You try to exercise more. Eat more healthily. To stop smoking, perhaps? But if you have to do it on your own, it proves to be difficult. People living in the Kempen (Province of Antwerp, Belgium) now get an extra push thanks to the free online health platform BIBOPP, short for Citizens on the Move with Online Preventive Platform (Burgers in Beweging met Online PreventiePlatform).  BIBOPP is a tool to improve your lifestyle and reduce your risk of disease. Based on a questionnaire (the Health Guide), you receive personal advice with an action plan full of activities in your neighbourhood. Moreover, you decide with whom you share your data: with your GP or for scientific research.  

Researchers from VITO, care lab LiCalab (Thomas More) and doctors from the general practitioners association Domus Medica are joining forces to develop the online health platform BIBOPP. BIBOPP makes people aware of the importance of preventive health. Insights into lifestyle and the risk of certain diseases largely determine future health. BIBOPP provides this insight by offering various tools free of charge and without obligation: the Health Guide with health advice, a local action plan with activities in your own neighbourhood and even an estimate of the impact of corona on your health. Moreover, a chatbot helps you on your way with all kinds of questions. A lot of health in one place!  

The Domus Medica Health Guide 

The Health Guide is a questionnaire that general practitioners use to prevent or address health problems. GPs have been using it in their practices for some time, but on the health platform BIBOPP the Health Guide is now available to everyone online. The Health Guide asks questions about your health, such as "do you smoke?", "does bowel cancer run in your family?" or "are you a heart patient?". Based on your answers, the Health Guide gives you personal advice based on reliable scientific facts. The Health Guide gives you the opportunity to monitor your own health. Moreover, it is possible to share your results with your doctor for extra guidance or advice. 
The Health Guide is the starting point of the health platform BIBOPP. Based on your advice, you get access to specific activities in your neighbourhood, a personal score of the impact of corona on your health and personalised conversations with a chatbot.  

The personal action plan: on your own or in a group 

Based on your answers in the Health Guide, you will receive an action plan telling you how to improve your health with activities in your neighbourhood. These include walking routes, club training sessions, cooking classes, as well as specialised, local health professionals such as tabacologists or exercise coaches. You don't have to do it alone: just ask a neighbour, family or friends. A first in the Kempen and later in the whole of Flanders! 

BIBOPP and corona 

In addition to a personal action plan, the results from the Health Guide will soon provide a score of the impact of corona on your health. The score takes into account any diseases, the way you follow the safety measures and the spread of the virus in your neighbourhood.  
BIBOPP also has a chatbot: an automated conversation partner. The chatbot helps you look for a suitable activity, provides more information about the corona vaccinations and motivates you to pay attention to your health during corona. 

We Are: in charge of your own health data

Data security is extremely important. That is why in the future, we will be using a data platform called We Are, managed by the citizens themselves and based on Solid technology. We Are works with a personal data vault that stores your data. Soon you will be given the only key to decide what happens to your data! The difference with the current approach is that each individual has control over his or her own locker with data: each person decides for himself or herself who can and may use which data. We Are can contribute to a true data revolution, in which everyone is more aware of their use of data, and thus more data and more innovative data applications benefit society. 

Pilot project in Balen, Mol, Dessel, Retie and Turnhout

Residents of Balen, Mol, Dessel, Retie and the city of Turnhout were the first to get the opportunity to use the health platform BIBOPP. The local administrations have committed themselves as pilot municipalities and are actively promoting the project.   

Live your healthiest life! Take the first step today and answer the questions on www.bibopp.be (DUTCH ONLY)
BIBOPP was granted financial support from VLAIO, the province of Antwerp and EmpowerCare (Interreg 2 Seas).
Facebook: @gezondheidsplatformBIBOPP

Contact:
+32 14 33 51 16