The Frontiers of Digital Health is the premier open access publication on digital health. It features a new approach to personalized behavioral interventions for historically underserved communities. Kelsey Lynett Ford (DrPH) and Ashley B. authored the program and article that showcase an innovative perspective on behavioral design and equity. The case study from COVID-19 vaccine illustrates this point. West, PhD; Amy Bucher, PhD; and Chandra Y. Osborn, PhD.
This solution combined the Double-Diamond approach of the United Kingdom Design Council with behavioral science to provide hyper-personalized digital communications for consumers from diverse communities. This is one of the few known methods that uses established design methodologies to create behavioral interventions.
Bucher, Lirio’s Chief Behavioral Officer, stated that “the intersection of behavioral science with human factors is an interesting area of research.” Combining a proven design approach like Double-Diamond and the COM-B model for behavior change and scaling it up with artificial intelligence allows you to achieve a level of personalization that is unimaginable.
The message recipients varied in their race, education, income, and other demographics. Although the journal article focused on the methodology, Lirio found that the approach produces positive outcomes for all sub-populations. This is not just for COVID-19 vaccines but also for behavioral interventions such as breast cancer screenings or PCP visits for diabetes patients. Low-income households and Black Americans are more likely to take the desired health actions than other populations. This diversity and engagement may suggest that the Double-Diamond approach offers promise for equitable behavioral interventions at large scale.
This article describes the intervention design approach used by Lirio’s Behavioral reinforcement learning Lab (BReLL), a multidisciplinary research center that examines the effects of artificial intelligence and behavior change on large-scale health outcomes. BReLL addresses the most difficult health issues in the world to improve people’s lives and reduce the economic burden of mental and chronic health conditions. These conditions account for 90% of the more than $4 trillion in annual healthcare costs in the United States.
