Årsand, Eirik

Affiliations:
Research scientist at the Norwegian Centre for Integrated Care and Telemedicine (NST).
      Researcher in the Diabetes project portfolio team at NST.
Affiliated researcher at the Medical Informatics and Telemedicine group (MIT group), University of Tromsø.

DO YOU WANT TO TAKE YOUR MASTER THESIS TOGETHER WITH OUR RESEARCH TEAM, OR SPEND PART OF YOUR PH.D. WITH US? SEND ME AN E-MAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL!
Contact information at the bottom of this page.

Current research area
I do research around how to use mobile technologies to improve diabetes self-management, and I am currently involved in eight projects having this aim. I have been, and still am the principal investigator of the Few Touch Application (FTA) project portfolio, which involves development of a smartphone-based self-help application for people with diabetes. This involves research around the technologies, user needs, user-perception, and medical outcomes of this mobile way of doing self-management for both people with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. I co-supervise three PhD candidates and several master students within this research area. Our research projects currently involves about 30 people with Type 1 diabetes and 80 patients with Type 2 diabetes, using our mobile self-help and research platform - the Few Touch Application (FTA).

 Projects:
The four projects that I work the most with are:
    1. RENEWING HEALTH - Regions of Europe Working Together for Health. (EU-project, 2010-2012)
    2. The Diabetes ICT Health Motivation Project - One of the main projects in Tromsø Telemedicine Laboratory (TTL)
    3. My Post.Doc. project: Collocated Personal Diabetes Data (CPDD), aiming to refine the Few Touch Application.
    4. Co-supervisor for the PhD studentes Naoe Tatara and Taridzo Chomutare.

PhD work:
My doctoral project was to explore the potential that mobile ICT tools may have in self-help for lifestyle changes. The designed application was based on a "digital diary" concept for people with Type 2 diabetes, based on sensors, wireless communication and mobile phones. ICT tools for lifestyle changes and prevention of disease are still to a great extent based on personal computers (PCs), but are often perceived as too complex or demanding. It is therefore a great health potential in integrating future tools in people's everyday lives and make them as simple and mobile as possible. Mobile telephones are now both powerful and functional enough, to be the basis for health-related self-help tools, giving the users the adequate functionalities with good usability.

Some links that describe the PhD-project:
    Breakthrough for diabetes self-help
    Mobile self-help system to monitor diabetics’ health conditions
    Telemedicine for Diabetes Patients
    Fremtiden heter e-helse (in Norwegian)
    Håper dagbok på mobiltelefon blir et nyttig redskap for alle med diabetes (in Norwegian)
    Diabetesdagbok på mobilen (in Norwegian)

