people in managing their weight. Over the next two years research will be conducted between the University of Notre Dame Australia, Archetype Health, Werribee Hospital Foundation, Mercy Hospitals Victoria and the Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre (Digital Health CRC). The study relies on an app (called Future Me) that allows participants to match their face to an avatar. The researchers then adjust the participants’ exercise levels and food intake over time to measure how the avatar’s appearance and body shape changes. The study follows previous trials showing how the app’s images can be “highly stimulating and can trigger behavioural changes and effort to better control weight” in individuals committed to change. This study will conduct further testing, focusing on when and how such digital tools should be offered to individuals. Dr Moyez Jiwa, director of Archetype Health, professor of health innovation at Notre Dame’s School of Medicine, and associate dean of the Melbourne Clinical School, will work with two other experts on the project – Notre Dame’s Dr Ruthra Nagendran and Professor Iain Greenlees (University of Chichester, UK). “We will investigate how digital tools like the Future Me app can best be used in practice and observe how patients respond to these potentially life-changing tools,” Jiwa said. “The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ National Health Survey (2017–18) showed that 67 per cent of Australian adults are obese or overweight – with this in mind, it’s hugely important to look for solutions that could help patients make the day-to-day lifestyle changes they require in order to manage their weight more effectively and live healthier lives. “Computers and smartphones are increasingly a large part of our lives; we seem to be looking at a screen almost every minute of the day. Here is an opportunity for us to do something useful with that from the health perspective.” Dr Victor Pantano, CEO of the Digital Health CRC, said that digital tools have “tremendous potential” in combatting the obesity epidemic affecting Australia and other countries across the world. As obesity contributes to a variety of diseases and poor health, and puts a strain on the health care system, Pantano believes it’s critical that everything is done to “motivate and support” individuals to achieve a healthier weight. Dr Michael Dodson, medical director of Mercy Hospitals Victoria, agrees that digital applications could provide “highly personalised tools” to motivate individuals and reinforce changes in weight. “For these digital tools to work most effectively in influencing lifestyle choices, they need to be customisable enough to integrate smoothly into the daily lives of a diverse range of individuals,” Dodson said. “This study is particularly valuable as it not only considers a digital tool that can motivate and influence behaviour, but also seeks to determine how that tool can most effectively be used.” The chairperson of the Werribee Hospital Foundation, Dr Jason Goh, says the Wyndham community in Melbourne’s southwestern suburbs is a technologically competent community and ready for “digital health research”. “For every dollar invested, Australian medical research returns $3.90 in health benefits to the community,” Goh says. “We are confident that the successful completion of this research project will encourage further collaboration between government, public health services, universities, industry and philanthropic organisations like the foundation to stimulate growth in digital health research activities.” ■ Avatar image: Supplied. 17