Innovation 1: Healthy Behaviors Knowledge Base (HBKB)
HEDD addresses the problem of conflicting information by developing the first-ever knowledge base of lifestyle’s impact on health, designed to associate behavior and consequences since many people simply don’t make connections between what they do and how they feel. We propose using state-of-the-art knowledge engineering methods to create a scientifically and clinically-validated expert system that will map the pathways and probabilities of different lifestyle behaviors on the various, but certain health consequences, both positive and negative.
This Healthy Behaviors Knowledge Base (HBKB) requires the spirit of Discovery Science and knowledge representation/artificial intelligence approaches that are both scalable and generalizable to accommodate the scope of project goals and the great span of phenomena relevant to human health. A particular advantage is that rules are expressed in natural, everyday language rules IF…THEN, and thus the engines are able to explain to the user in plain language why they ask a question and how they arrived at each deduction. So users can learn the knowledge contained in the system in its context. And the system can communicate deductions step by step, so the users have information about their issues even before the final answer of the expert system. Our system will likely be both Machine- and a Human-readable, and the human readable version will use Hypertext systems.
Specifically, we will employ computational knowledge engineering methods to represent three basic concepts: Inputs to the body, Processes by which the body responds to those Inputs and Outputs that are health consequences of the processed inputs. We first organize Inputs, Processes, and Output as concepts in a Concept taxonomy, a small fraction of which is shown below on the left. Furthermore, we computationally link concepts by various specific relationships (flow and associated_with are arrows in the panel on the right) to create “flow models” that show how Inputs affect Processes that change health Outcomes. The very simplified physio-flow model below right shows how Sunlight (an Input) is Processed to affect certain Outcomes. We chose sunlight for our prototype, because it is now demonstrated to be a critical part of staying healthy and it is not commonly included in health education.
Another HEDD innovation that is an outgrowth of the HBLB concept, are the physioflow charts which we specifically designed to demonstrate simply how the body works right if it gets what it needs and conversely to identify that tipping point in the physiological cascade when things start going awry when the body doesn’t get the lifestyle “nutrient” it needs, be it food or sleep or a thought or a hug or sunlight. These flowcharts are the heart of our educational system because they can create that “aha moment” of why we need a particular behavior for good health and simultaneously make obvious the #1 thing to do to improve that specific behavior. And if end-users/clients feel better after trying one simple behavior—such as drinking more water or walking 10 minutes—they just might try another, more challenging healthy behavioral change. Our 2 dozen physio-flow charts, one for each key lifestyle category, aren’t in any textbook. They are our unique creation and they are currently our most proprietary intellectual property.
This HBKB will enable the development of an evaluator tool which will allow users to enter symptoms to identify which lifestyle behaviors are most likely to improve well being. For example, although users may be given access to diagrammatic and taxonomical views of the HBKB, an HEDD-developed website will be based on much more user-friendly animations and graphic representations that will be derived from the HBKB. User inputs result in queries to the HBKB which then are interpreted by the animation machinery and presented to the user. As shown below, user-input to the website will instruct the animation machinery to query the Knowledge base to determine, for example, that Sunlight can affect Immune responses as well as Osteoporosis or that one explanation for Mood changes is lack of Sunshine.
This HBKB will be a first-of-its-kind evidence-based, authoritative central resource that identifies essential lifestyle choices based on fundamental human physiology. It is intended to help change the model of health care, providing a much needed breakthrough for corporate health promotion efforts, consumer education, K-12 health education programs, medical school curriculums, and desktop reference for health professionals to address physical and mental well being. When implemented it will help corporations and individuals both reduce health care costs and change the model of health care: by validating the critical impact of lifestyle behaviors and providing an evaluator tool, physicians will have more confidence in prescribing lifestyle changes before turning to drugs and surgery and other medical options. To the extent the HBKB is used in medical school training and by physicians, it will HELP CHANGE HEALTH OUTCOMES STARTING FROM THE “TOP DOWN”.
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