The Province of North Holland by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate (Ministerie van Economische Zaken en Klimaat) announced on Tuesday, that it has awarded the RVO MIT R&D Collaboration Grant to Fitsurance and 4MedBox.
Amsterdam-based Fitsurance is a company that makes data-driven lifestyle coaching clear and accessible for everyone. While 4MedBox is a Leiden-based (Netherlands) startup that aims to make a safe, feasible and affordable healthcare system.
Both Dutch startups are jointly developing a new platform – ‘3D Lifestyle Coaching’ (digital, data-driven).
“Our project ‘3D Lifestyle Coaching’ focuses on the development of a data-driven lifestyle coaching platform with double-sided decision support to support lifestyle coaches and their coachees in the process towards better health.”
Why is a healthier lifestyle important?
According to Fitsurance and 4MedBox, in the Netherlands, the majority of the nearly 10 million chronically ill people have lifestyle-related conditions. This population is more vulnerable than ever because of the corona epidemic and a significant ageing population.
A better way of living can minimise symptoms and postpone the onset of many chronic illnesses. The issue is that a lot of people are unsure of which lifestyle changes will have the desired effect.
A combined lifestyle intervention (GLI), which has been available for those with a BMI > 25 + 1 or more risk factors or a BMI > 30 since mid-2018, can be a treatment offered by a lifestyle coach.
According to a statement, the GLI is a positive move, but the lifestyle coach runs into a lot of issues. For instance, the lifestyle coach wants to offer exceptional service but has limited time to make a difference and must perform a great deal of laborious administrative work to analyse the data.
The lifestyle coach further lacks diagnostics (i.e., the deployment of personal health data) and has little understanding of the precise effects of coaching on the coachee’s health.
What does ‘3D Lifestyle Coaching’ offer?
With the use of this new platform, lifestyle coaches will be able to track, evaluate, and incorporate their coachees’ health data into their ongoing lifestyle coaching to create what is known as data-driven digital lifestyle coaching.
This will enable coaches to offer specialised guidance based on the individual requirements, information, and objectives of their coachees, with an emphasis on prevention.
The platform will also provide coachees more control over their health and lifestyle by enabling them to monitor and share their own health data with their lifestyle coach.
The new platform will also use privacy-by-design and data-driven coaching. Each user will, therefore, have a personal data vault where their health information will be securely stored and only available to them and their lifestyle coach at their discretion.
To guarantee that users’ privacy is always secured, stringent security measures will be implemented. Regarding the protection of personal data and the handling of health data, the platform shall adhere to all legal requirements and regulations.
Fitsurance and 4MedBox claim that they have placed a high priority on privacy and security while creating this platform. The aim is to establish a safe environment where users can access, share, and communicate with their lifestyle coach about their health data without being concerned about the safety of their data.
The firms say, “We believe that this new platform will make an important contribution to the health and quality of life of the Netherlands and will provide a secure and confidential environment for managing and sharing personal health data.”
“We, therefore, look forward to the development of this data-driven digital lifestyle coaching and the positive impact it will have on people’s health and well-being.”
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