Persuasion-enabled telehealth system

Abstract

With the emergence of mobile and pervasive computing, digital gadgets and products have become a pervasive and of our lives. Everyday, they influence us explicitly or implicitly and are changing our way of life as well as our behaviors, either intentionally or unintentionally. Throughout the past decade, research has been conducted to make persuasion interactive rather than unilateral. The outcome is known today as persuasive computing technology. There have been considerable efforts to apply persuasive technology in many domains, especially healthcare. Although these efforts to are gradually coming to fruition, several problems and challenges remain. Most currently available persuasive systems were not based on explicit theoretical foundations of persuasion theories and models when they were developed. There are two major reasons: (1) a general lack of theoretical frameworks and practical methodologies for building persuasive systems or applications, and (2) it is difficult for computer scientists and developers to understand and harness persuasion theories and models. In response, we have developed an Action-based Behavior Model (ABM) that can be utilized by computer scientists and developers. In this paper, we validate ABM through a scenario-based case study, describing how it can be utilized in participatory telehealth to enable persuasion.