Scientific work

2011

1. Lauritzen J, Årsand E, Horsch A, Fernandez-Luque L, Chomutare T, Bellika JG, Hejlesen O, Hartvigsen G. Social Media and Games as Self-Management Tools for Children and Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus.International Conference on Health Informatics, Vilamoura, Portugal, 1. - 4. February 2012 (Paper).
2. Ribu E, Torbjørnsen A, Holmen H, Årsand E, Wahl A. The Norwegian study in Renewing Health: Stimulating self-management in patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus through telecare with the Few Touch application (FTA) and health counselling - a randomized controlled trial. In the International Society for Quality of Life Research (ISOQOL) 18th Annual Conference, Denver, Colorado, USA from October 26-29, 2011. (Poster, accepted - not presented)
3. Årsand E, Skrøvseth SO, Joakimsen RM, Hartvigsen G. Effects and Feedback from 30 Individuals with Type 1 Diabetes, Using a Mobile Diabetes Diary: The Few Touch Application. The 5th International Conference on Advanced Technologies & Treatments for Diabetes, February 8-12, 2012, Barcelona, Spain (Abstract, oral presentation)
4. Chomutare T, Fernandez-Luque L, Årsand E, Hartvigsen G. Features of Mobile Diabetes Applications: Review of the Literature and Analysis of Current Applications Compared Against Evidence-Based Guidelines. J Med Internet Res 2011;13(3):e65
   doi: 10.2196/jmir.1874 (Paper)
5. Ribu E, Årsand E, Dafoulas GE, Lange M. Health Coaching and Life-Long Monitoring for persons with Type 2 Diabetes – The Telemedicine value proposition. Journal of cyber therapy and rehabilitation (JCR). Autumn 2011. (Paper, accepted)
6. Frøisland DH, Dahl-Jørgensen K, Markestad T, Årsand E, Skaarderud F. Innovation in Practice: Development of Mobile Phone Applications, Involving Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes. A Pilot Study. 37th annual meeting of ISPAD, October 19-22, 2011, Miami, USA. (Poster, accepted)
7. Lauritzen J, Årsand E, Horsch A, Fernandez-Luque L, Chomutare T, Bellika JG, Hejlesen O, Hartvigsen G. Exploring the Use of Educational Video Games as self-management tools for Children and Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus. Scandinavian Conference on Health Informatics, August 28. – 31. 2011, Oslo, Norway (Abstract)
8. Chomutare TF, Fernandez-Luque L, Hartvigsen G, Årsand E. Review of iPhone Applications for Diabetes Self-Management, Medicine 2.0'11, Stanford University, Palo Alto, USA, 16-19 September 2011 (Abstract, presentation).
9. Lee E, Tatara N, Årsand E, Hartvigsen G. Review of Mobile-Based Nutrition Applications for People with Diabetes, 23rd International Conference of EFMI - the European Federation for Medical Informatics, August 28.–31. 2011. Oslo, Norway (Paper).
10. Årsand E, Skrøvseth SO, Chomutare T, Lauritzen J, Hartvigsen G. Personalized Mobile Phone-based Tools for Type 1 Diabetes, 23rd International Conference of EFMI - the European Federation for Medical Informatics, August 28. – 31. 2011. Oslo, Norway (Poster).
11. Chomutare T, Årsand E, Hartvigsen G. Mobile Peer-Support in Diabetes, 23rd International Conference of EFMI - the European Federation for Medical Informatics, August 28.– 31. 2011. Oslo, Norway (Paper).
12. Lauritzen JN, Årsand E, Van Vuurden K, Bellika JG, Hejlesen OK, Hartvigsen G. A mobile solution for predicting illness in Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus. The Second International Wireless VITAE conference, Feb. 28. – Mar. 3. 2011, Chennai, India. IEEE Xplore (Paper).
13. Årsand E, Skrøvseth SO, Tufano J, Hartvigsen G, Joakimsen RM. Mobile Diabetes Self-Management Tools – What’s the Role of Clinicians? The 4th International Conference on Advanced Technologies and Treatments for Diabetes, February 16. -19. 2011, London, UK (Poster).
14. Årsand E, Tatara N, and Hartvigsen G. Wireless and Mobile Technologies Improving Diabetes Self-Management. In Handbook of Research on Mobility and Computing: Evolving Technologies and Ubiquitous Impacts, ed. Maria Manuela Cruz-Cunha, and Fernando Moreira, 136-156 (2011), accessed September 15, 2011. doi:10.4018/978-1-60960-042-6.ch009, April 2011, IGI Global (Book chapter)

