Increasingly, healthcare can get on our wrists. Unhealthy lifestyle habits
(e.g., sedentary behavior, nutrient-poor diets) result in higher levels of chronic diseases (e.g., CVD, obesity) and, paradoxically, the first step in disease management
requires radical lifestyle changes, away from the unhealthy ones. These changes are
difficult for patients and require day-to-day planning and adherence to new behaviors
(increased physical activity, special diet programs) for best health outcomes in a longterm. We envision an important role of personalized, miniaturized Information
Technologies (IT), specifically smart watches—supporting the patient’s selfmanagement efforts in any daily life context, acting as a reminder for specific activities and documenting the patient’s progress via checklist-based approach. We delineate
the requirements and design choices for the WATCH-list—an example of self-management service for obesity patients’ compliance to diet programs. We discuss the
chronic illness self-management and role of IT in increasing the patient’s self-efficacy
of activities contributing to health, in turn increasing the patient’s compliance to these
activities and therefore facilitating better health outcomes in a long term.