Data-driven blended care solution with virtual buddy for child health

Catharine Oertel and Mark Neerincx received funding for a new research project ePartners4All: a (personalised and) blended care solution with a virtual buddy for child health.

In this project, they take digital support of school-aged children and their caregivers a big leap forward, by not only monitoring their health, but also providing interactive e-health solutions (so-called ePartners), including robot buddies and virtual agents that enhance children’s health and well-being. A needs assessment, ePartners4All development, and pilot study will be performed in co-creation with end-users. These ePartners can help to prevent health problems in at-risk children, and it can help to recognise and treat health problems at an early-stage, thereby preventing deterioration of the problem. In this way, ePartners4All can help to create a more resilient society. Altogether, it could lead to lower healthcare utilisation and, in the long-run, a more resilient workforce with lower losses of productivity.

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