Manuel Armayones Ruiz

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- UOC Experts guide

Professor Agregat eHealth

Expert in::

Quality of life
ICT Information and Communication Technologies
Social media
Health and society
Health psychology
digital training, digital literacy
functional diversity
public health
mental health
health and society
community health
health psychology
health promotion
UX user eXperience
social networks
new technology adoption
lifestyles
habits
collaborative methodologies
new technologies and social change
quality of life

Research group: BDLab
Area: Health sciences
Area of specialization: Digital health,
Membership Center: eHealth Center
UNESCO codes:: 6107, 610799, 6112, 611202, 611303, 6114, 611403, 631003, 631009, 3212
Collaborates with: e-Health Center

ODS:

My profile

Manuel Armayones, PhD in Psychology, is coordinator of the Behaviour Design Lab research group at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya's eHealth Center and member of the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences.

His research interests are behavioural design and persuasive technology design, applied to the promotion of health and healthy lifestyles through technology.

He is currently working on various projects with public and private funding whose aims include the creation of healthy habits through new technologies and the evaluation of the persuasive design of mobile applications and therapeutic adherence.

These projects include studies on the level of "persuasiveness" of mobile applications in the field of health, collaborations for the persuasive design of applications aimed at promoting health and preventing diseases, analysis of barriers and facilitators for the acquisition of healthy lifestyle habits and collaboration in the evaluation and design of public policies in which the behaviour of citizens is a relevant variable.

The project areas have covered: intervention in overweight and obesity, prevention of smoking and alcohol consumption, assessment of and intervention in unwanted loneliness and acquisition of healthy habits through specific methods based on behavioural design models and techniques.

Files (CV)

Acknowledgments

In 2019, Forbes magazine named him as one of the leaders in health in Spain.

In 2018, the US Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMMS) named him as one of the 50 European leaders in the field of eHealth. The same year, the Universitat Politècnica de València, and more specifically the SABIEN Institute, paid tribute to him on its anniversary for his contribution to digital health and his collaboration with SABIEN.

In 2018, he received one of the 2018 eHealth Awards in the "best app for patients" category, jointly with the UPF, for the COMJUNTS mobile app to foster communication between health professionals and the parents of children with rare diseases.

My links area

Behavior Design Lab at the UOC eHealth Center

Blog Behavioral Design and Digital Health in Research and Science

COMJUNTOS mobile application (Communication professionals and parents of children with rare diseases)

Lines of research

Behavioural design in eHealth

The research questions that are being asked in this line of research are:

● How can we promote therapeutic adherence in health programmes, including both the use of medication and online applications?

● How can we help people change their behaviour or daily routines through technology to lead a healthier life?

● How can we design and evaluate behavioural solutions to manage chronic disease, regain fitness or any other need or interest using behavioural design techniques through new technologies?

● How can we help overcome the barriers that many people may face in incorporating new technologies into their healthcare?

In short, how can we develop effective behavioural design to help people change their habits through technology and maintain the changes over time?

Behavioural design refers to a set of theoretical models and specific evidence-based techniques that allow us to identify and intervene in the barriers and facilitators for a particular behaviour to take place.

● Understanding how the mind makes decisions.

● Describing the key factors that must come together for action to be taken.

● Developing strategies to change behaviour.

● Evaluating the effects of intervention strategies by generating new knowledge.

Behaviour change design techniques are one of the most important factors in determining the success or failure of eHealth interventions as highlighted by supranational organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Commission (EC) and the United Nations (UN).

Our research topics:

● The design of mobile devices and technologies (apps) to help change behaviour.

● The creation and maintenance of healthy habits through new technologies.

● The relationship between persuasive systems and the use of technology by citizens.

● Personal motivation and decision-making processes and their role in initiating and maintaining behavioural change.

● The design of persuasive systems for online interventions aimed at disease prevention or health promotion.

● The analysis of theoretical models (behaviour change wheel (BCW), persuasive systems design (PSD), the Fogg behaviour model (B=MAP)) and their application in health promotion.

Projects

Transfer results

Technology Solutions

Patents

Spin-Offs

What can we offer

● Workshops for the development of healthy habits based on behaviour change models.

● Consultancy on technological persuasion in the field of health (support in persuasive design, evaluation of mobile applications from the perspective of behaviour change and adherence to application and intervention).

● Consultancy to public administrations on barriers and facilitators for the adoption of healthy behaviours.

● Consultancy services on the relationship between psychology and technology (use, overuse, prevention).

● Conferences on eHealth in general.