Intelligent nutrition in healthcare and continuous care

Abstract

In the healthcare industry, the patient's nutrition is a key factor in their treatment process. Every user has their own specific nutritional needs and requirements. An appropriate nutrition policy can therefore help the patient's recovery process and alleviate possible symptoms. Food recommender systems are platforms that offer personalised suggestions of recipes to users. However, there is a lack of usage of recipe recommendation systems in the healthcare sector. Multiple challenges in representing the domain of food and the patient's needs make it complicated to implement these systems. The present project aims to develop a platform for an intelligent planning of the user's meals, based on their clinical conditions. The application of machine learning algorithms on nutrition, in healthcare services and continuous care is thus a key topic of research. This platform will be tested and deployed at the Social Cafeteria of Vila Verde (Cantina Social da Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Vila Verde). The development of this project will use the Design Science Research (DSR) investigation methodology, ensuring that the solution to the problem accomplishes all needs and requirements of the professionals, while elucidating new knowledge both for the institution and the scientific community.