Title: An Auto-Personalizing Mobile Phone Application to Encourage Regular Activity for Chronic Back Pain Management
Investigator: Min Hane Aung, PhD, Cornell University
Overview: This is a formative trial to test the efficacy of an intelligent mobile phone based suggestion generator. The system is designed to encourage regular and sustained physical activity for people with Chronic Back Pain (CBP). By leveraging phone sensor data, the system has the capacity to generate and issue personalized text based suggestions. It continuously learns the preferences and contexts of physical activities undertaken by each user. This is used to frame new suggestions to be more familiar and compelling thus leading to a greater chance of actualization. An earlier version of this system MyBehavior was designed to encourage healthier lifestyles in a general population; it showed significant increases in exercising as well as decreases in the calorific content of consumed food. We seek similar indications of persuasiveness within people with CBP by deploying an adapted version of this system relevant to CBP from both a physiotherapeutic and psychological perspective. Achieving these aims will contribute toward fulfilling the potential of mobile devices for daily self-management and rehabilitation of chronic pain.