2010

15. Tatara N, Årsand E, Hartvigsen G. Patient-user involvement for designing a self-help tool for Type 2 diabetes (pp. 53-55). in Proceedings of Therapeutic Strategies – A Challenge for User Involvement in Design (ISSN 0105-8517), Workshop in conjunction with NORDICHI 2010,17 October 2010, Reykjavik, Iceland (position paper).
16. Lauritzen JN, Årsand E, Bellika JB, Vuurden KV, Hejlesen OK, Hartvigsen G. Exploring illness prediction in Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus pre-symptom onset. 2010 International Society for Disease Surveillance (ISDS) conference, Park City, Utah, USA, December 1-2, 2010 (Abstract, to appear in the Emerging Health Threats Journal).
17. Årsand E. Designing Mobile Diabetes Applications – Challenges and Opportunities. Tenth Annual Diabetes Technology Meeting, November 11-13, 2010, Bethesda, Maryland, USA (Invited speaker, abstract).
18. Årsand E, Tatara N, Andersson N, Varmedal R, Samuelsen T, Østengen G, Hartvigsen G. User-Involved Design of Mobile Self-Help tools for People with Diabetes – The Few Touch Application.  Norwegian Research Conference on Diabetes, 24.-25. March 2010, Oslo, Norway (Poster).
19. Årsand E. Diabetes Diary on the Mobile Phone – User Tests on Twelve Patients with Type 2 Diabetes / Diabetesdagbok på mobiltelefonen – Utprøving på tolv pasienter med Type 2 diabetes. Diabetesforum No. 1, March 2010, pp. 10-12. (Popular science article in Norwegian).
20. Bjørvig S, Årsand E, Østengen G. eHealth is Renewing the Health Care Load / eHelse fornyer helsearbeidet. Fagtidsskriftet Helse, Medisin, Teknikk. 2010. (Popular science article in Norwegian).
21. Nes A, Eide H, Wahl A, Årsand E, Østengen G, Dulmen S, Ribu L. I-care: stimulating self-management in patients with Type 2 diabetes 2. A pilot study. EACH 2010 ‘International Conference on Communication in Healthcare’, 5-8 September 2010, Verona, Italy. (Poster, accepted).
22. Årsand E, Tatara N, Andersson N, Varmedal R, Samuelsen T, Østengen G, Hartvigsen G. User-Involved Design of Mobile Self-Help tools for People with Diabetes. 3rd International Conference On Advanced Technologies & Treatments For Diabetes (ATTD 2010), February 2010, Basel, Switzerland (Poster, abstract).
23. Årsand E, Tatara N, Østengen G, Hartvigsen G. Mobile-Phone-based Self-Management Tools for Type 2 Diabetes – The Few Touch Application. Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology, March 2010, 4(2), pp 328-336 (Paper).
24. Skrøvseth S.O, Årsand E, Joakimsen R.M, Godtliebsen F. Statistical Modeling of Aggregated Lifestyle and Blood Glucose Data in Type 1 Diabetes Patients, Second International Conference on eHealth, Telemedicine, and Social Medicine, eTELEMED 2010, St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles, 10-16 February 2010, pp 130-133 (Paper).

2009

25. Årsand E. The Few Touch Digital Diabetes Diary - User-Involved Design of Mobile Self-Help Tools for People with Diabetes. University of Tromsø, Norway, December 2009, pp. 1-390. (Doctoral dissertation, Web / PDF).
26. Tatara N, Årsand E, Østengen G, Samuelsen T, Andersson N, Varmedal R, Hartvigsen G. Diabetes Diary based on a Mobile Phone – Users’ Experiences and Iterative Design Process. The 6th international workshop on Wearable Micro and Nanosystems for Personalised Health (pHealth 2009), Oslo, Norway, 24-26 June 2009. (Poster)
27. Årsand E. Mobile Pasientverktøy (Mobile Patient Tools), in The 3rd regional Research Conference within Medicine and Health, by Northern Norway Regional Health Authority and University of Tromsø, 25.- 26. mars 2009. (Abstract)
28. Årsand E, Varmedal R, Nilsen H, Østengen G, Hartvigsen G. Experiences from using a Diabetes Diary based on a Mobile Phone - The Few Touch Application. 2nd International Conference On Advanced Technologies & Treatments For Diabetes, February 2009, Athens, Greece (Poster).
29. Tatara N, Årsand E, Nilsen H, Hartvigsen G. A Review of Mobile Terminal-Based Applications for Self-Management of Patients with Diabetes. International Conference on eHealth, Telemedicine, and Social Medicine, February 2009, Cancun, Mexico. pp 166 – 175. (Paper)
30. Hartvigsen G, Årsand E, Botsis T, Vuurden K, Johansen M, Bellika JG. Reusing Patient Data to Enhance Patient Empowerment and Electronic Disease Surveillance. The Journal on Information Technology in Healthcare 2009; 7(1): 4-12. (Paper)

