The objective of this study was to assess the feasibility of using a user-centered chatbotfor collecting linked data to study overweight and obesity causes ina target population. In total 980 people participated in the feasibility study organized in three studies: (1) within a group of university students (88 participants), (2) in a small town (422 participants), and (3) within a university community (470 participants). We gathered self-reported data through the Wakamola chatbot regarding participants diet, physical activity, social network, living area, obesity-associated diseases, and sociodemographic data. For each study, we calculated the mean Body Mass Index (BMI) and number of people in each BMI level. Also, we defined and calculated scores (1–100 scale) regarding global health, BMI, alimentation, physical activity and social network. Moreover, we graphically represented obesity risk for living areas and the social network with nodes colored by BMI.

For those of you who have missed it, here is the interview of  Lo que AI que oir (What AI has to hear) (The Spain AI Podcast) that they did to Oscar Garibo and me. Thanks to Spain AI, Alba Pérez Fernández, Karen Troiano and Alberto Julián.

In this interview, we speak about our participation in the XPRIZE Challenge, but we also had time to speak about Mathematics, AI, and life. You can hear it in Spanish here:

Obesity and overweight are a serious health problem worldwide with multiple and connected causes. Simultaneously, chatbots are becoming increasingly popular as a way to interact with users in mobile health apps. Our study reports the user-centered design and feasibility study of a chatbot to collect linked data to support the study of individual and social overweight and obesity causes in populations. We first studied the users’ needs and gathered users’ graphical preferences through an open survey on 52 wireframes designed by 150 design students; it also included questions about sociodemographics, diet and activity habits, the need for overweight and obesity apps, and desired functionality. We also interviewed an expert panel. We then designed and developed a chatbot. Finally, we conducted a pilot study to test feasibility. With this work, we have shown that the Telegram chatbot Wakamola is a feasible tool to collect data from a population about sociodemographics, diet patterns, physical activity, BMI, and specific diseases. Besides, the chatbot allows the connection of users in a social network to study overweight and obesity causes from both individual and social perspectives. You can access to this work here S. Asensio-Cuesta  et al.
A User-Centered Chatbot (Wakamola) to Collect Linked Data in Population Networks to Support Studies of Overweight and Obesity Causes: Design and Pilot Study. JMIR Med Inform 2021;9(4):e17503
doi: 10.2196/17503

Our team VALENCIA IA4COVID, coleaded by Nuria Oliver and me, has won 500k Pandemic Response Challenge, organized by XPRIZE Foundation and supported by Cognizant. The $500K Pandemic Response Challenge, required teams to build effective data-driven AI systems capable of accurately predicting COVID-19 transmission rates and prescribing intervention and mitigation measures that, with testing in “what-if” scenarios, were shown to minimize infection rates as well as negative economic impacts.

Our group is made up of fourteen experts from the Universities and research centers of the Valencian Community. Our model successfully forecasted epidemiological evolution through their use of AI and data science and provided decision makers with the best prescriptor models to produce non-pharmaceutical intervention plans that minimize the number of infections while minimizing the stringency of the interventions.

You can find the details of the prize here  and of our model here .