An automated, computerized system for vicariously and remotely monitoring the conditions of a patient, providing professional counseling, and coaching the patient into sound behavior and health-enhancing activities. A computerized central installation receives, over a public communication network, patient's vital sign measurements such as blood pressure, glucose level and pulse rate. The measurements are gathered at the patient's residence by a battery of instruments, polled by the central installation at scheduled intervals, automatically checked against preset limits and analyzed to generate diagnostics and assessments of patient's condition. The diagnostics and assessments are used to selectively retrieve from a data bank of prerecorded messages, feedback advice, past performance charts and motivating audiovisual-programs. If warranted, health professionals are alerted so that they can intervene and contact the patient directly. The communications between the central installation and the patient are scripted by a computer program routine to mimic a natural telephone conversation.