2008

31. Årsand E. A Diabetes Diary on the mobile Phone / Diabetesdagbok på mobiltelefonen. Diabetes Forum, November 2008, pp. 20-21 (4) (Popular science article in Norwegian).
32. Årsand E. New International Diabetes Conference / Ny internasjonal læringsarena. Diabetes Forum, July 2008, pp. 32-33 (2) (Popular science article, in Norwegian).
33. Hartvigsen G, Årsand E, Botsis T, Vuurden K, Johansen M, Bellika JG. Improved Patient Empowerment and Continuity of Care Through Electronic Disease Surveillance. SAMOS VIII: International Symposium on Systems, Architectures, MOdeling and Simulation, Samos, Greece, July 21-24, 2008. (Paper)
34. Årsand E, Demiris G. User-Centered Methods for Designing Patient-Centric Self-Help Tools. Informatics for Health and Social Care, September 2008; 33(3): pp. 158–169. (Paper)
35. Årsand E, Tufano J.T, Ralston J, Hjortdahl P. Designing Mobile Dietary Management Support Technologies for People with Diabetes. Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare 2008; 14: pp. 329–332. (Paper).
36. Chomutare T, Årsand E, Varmedal R, Hartvigsen, G. A Context-Sensitive Framework for Mobile Terminals for Assisting Type 2 Diabetes Patients. Tromsø Telemedicine and eHealth Conference. Tromsø, Norway. June 2008 (Abstract).
37. Årsand E, Olsen, OA, Varmedal R, Mortensen W, Hartvigsen G. A System for Monitoring Physical Activity Data Among People with Type 2 Diabetes. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2008;136:113-8. (Paper).

2007

38. Hartvigsen G, Johansen MA, Hasvold P, Bellika JG, Årsand E, Arild E, Gammon D, Pettersen S, Pedersen S. Challenges in telemedicine and eHealth: lessons learned from 20 years with telemedicine in Tromsø. Stud Health Technol. Inform. 2007;129(Pt 1):82-6. (Paper).
39. Årsand E. We are approaching a mobile phone-based system for self-help / Vi nærmer oss et system for selvhjelp på mobiltelefonen. Diabetes Forum, November 2007, pp. 34-35 (4) (Popular science article, in Norwegian).
40. Årsand E, Andersson N, Hartvigsen G. No-Touch Wireless Transfer of Blood Glucose Sensor Data. COGnitive systems with Interactive Sensors 2007. California, USA. November 2007 (Paper).
41. Årsand E, Varmedal R, Hartvigsen G. Usability of a Mobile Self-Help Tool for People with Diabetes: the Easy Health Diary, IEEE Conference on Automation Science and Engineering. Arizona, USA, 2007, pp. 863-868. (Web / PDF).
42. Årsand E, Olsen OA, Mortensen W, Varmedal R, Østengen G, Hartvigsen G. Construction of a self-help system for automatic capture of physical activity data among people with Type 2 diabetes. Tromsø Telemedicine and eHealth Conference. Tromsø, Norway. June 2007. (ePoster)
43. Årsand E, Varmedal R, Østengen G, Gammon D, Hartvigsen G. Lessons learned from interacting with users 40-70 years old in designing an eHealth self-help tool. Tromsø Telemedicine and eHealth Conference. Tromsø, Norway. June 2007. (Abstract)
44. Granberg O, Bellika JG, Årsand E, Hartvigsen G. Automatic Infection Detection System. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2007;129(Pt 1):566-70 (Paper).

2006

45. Wangberg SC, Årsand E. Exploring different electronic media to support diabetes self-management. The 19th World Diabetes Congress 2006 (Poster)
46. Olsen BI, Lund NW, Bellika JG, Årsand E, Hasvold P, Ellingsen G, Horsch A, Hartvigsen G. Medical documents – a challenge for the understanding of documents. Book-chapter in the book “A Document (Re)turn”, ISBN-13: 978-3-631-56294-9, Tromsø, December 2006.
47. Årsand E. Self-help using mobile ICT-tools / Selvhjelp ved bruk av mobilt IKT-verktøy. Diabetes Forum, September 2006, pp. 6-7 (3). (Popular science article, in Norwegian)
48. Wangberg SC, Årsand E, Andersson N. Diabetes education via mobile text messaging. Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, Volume 12, Supplement 1, July 2006, pp. 55-56 (2). Royal Society of Medicine Press (Paper).
49. Hartvigsen G, Bellika JG, Årsand E. New Trends in Electronic Health Records. Article in the online book “eHealth & Medical IT Solutions 2006 – June 2006” (Paper). URL: http://www.touchbriefings.com/cdps/cditem.cfm?nid=1965&cid=5
50. Årsand E, Varmedal R, Wangberg SC, Hartvigsen G. Capturing and presenting patient-data through a smartphone; designing a self-help tool. Tromsø Telemedicine and eHealth Conference. Norway, 2006 (Poster).
51. Årsand E, Hartvigsen G. Reprogrammable hardware used in future patient-centric eHealth tools. Tromsø Telemedicine and eHealth Conference. Norway, 2006 (Abstract)

