Individualized treatment, prescribing exercise and creating targeted plans to optimize health on every scale, has been the main goal of my work for many years.
When it comes to diagnosing and treating specific conditions within patients, each individual factor needs to be considered when designing a plan for their health, which is not always a widely practiced plan of action due to its difficulty. With regular exercise being a key component in treatment, not all exercise plans fit each unique person.
I thought it was about time to take exercise prescription to another level of success and more than a decade ago, I began to do just that. Creating the FITT principle in order to help my students understand how and why to prescribe physical exercise, it has since become the standard in not only my classes, but of framing exercise prescription recommendations of the American College of Sports Medicine.
Since then I have partnered with UConn students, faculty and a team of other wonderful individuals within the field to create a tool called Prioritize Personalize Prescribe Exercise or P3-EX that uses the FITT (Frequency, Intensity, Time, and Type) principle to frame the exercise prescription. This tool aids in the process of prescribing exercise to patients by providing specific, time-effective, evidence-based recommendations for professionals to recommend.
Take a look at this UConn today article: Innovative Decision Support System for Individualized Exercise Prescription
Utilizing an extensive algorithm designed with the help of my team (mentioned below), we have created a pivotal tool designed to aid health professionals in determining treatment. Using data analysis, the tool enables practitioners to identify which cardiovascular disease risk factors they should target to best benefit their patients.
The work with my students and fellow researchers in the field has enabled us to construct this decision-support system in a collaborative manner. We are now able to create personalized exercise plans to support patient heart health.
Programs such as Exercise Prescription helps students such as the ones I am working with, to bring their career to the next level while gaining hands-on learning experience, working with professionals like myself to build a healthier tomorrow.
The interdisciplinary team includes:
Postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Kinesiology Yin Wu ’19 (CAHNR), Kinesiology graduate students Rachel Berkowsky, Shiqi Chen, Erica Bushey, and Christina Day; adjunct professor of computer science and engineering at UConn, Justin Kennedy; Senior scientist at Hartford Hospital, Gregory Panza; and field medical director at Servier Pharmaceuticals, Margaux “Maggie” Guidry.