Preventive Medicine Competence Network
Baden-Württemberg
The five Faculties of Medicine in Mannheim, Freiburg, Heidelberg, Tübingen, and Ulm in Baden-Württemberg have joined forces to form the Competence Network for Preventive Medicine (KNPM). Together, they conduct research on topics related to prevention and health promotion. The goal is to maintain and improve the health of the people of Baden-Württemberg—based on evidence-based prevention.
Thanks to its cross-location and interdisciplinary infrastructure, the network possesses extensive expertise in the fields of prevention and health promotion. This enables the network to address a wide range of relevant interventions and preventive measures and generate robust scientific findings regarding their effectiveness. Additionally, the network supports decision-makers in politics and the healthcare sector, thereby simultaneously strengthening Baden-Württemberg as a center of scientific excellence.
The "Personalized Prevention" Research Group at the Faculty of Medicine in Freiburg
Personalized prevention is a health approach that tailors preventive measures to an individual’s specific needs, lifestyle, and personal health risks in order to prevent disease.
Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in Germany, although a healthy lifestyle could significantly reduce the risk. During the first funding phase of the Competence Network, the smartphone app “tala-med Cardio” was developed. This app supports users in adopting and maintaining healthy behaviors related to exercise, nutrition, and smoking cessation over the long term.
The Freiburg site leads the KNPM’s Primary Care Working Group, which is currently carrying out the following projects:
Primary prevention in the primary care setting (healthier and longer lives for everyone). A feasibility study on the “tala-med Cardio” smartphone app in everyday primary care practice
Objective: The objective is to test and further develop the smartphone app “tala-med Cardio” to support a healthier lifestyle in everyday general practice, with the long-term goal of comprehensive integration into standard care.
Study Design: As part of a feasibility study, the “tala-med Cardio” smartphone app is being tested in the daily practice of general practitioners. In selected general practice offices, the app is recommended by physicians during appropriate consultation opportunities. The practices then test the integration of the app into daily practice and into the physician-patient consultation over a period of four to six weeks. In addition, qualitative, guided interviews are conducted with the participating practices to document experiences and barriers to using the app and to identify opportunities for improvement.
Objective: The objective is to test a new coaching feature within the existing Exercise module. This feature is designed to support users in making planned lifestyle changes. This study aims not only to test the feature’s user-friendliness, but also to determine whether users adopt the coaching feature (acceptance) and whether they are able to reliably follow the recommended instructions and guidelines (adherence). The coaching feature is also intended to be expanded to the app’s other modules in future updates.
Study Design: This acceptance and adherence study is being conducted by the Section for Health Services Research and Rehabilitation Research (SEVERA) at the Uniklinik Freiburg under the direction of Prof. Manuela Glattacker. In this study, the coaching element designed to promote and support planned lifestyle changes is initially integrated only into the Exercise module. To implement coaching in the form of an app, specific case studies were developed based on the MoVo process model by Göhner and Fuchs (2007). These case studies outline various action plans. The evaluation is based on two target variables: Usability—and, by extension, acceptance—is measured using the System Usability Scale (SUS). Adherence is assessed using the ABC taxonomy (Ascertaining Barriers for Compliance) (Schwartz et al., 2024) as well as user usage data (using the web analytics system Matomo).
Objective: The Section for Health Services Research and Rehabilitation Research (SEVERA) at the Uniklinik Freiburg is conducting a scoping review on effective feedback strategies in the context of digital interventions aimed at changing health behaviors related to physical activity and nutrition. The review is being led by Prof. Manuela Glattacker. The review methodology is based on the criteria of the Joanna Briggs Institute.
The search is being conducted in the MEDLINE, CINAHL, and PsycINFO databases. The complete protocol for the scoping review has been published on the Open Science Framework platform. The findings of the review are intended to help improve the “tala-med Cardio” app and its coaching function.