2005

52. Gammon D, Årsand E, Walseth OA, Andersson N, Jenssen M and Taylor T. Parent-child interaction using a mobile and wireless system for blood glucose monitoring: Pilot users’ experiences. Journal of Medical Internet Research. December 2005
    (Web / PDF).
53. Årsand E, Walseth OA, Andersson N, Fernando R, Granberg O, Bellika JG and Hartvigsen G. Using blood glucose data as an indicator for epidemic disease outbreaks. The Medical Informatics Europe (MIE) congress. August 2005, Geneva, Switzerland. (Paper)
54. Årsand E, and Hartvigsen G. A wearable eHealth system for people with Type 2 diabetes. Scandinavian conference on Health Informatics. Aalborg, Denmark. August 2005 (Paper).
55. Walseth OA, Årsand E, Sund T and Skipenes E. Wireless transfer of sensor data into
    Electronic Health Records. The Medical Informatics Europe (MIE) congress. August 2005, Geneva, Switzerland (Paper).
56. Wangberg SC, Årsand E, Walseth OA and Andersson N. Diabetes Education via Mobile Text Messaging.  Telemed & eHealth 2005: Meeting healthcare challenges. November 2005, London, England (Abstract).

2004

57. Årsand E. Automatisert overføring av blodsukkerdata. Regional forskningskonferanse 3.-4. November 2004, Tromsø, Norway. 2004;:34 (Abstract and Poster).
58. Årsand E, Walseth O.E, and Skipenes E. Blood glucose data into Electronic Health Care Records for diabetes management. in The second HelsIT Conference at the Healtcare Informatics Week in Trondheim 2004. Trondheim, Norway: Norwegian Research Centre for Electronic Patient Records (NSEP).
59. Jenssen M, Årsand E. Automatic transfer of blood glucose data in the management of childhood diabetes type 1– effects on children and their caretakers. Tromsø Telemedicine and eHealth Conference. Norway, 2004;:88 (Abstract).

2003

60. Årsand E, Østengen, G, Andersson N, Walseth O.A. Transfer of sensordata into electronic health records. Tromsø Telemedicine and eHealth Conference, Norway 2003;90 (Abstract).
61. Årsand E, Østengen G, Andersson N,Walseth O.A. Designing a project portfolio for future management of diabetes and other chronic diseases. 8th International Conference on the Medical Aspects of Telemedicine - 1st Tromsø Telemedicine Conference. Norway, 2003;:41 (Abstract).

2002

62. Årsand E, Sønderskov K.-E. The patient in the health care data net - A disease management system in diabetes treatment. 4th Nordic Congress on Telemedicine - Nortelemed Tromsø, Norway. 2002;99) (Abstract).
63. Laberg T, Årsand E. Smart home technology in Norwegian homebased health and social services. 4th Nordic Congress on Telemedicine - Nortelemed 2002, Tromsø, Norway. 2002;:98 (Abstract).
64. Andersson N, Årsand E. Automatic delivery of blood glucose data. Proceedings – 2^nd International Symposium on Telemedicine. Gothenburg, Sweden. 2002 (Abstract).

Other dissemination; 2002 – current

·                     2011: The Directorate of Health is presenting our diabetes mobile app through Helsenorge.no Web portal (Web).

·                     2011: The Norwegian Television (NRK) presents Few Touch Applications as part of the EU-project Renewing Health.

·                     2010: The TTL and the Few Touch application was nominated by The Norwegian Computer Society to the Rosing prize in the category Green IT.

·                     2010: Presentation for faculty and students at BHI, University of Washington, Seattle, USA, during half year stay as visiting scholar (Web / PDF), and for the University of Washington’s “DUB” HCI-group (Web).

