EMPHA - An Emotional, Mental and Physical Health Analyser

Abstract

The Emotional, Mental, and Physical Health Analyser (EMPHA) is a Web-based system that analyses the emotional, mental and physical health status of users. The analysis is done by asking a set of questions pertaining to emotional, mental and physical (EMP) health conditions. Using the results of the EMP status, appropriate treatment(s) will be recommended to the users, depending on the severity of the EMP health problems. This is aimed at improving their EMP health conditions. The EMPHA consists of nine modules – View Information, User Registration, User Authentication, User Health Status, Treatments Assigned, Treatments Info, Email Notification, Treatments History and Health Status Comparison. Users can use this system after they have gone through the registration process. The EMPHA will display two different questionnaires pertaining to the emotional, mental, and physical health categories in sequence. These questionnaires are based on the book, Positive Thinking and Positive Living, by the bestselling author Vera Peiffer, who is a qualified analyst / hypnotherapist and health kinesiologist. The first questionnaire is a pre-assessment to check whether the users have any health problems related to their emotional, mental, and physical health. If the respondents have one or any combination of the EMP health problems, then the system will lead the respondents to the next questionnaire to determine their severity level. Treatments are then assigned based on the severity level of the problems, as recommended by Vera Peiffer. Users have to undergo treatments for the duration recommended by Vera Peiffer. They can download video clips together with descriptions of the treatment or exercise from the website. After completing the treatments within the specified period, the EMPHA system will lead the respondents to answer the second questionnaire again. After submitting their answers, iv the EMPHA system will display the current EMP health status of the respondent. Respondents can also view and compare the results of the EMP health status before and after the treatments are carried out. The EMPHA system is secure as the respondents’ passwords are saved in an encrypted format using the Message Digest Algorithm (MD5) encryption method. Respondents can change their passwords and edit their profiles after logging into the system. The EMPHA system also sends emails to the respondents to remind them to record their treatment(s) on a daily basis. The respondents have the option to disable this reminder email notification service. In the development of the EMPHA system, the Evolutionary Prototyping Development methodology was used. The development tools used include MS SQL® Server 2000, ASP.Net using C#, Macromedia Dreamweaver 8.0, and Internet Information Services (IIS). Adobe After Effects was used along with Adobe Photoshop to build and integrate the multimedia elements into the system. ASP.Net serves as the middle layer that connects the application with the Microsoft SQL Server 2000 database through the Internet Information Services (IIS). After thorough system testing, a survey was carried out to investigate the effectiveness of treatments assigned to those respondents who have EMP health problems. A total of 113 respondents from three different medical institutes in Karachi, Pakistan, participated in the survey. It is found that the treatments, Thymus Tap Exercise and Collarbone Breathing Exercise, are most effective for treating physical and emotional health problems, respectively.