The Eurecat technology centre and the Catalan Institute of Oncology are respectively coordinating the technical and clinical aspects of the European iBeChange project, which this December is launching a pilot trial of a digital platform that promotes healthy habits and emotional management to help reduce the incidence of cancer.
Through artificial intelligence techniques and reinforcement learning algorithms, the tool will guide and provide personalized support to users to help them adopt healthier lifestyles in line with the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO).
The pilot study will last six months and will involve a total of 210 volunteers testing the platform in Spain, Italy, and Romania, with the aim of assessing its feasibility, usability, and user acceptance as a tool for the primary prevention of cancer.
Specifically, the developed platform uses artificial intelligence techniques and reinforcement learning algorithms to offer highly personalized recommendations and support. In this way, it seeks to address key psychosocial and lifestyle risk factors to promote primary cancer prevention and encourage sustainable behaviour change over time, with a specific emphasis on behaviours scientifically proven to reduce cancer incidence.
“The iBeChange platform integrates data generated through app use, administered questionnaires, and data collected by a smart ring device to provide users with the most appropriate recommendation at the most suitable moment. In addition, clinical professionals can monitor users’ activity at all times and modify it when necessary through a web application,” explains Eurecat’s project manager, David Suñol.
The Eurecat technology centre, through its Digital Health unit, acts as the project’s technical coordinator and is responsible for deploying the digital platform. Meanwhile, the ICOnnecta’t Digital Health program together with the Screening Program of the Catalan Institute of Oncology is in charge of the clinical coordination and the recruitment for the clinical studies that will be carried out to test the feasibility and effectiveness of the intervention with a larger number of volunteers.
The objective of iBeChange is to “create a dynamic and easy learning process through the digital tool,” explains Sílvia Orte, Head of the Health Data Science Research Line at Eurecat, who highlights that “the innovative system goes beyond the state of the art in sustainable behaviour change and emotional management, combining knowledge from health psychology and behaviour change science with the capabilities of digital technologies.”
“From the ICOnnecta’t Digital Health program at the ICO, we have led the creation of an evidence-based intervention, both in terms of behaviour change to promote healthier lifestyles and in providing support for the emotional management of stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms, insomnia, or social isolation, which often contribute to poorer health habits,” notes Maria Serra Blasco, the clinical lead of the project and principal investigator, together with Cristian Ochoa, of the clinical studies coordinated by the ICO.
“We hope that the experience from the pilot project will allow us to identify areas for improvement to increase the effectiveness of iBeChange in the sustainable promotion of healthy habits, with an eye on the second study, which will include a broader population,” adds Anna García Serra, project manager of the ICOnnecta’t team.
The project consortium is led by the European Institute of Oncology (IEO) and includes Eurecat, the Catalan Institute of Oncology, the University of Palermo (UNIPA), SporeData, the European Alliance for Personalised Medicine (EAPM), the European Institute for Innovation Through Health (i~HD), eCancer, the Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI), the Universitatea de Medicină și Farmacie “Carol Davila” (UMFCD), Software Imagination & Vision (SIMAVI), and the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e).
iBeChange, funded by Horizon Europe under the Mission Cancer initiative, contributes to the objectives of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan and the European Code Against Cancer by improving long-term primary prevention through information and support for citizens of the European Union.