·                     2010: The European Commission eHealth Web portal published the Few Touch application and the PhD dissertation in their ePractice news section (Web).

·                     2009: Microsoft Norway presented the Few Touch application as one of their six customer applications within Health on their web page March 2009: Fremtiden heter e-helse (Web).

·                     2008: As part of the common research study: “Using Interoperable Mobile Phone Applications for Managing Daily Events in Diabetes Care” with former colleagues at the University of Washington, USA, the video-presentation of the Few Touch application was created and presented at the Project HealthDesign’s showcase event, now available at YouTube (Web).

·                     2008: Both the blood glucose sensor system and the physical activity sensor system were presented in Bluetooth SIG’s magazine SIGnature: Bluetooth Technology @ Work - The Future of Telemetry, in SIGnature. 2008, page 32-35. (Web)

·                     2007: Presentations and research-cooperation around the Few Touch application during my half-year stay at University of Washington, Seattle, USA (Web).

·                     2006: The Bluetooth SIG exhibited the blood glucose sensor system as a Business Case Study on their web page: Business Case Studies - Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine, 2006 (Web).

·                     2005: The Bluetooth SIG exhibited the blood glucose sensor system as a reference eHealth application during a marketing tour in Asia during the autumn of 2004 and Europe in the spring of 2005.

·                     2004: The NST-designed blood glucose Bluetooth adapter was designated as a “reference application” for the Bluetooth serial port vendor connectBlue AB, Reference Application, Bluetooth supervision of children with diabetes, 2004 (PDF).

Reviewer duties

Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, 2011.
Diabetes UK application
The ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2011.

Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology, 2011.

Tromsø Telemedicine and eHealth Conference. Tromsø, Norway. June 2007.

Projects

Finalized:

1.      Smart homes in Norway, 2001-2002. PI (NST): Årsand E. Report.

2.      Blood glucose data transfer – feasibility study. PI (NST): Årsand E.  2002-2003.

3.      Blood glucose data transfer – implementation and test on 15 children and their parents. 2003-2004. PI: Årsand E.

4.      Digital TV. PI: Østengen G.

5.      Digital Diabetes Education.  PI: Årsand E.

6.      BIP Wireless Health and Care. 2003-2005 PI: Wahlset OA.

7.      The Few Touch Digital Diabetes Diary - User-Involved Design of Mobile Self-Help Tools for People with Diabetes. PI: Årsand E. 2005-2008.

8.      User-interface on mobile devices within Diabetes. 2004. PI: Årsand E. (Web, Rapport)

9.      Better use of Blood Glucose Measurements. PI: Østengen G

10.  Chronic Disease Medication Management Between Office Visits. University of Washington. Web. 2008. PI (NST): Årsand E.

11.  Meet, Learn and Play. 2010. PI (NST): Varmedal R.

Ongoing:

12.  The Diabetes ICT Health Motivation Project (Web) - One of the main projects in Tromsø Telemedicine Laboratory (TTL) PI: Årsand E.

13.  Designing mobile patient-centric self-help terminals for people with diabetes. 2008-2012. PI: Tatara N. (Web)

14.  Motivation with Mobile. 2010-2011. PI: Gard H.(Web)

15.  CPDD - Collocated Personal Diabetes Data, A System for Combining and Processing Data from Sensors and Other Relevant Data to Improve the Health of People with Diabetes. (Post.Doc. project) 2009-2012. PI: Årsand E. Web.

16.  Statistical analysis and modeling of blood glucose and lifestyle data for type 1 diabetes patients. 2010-2012. PI: Skrøvseth SO.

17.  Electronic disease surveillance systems for people with diabetes. 2008- . PI: Hartvigsen G. (Web)

18.  RENEWING HEALTH - Regions of Europe Working Together for Health. (EU-project) 2010-2012. Web: English, Norwegian. PI (NST): Årsand E.

19. Mobile Peer Support in Diabetes – PhD project, PI: Taridzo Fred Chomutare.

Eirik Årsand, e-mail Eirik.Arsand-at-telemed.no
Telephone Norway: +47 992 43 592