Cuídat-e, a Pioneering Personalized Medicine Project and Health Promotion

Caring for our health is increasingly seen as a shared objective between patients and healthcare professionals, supported by a healthy physical and emotional lifestyle that includes exercise, a balanced diet, and the appropriate medical prescriptions. Artificial intelligence technology and new apps are giving healthcare professionals the ability to make better decisions, while offering patients guidance and assistance for “self-care” and for preventing new adverse episodes.

One example of this is the initiative in Spain known as Cuídat‑e, which is focused on personalized medicine and health promotion. It has been jointly developed by the public health services in the Canary Islands and Valencian Community regions, using technology from GMV. As part of the project, this multinational technology firm is responsible the developing a personalized medicine solution that brings together clinical information and information collected from the patient during everyday life, to improve clinical data and assist with healthcare decisions.

This personalized medicine initiative will help the residents of those two regions look after their own health with a self‑care approach, while also assisting social and healthcare professionals with their work.  In addition, ongoing follow‑up will encourage healthy lifestyles and adherence to the recommendations received from doctors and other healthcare workers.

Patient participation

From the beginning, Cuídat-e has been developed in collaboration with the local residents. Their experiences are being used as a way to adjust the apps to their needs, with an initial phase included to validate the project’s suitability. The public health services from the Canary Islands and Valencian Community first invited 4,000 volunteers to participate, who were asked to provide information about their habits, nutritional profiles, exercise routines, moods, and any situations of substance use or loneliness. To record this information, the participants were given a mobile app to use 3 days a week for 5 months, and they devoted about 5‑10 minutes to using it on each of those days. In addition to those initial volunteers, anyone else living in one of those regions could also participate if interested, after signing an informed consent form.

GMV used a variety of channels to find the volunteers needed, such as by posting online notices and through short video clips recorded for social media sites like Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. The objective was to enroll as many participants as possible in a friendly and approachable way, with a message focused on health management in general, and on adopting healthy habits in particular. Those who volunteered were given a direct channel for communication during this first phase, which was used to answer any questions they had and provide explanations about the purpose of this pilot phase of the project. 

Cuídat-e is a good example of how technology can help improve health, by encouraging members of the public to adopt a healthier lifestyle through exercise, healthy eating, and emotional support. The apps help motivate their users to play an active role in their own healthcare, using a direct communication channel that is always available.