Design of a personalized health record application to support food and exercise counseling for overweight and obese children

This paper describes the design and implementation of an interactive activity and food logging website for use by patients (obese children and teens) and their counselors at the Children's Fitness Clinic at the University of Virginia. The system, GetFit, was designed to address patient retention problems, incomplete paper logs, lack of communication between patients and counselors between sessions, and the patients' overall apathy towards participation. We used a systematic approach to develop GetFit. This lifecycle consisted of problem analysis, system design, construction, testing, and maintenance. Throughout the design process, there was an emphasis on usability testing and open communication with clients (CFC patients and counselors) in order to meet their needs.