Rehabilitation, the Great Absentee of Virtual Coaching in Medical Care: Scoping Review

Abstract

Background In the last few years, several studies have focused on describing and understanding how virtual coaches (ie, coaching program or smart device aiming to provide coaching support through a variety of application contexts) could be key drivers for health promotion in home care settings. As there has been enormous technological progress in the field of artificial intelligence and data processing in the past decade, the use of virtual coaches gains an augmented attention in the considerations of medical innovations. Objective This scoping review aimed at providing an overview of the applications of a virtual coach in the clinical field. In particular, the review focused on the papers that provide tangible information for coaching activities with an active implication for engaging and guiding patients who have an ongoing plan of care. Methods We aimed to investigate the use of the term virtual coach in the clinical field performing a methodical review of the relevant literature indexed on PubMed, Scopus, and Embase databases to find virtual coach papers focused on specific activities dealing with clinical or medical contexts, excluding those aimed at surgical settings or electronic learning purposes. Results After a careful revision of the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 46 records were selected for the full-text review. Most of the identified articles directly or indirectly addressed the topic of physical activity. Some papers were focused on the use of virtual coaching (VC) to manage overweight or nutritional issues. Other papers dealt with technological interfaces to facilitate interactions with patients suffering from different chronic clinical conditions such as heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, depression, and chronic pain. Conclusions Although physical activity is a healthy practice that is most encouraged by a virtual coach system, in the current scenario, rehabilitation is the great absentee. This paper gives an overview of the tangible applications of this tool in the medical field and may inspire new ideas for future research on VC.

Conversational Agents in Health Care: Scoping Review and Conceptual Analysis

“…Conversational agents are increasingly used in diverse fields, including health care, and there is a need to identify different ways and outcomes of the use of conversational agents in health care. Existing reviews on conversational agents focus on a certain subtype of agents such as virtual coaches [ 31 - 33 ] or embodied conversational agents (ECAs) [ 34 ] or on specific functionalities of these agents such as behavior change [ 35 ] or mental health applications [ 36 , 37 ]. Other reviews report solely on the technical aspects of conversational agents such as system architecture and dialogues [ 38 ] or on the funding component of health care conversational interfaces [ 39 ].…”

Needle Catheter Jejunostomy in Patients Undergoing Surgery for Upper Gastrointestinal and Pancreato-Biliary Cancer–Impact on Nutritional and Clinical Outcome in the Early and Late Postoperative Period

“…Regular monitoring of body composition and quantitative registration of oral nutrition intake is mandatory. In the future, patient reporting and dietary counselling may be improved by virtual coaching and assisted digitalized communication by chat bot [44]. Before removing NCJ, there may be a withdrawal trial for several weeks with the supplementation of ONS.…”

Digitale Versorgungsformen zur Personalisierung der stationsäquivalenten Behandlung

“…Ambulatorische Interventionen im Bereich des Hometreatments sind hingegen selten. Nur vereinzelt wurde berichtet, dass die Anwendung digitaler Interventionen in der aufsuchenden Behandlung im Bereich der Gerontopsychiatrie vielversprechend sein könnte [ 38 ]. Allerdings wurden auch hier Implementierungshürden ambulatorischer Intervention beschrieben, die bereits in einem frühen Stadium der Umsetzung der digitalen StäB erkannt und überwunden werden müssen.…”