After the Covid-19 pandemic, it is important to understand and be aware of the opportunities that nutritional software can provide within a medical examination by nutritionists or dieticians. In this thesis, I carry out a descriptive analysis of the literature referring to telemedicine in general and to the change in the use of technological tools in the medical field after the Covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, I highlight its advantages and disadvantages. Subsequently, the attention is focused more specifically on the field of nutrition, with descriptive and empirical analyses. For the descriptive analysis, a number of studies in the literature on nutritional projects and software as well as research on the evaluation of cost-efficiency in the use of new technologies in nutrition are examined. In addition, I highlight the changes introduced in nutritional consultations after the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the last part of the thesis, I carry out an empirical analysis of the nutritional software Morphogram® PRO developed by the company Nubentech Srl, which can also be used for remote clinical examinations. I compare it with the most commonly used devices for a clinical assessment of the body composition of patients, which are the medical devices for bioimpedance analysis or BIA and the calipers. The type of research design used in this thesis is quasi-experiment. The objectives of this research are mainly the comparison and the evaluation of different medical instruments on the basis of their costs, the time required to perform the analysis and the results obtained on the patients. The data of this study were provided by 36 Italian nutritionists and dietitians, who have been available to share information regarding their nutritional devices and about medical examinations on some patients, in an anonymous format, by using both their traditional method and the Morphogram® PRO software. With the data collected, a cost-benefit analysis of this nutritional software is carried out. The outcomes are compared to the two most commonly used medical devices. The results and reflections are discussed at the end of this paper.
In seguito alla pandemia da Covid-19, è importante comprendere ed essere consapevoli delle opportunità che un software nutrizionale può svolgere all’interno di una visita medica da parte di nutrizionisti o dietisti. All’interno di questa tesi, è stata svolta una prima analisi descrittiva della letteratura riferita alla telemedicina in generale e al cambiamento dell’utilizzo degli strumenti tecnologici in ambito medico dopo la pandemia da Covid-19, evidenziando anche i suoi vantaggi e svantaggi. Successivamente, si è posta l’attenzione più nello specifico al settore nutrizionale, con un’analisi prima descrittiva e poi empirica. Per l’analisi descrittiva, sono stati presi in esame alcuni studi presenti in letteratura in merito a progetti e software nutrizionali oltre che ricerche sulla valutazione del costo-efficienza nell’utilizzo delle nuove tecnologie in ambito nutrizionale. Inoltre, si è posta l’attenzione sulle modifiche introdotte nelle visite nutrizionali dopo l’avvento della pandemia da Covid-19. Nell’ultima parte di questa tesi è stata svolta un’analisi empirica del software nutrizionale Morphogram® PRO progettato dall’azienda Nubentech Srl, che può essere utilizzato anche per le consulenze cliniche online. È stato confrontato questo software con le strumentazioni più comunemente utilizzate per la valutazione della composizione corporea dei pazienti, cioè i dispositivi medici per l’analisi bioimpedenziometrica o BIA e il plicometro. Il quasi-esperimento è la tipologia di studio empirico utilizzata in questa tesi. Gli obiettivi di questa ricerca sono principalmente il confronto e la valutazione delle differenti strumentazioni sulla base dei loro costi, delle tempistiche per lo svolgimento dell’analisi e dei risultati ottenuti sul paziente. I dati di questo studio sono stati forniti da 36 nutrizionisti e dietisti italiani, che si sono resi disponibili a condividere informazioni relative alle loro strumentazioni e in merito alle visite mediche su alcuni pazienti, in formato anonimo, sia con la loro metodica tradizionale che con Morphogram® PRO. Con i dati raccolti è stata quindi svolta un’analisi costi-benefici di questo software nutrizionale, rispetto ai due strumenti più comunemente in uso. I risultati e le riflessioni sono discussi al termine di questa tesi.
The impact of digital technologies on telehealth management. The empirical study of nutritional software developed by Nubentech Srl
FANETTI, LUCIA
2020/2021
Abstract
After the Covid-19 pandemic, it is important to understand and be aware of the opportunities that nutritional software can provide within a medical examination by nutritionists or dieticians. In this thesis, I carry out a descriptive analysis of the literature referring to telemedicine in general and to the change in the use of technological tools in the medical field after the Covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, I highlight its advantages and disadvantages. Subsequently, the attention is focused more specifically on the field of nutrition, with descriptive and empirical analyses. For the descriptive analysis, a number of studies in the literature on nutritional projects and software as well as research on the evaluation of cost-efficiency in the use of new technologies in nutrition are examined. In addition, I highlight the changes introduced in nutritional consultations after the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the last part of the thesis, I carry out an empirical analysis of the nutritional software Morphogram® PRO developed by the company Nubentech Srl, which can also be used for remote clinical examinations. I compare it with the most commonly used devices for a clinical assessment of the body composition of patients, which are the medical devices for bioimpedance analysis or BIA and the calipers. The type of research design used in this thesis is quasi-experiment. The objectives of this research are mainly the comparison and the evaluation of different medical instruments on the basis of their costs, the time required to perform the analysis and the results obtained on the patients. The data of this study were provided by 36 Italian nutritionists and dietitians, who have been available to share information regarding their nutritional devices and about medical examinations on some patients, in an anonymous format, by using both their traditional method and the Morphogram® PRO software. With the data collected, a cost-benefit analysis of this nutritional software is carried out. The outcomes are compared to the two most commonly used medical devices. The results and reflections are discussed at the end of this paper.È consentito all'utente scaricare e condividere i documenti disponibili a testo pieno in UNITESI UNIPV nel rispetto della licenza Creative Commons del tipo CC BY NC ND.
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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14239/1824