? Overall Fatigue and impaired sleep are frequent, persistent, and disabling symptoms that often occur together for individuals with multiple chronic conditions. Self-management of chronic conditions has become a major component of the healthcare system. In the U.S., 85% of healthcare costs annually are spent to manage symptoms of chronic conditions. Wearable sensors and handheld devices may improve self-management by providing timely information regarding symptoms directly to the individual with chronic conditions and secondarily to their health care provider. Cutting edge technological solutions for identifying, managing, and preventing these symptoms are being developed at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The UMass Center for Building the Science of Symptom Self-Management (UManage) will capitalize on the capacity for innovation of the U. Massachusetts Amherst College of Nursing; College of Informatics and Computer Science; College of Engineering, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering; College of Natural Sciences, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Institute for Applied Life Sciences' Center for Personalized Health Monitoring, and the U. Massachusetts Medical Center CTSA to develop and test new devices to improve self-management of fatigue and impaired sleep by adult individuals.
The specific aims of the Center are to: 1) Build the science of symptom self-management by creating and maintaining the UManage Center and expand the scientific capacity in the nursing community. This will be accomplished through the Administrative Core, the operational unit to support and coordinate the work of the Center Director, Co- Directors, and Core Directors (Pilot Project & Human Factors). 2) Build the science of symptom self- management by soliciting and selecting meritorious pilot projects directed at the self-management of symptoms to manage, prevent, alleviate, or eliminate fatigue and impaired sleep. This will be accomplished through the Pilot Project Core in collaboration with the Administrative and Human Factors Cores and will foster the development of pilot project teams leading to the submission of R01 grant applications. The Pilot Project Core will mentor investigators in writing and submitting grant applications. 3) Build the science of symptom self-management by incorporating human factors considerations into the wearable and handheld systems used to monitor fatigue and impaired sleep by individuals. This will be done by providing consultation with pilot project teams and incorporating human factors considerations into designs to assess behavior to accomplish effective self-management of symptom Each of the specific aims will be accomplished with the support of the 1) Pilot Project Core, 2) Administrative Core, 3) the Human Factors Core. The long-term goal is to increase the capacity of individuals and families to self-manage chronic disease symptoms, including alterations in the sleep cycle and fatigue, that can lead to lower health care costs, improve quality of life, and prevent admission to acute and long-term care facilities.
More than 90% of individuals over 65 in the United States have health issues that require daily maintenance and more than 33% of older individuals have functional impairments that affect their self-management abilities. We propose a new, innovative UMass Center for Building the Science of Symptom Self-Management (UManage Center) to develop the science of symptom self-management using wearable and handheld technologies. Using a functional approach to improve individuals' self- management of the symptoms of fatigue and impaired sleep through the use of wearable and handheld devices could reduce healthcare costs by reducing exacerbations of chronic conditions.
