Tropea Peppino, Schlieter Hannes, Sterpi Irma, Judica Elda, Gand Kai, Caprino Massimo, Gabilondo Inigo, Gomez-Esteban Juan Carlos, Busnatu Stefan, Sinescu Crina, Kyriazakos Sofoklis, Anwar Sadia, Corbo Massimo
Department of Neurorehabilitation Sciences, Casa Cura Policlinico, Milano, Italy.
Chair of Wirtschaftsinformatik, esp. Systems Development, Faculty of Business and Economics, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
J Med Internet Res. 2019 Oct 1;21(10):e12805. doi: 10.2196/12805.
In the last few years, several studies have focused on describing and understanding how virtual coaches (ie, coaching program or smart device aiming to provide coaching support through a variety of application contexts) could be key drivers for health promotion in home care settings. As there has been enormous technological progress in the field of artificial intelligence and data processing in the past decade, the use of virtual coaches gains an augmented attention in the considerations of medical innovations.
This scoping review aimed at providing an overview of the applications of a virtual coach in the clinical field. In particular, the review focused on the papers that provide tangible information for coaching activities with an active implication for engaging and guiding patients who have an ongoing plan of care.
We aimed to investigate the use of the term virtual coach in the clinical field performing a methodical review of the relevant literature indexed on PubMed, Scopus, and Embase databases to find virtual coach papers focused on specific activities dealing with clinical or medical contexts, excluding those aimed at surgical settings or electronic learning purposes.
After a careful revision of the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 46 records were selected for the full-text review. Most of the identified articles directly or indirectly addressed the topic of physical activity. Some papers were focused on the use of virtual coaching (VC) to manage overweight or nutritional issues. Other papers dealt with technological interfaces to facilitate interactions with patients suffering from different chronic clinical conditions such as heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, depression, and chronic pain.
Although physical activity is a healthy practice that is most encouraged by a virtual coach system, in the current scenario, rehabilitation is the great absentee. This paper gives an overview of the tangible applications of this tool in the medical field and may inspire new ideas for future research on VC.
在过去几年中，多项研究聚焦于描述和理解虚拟教练（即旨在通过各种应用场景提供教练支持的培训项目或智能设备）如何成为家庭护理环境中促进健康的关键驱动力。由于过去十年人工智能和数据处理领域取得了巨大的技术进步，虚拟教练在医疗创新的考量中受到了更多关注。
本范围综述旨在概述虚拟教练在临床领域的应用。特别是，该综述聚焦于那些为指导活动提供切实信息的论文，这些活动对参与并指导有持续护理计划的患者具有积极意义。
我们旨在通过对PubMed、Scopus和Embase数据库中索引的相关文献进行系统综述，来调查虚拟教练一词在临床领域的使用情况，以找到专注于处理临床或医疗环境中特定活动的虚拟教练相关论文，不包括那些针对手术环境或电子学习目的的论文。
在仔细修订纳入和排除标准后，46条记录被选入全文综述。大多数已识别的文章直接或间接涉及身体活动主题。一些论文聚焦于使用虚拟教练（VC）来管理超重或营养问题。其他论文则探讨了技术界面，以促进与患有不同慢性临床疾病（如心力衰竭、慢性阻塞性肺疾病、抑郁症和慢性疼痛）的患者进行互动。
尽管身体活动是虚拟教练系统最鼓励的健康行为，但在当前情况下，康复是明显缺失的环节。本文概述了该工具在医学领域的实际应用，并可能为未来关于VC的研究激发新的思路。
