There are already many ways to monitor your own health with apps or software on your smartwatch or smartphone. For example, it is easy to install a pedometer, to obtain nutritional advice, to monitor the sleeping pattern or to gain insight into the sleeping pattern with an app. There are even fit bits that warn of an imminent cardiac arrest or that, before there are complaints, warn of impending heart failure.
Broad heart examination
All those examples concern self-monitoring, which can of course also be used to help science a step further. With the new app ‘My heart counts’, people do both: they gain more insight into their own health and participate in a broad heart study. The app was created by researchers from the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and the National eHealth Living Lab (NeLL). What is unique is that specific risk patients cannot participate in this, but that all residents over 18 can participate, simply by downloading the app on their mobile.
My heart counts is smart app
General practitioner Tobias Bonten explains the principle of the heart examination very graphically on the LUMC website: “It is as if we put questionnaires on all kitchen tables in the Netherlands and random passers-by stick up a motion sensor. In this way we can research the relationship between exercise, lifestyle and cardiovascular disease in a smart way.” For example, it is being examined whether it makes a difference to the risk of cardiovascular disease at what time of day people exercise. For example, is it beneficial to get the body moving in the morning or does it not matter?
Calculate your heart age
Anyone over the age of 18 can put the app on their phone. The app itself explains in detail how the research works, how privacy is arranged and what happens to the data. The app will keep track of how active the participants are and how much they sleep. The participants are asked to complete short questionnaires about their lifestyle for a week. This concerns healthy exercise, work, eating patterns and sleeping patterns. Then the so-called heart age of the participant is calculated. This test was made by the Dutch Heart Foundation and translates the risk factors into an estimate of the age of a person’s heart. The researchers want to use the data to find out how exercise and lifestyle affect cardiovascular disease in the general population. The researchers expect the first results in early 2023. Those who want to participate can download the app directly from the App Store, but not yet in the Play Store.
ICT&health congres 2023
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