Health Coaching & Technology in a Weight Loss Center
Condition: Obesity; Technology; Videoconferencing; mHealth; Behavior, Health
Study type: Observational

Summary: 
      The national epidemic of obesity is associated with considerable morbidity, disability and
      early mortality.

      Conventional weight loss programs beyond a primary care setting have the potential to reduce
      weight, but are difficult to access for adults with obesity in rural areas due to lack of
      transportation and access to specialty care. Routine intensive behavioral therapy, while
      effective, is often not supplemented with adjuncts that could be helpful in engaging
      participants in behavioral change. The overarching goal of this SYNERGY pilot project is to
      overcome barriers rural adults face by using video-conferencing to deliver specialty obesity
      care that otherwise is inaccessible to most adults faced with this disease. It also intends
      to use emerging mobile health (mHealth) technology which has shown considerable promise in
      providing motivational feedback. This proposal highlights T3/T4 translation bridging
      technologists, allied health staff, and clinicians in the development and implementation of
      new therapeutic modalities. The study aims to evaluate a telehealth-based health coaching
      program that is embedded in the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Weight and Wellness Center that
      integrates novel remote monitoring technology in effecting behavioral change using Amulet, a
      Dartmouth Computer Science developed mHealth device over a 16-week period. First, the
      feasibility and accessibility of an eHealth-delivered health coaching obesity intervention
      using remote monitoring and video-conferencing (Aim 1) will be evaluated. The potential
      effectiveness of achieving the primary outcome of 5% weight loss, with secondary outcomes of
      improved physical function and self reported health (Aim 2) will be ascertained. The
      intervention's impact on implementation outcomes of workflow, adoption, and organizational
      change that could affect further scalability and generalizability in other high-risk
      population groups (Aim 3) will be assessed. These preliminary findings will be used in a
      future competitive application for an extramural R01 designed to assess the effectiveness of
      our intervention in achieving weight loss in rural obese adults. If successful, this
      application has the potential to redesign care using applied methods of telehealth translated
      to community-based, rural populations to facilitate behavioral change. The project also meets
      criteria of the NIH Strategic Plan for Obesity and the Institute of Medicine's need for
      Telehealth research.
    


Intervention name(s): eHealth
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Intervention Description: The pilot comprises of five components listed below which provide access to specialty obesity care to rural obese adults, and enhance it with technology (telehealth and remote monitoring): Team-based care; medical plan, nurses, psychologists, dietician, Health coaching, Weekly coaching sessions , Messaging and Remote Monitoring
Observational model: Cohort
Time perspective: Prospective
Sampling method: Non-Probability Sample
Study population: 
        This study will recruit 30 older motivated adults with obesity (aged 18-65 years). This
        study pilot will be based at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock (D-H) Weight and Wellness Center
        (DH-WWC) in Lebanon, NH. No randomization will be performed. Health coaches will deliver
        the intervention to participants