Drug poisoning management using smartphones: an apps review study based on use case classification model

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 246-251
Author(s):  
Sadrieh Hajesmaeel Gohari ◽  
Kambiz Bahaadinbeigy ◽  
Shahrad Tajoddini ◽  
Sharareh R Niakan Kalhori

Drug poisoning is the most common form of poisoning in the world. Timely and efficient management of this form of poisoning may save the life of many patients. Today, smartphone apps are widely used for various utilisations, such as for medical purposes. This study aimed to review the crucial characteristics of Android and iOS apps for drug poisoning management and categorise them by the use case classification model. Google Play and App Store were searched in December 2018 for drug poisoning apps using the keywords toxicology, poisoning, drug poisoning and drug toxicities, and resulted in 551 smartphone apps. The 17 final apps were evaluated based on the following items: platform, cost, date of update, country, app target, target group, rating and developer. The results showed that 64.7% of apps were available on both platforms and 53% were free to download. Majority of the apps (53%) were designed for medical staff and 47% were developed in the USA. In 47% of the apps, users rated a score above 4 for apps evaluation, and in 47% the last update was 1 year ago. Nine distinct use cases from the published use case classification model were found in 17 apps. The results of this study can help users select and use a reliable app for management of drug poisoning. The results also showed that 22 use cases of the 31 introduced were not considered in the development of the apps. Application of these use cases may improve the quality of drug poisoning management apps.

Author(s):  
Pankaj Kamthan

As software systems become ever more interactive, there is a need to model the services they provide to users, and use cases are one abstract way of doing that. As use cases models become pervasive, the question of their communicability to stakeholders arises. In this chapter, we propose a semiotic framework for understanding and systematically addressing the quality of use case models. The quality concerns at each semiotic level are discussed and process- and product-oriented means to address them in a feasible manner are presented. The scope and limitations of the framework, including that of the means, are given. The need for more emphasis on prevention over cure in improving the quality of use case models is emphasized. The ideas explored are illustrated by examples.


Author(s):  
Pankaj Kamthan

The majority of the present software systems, such as those that run on automatic banking machines (ABMs), on mobile devices, and on the Web, are interactive in nature. Therefore, it is critical to precisely understand, identify, and document the services that an interactive software system will provide from the viewpoint of its potential users. A large and important class of models that these services encapsulate is use cases (Jacobson, Christerson, Jonsson, & Övergaard, 1992). In the last few years, use cases have become indispensable as means for behavioral modeling of interactive software systems. They play a crucial role in various software development activities, including estimating development cost (Anda, 2003), eliciting behavioral requirements, and defining test cases. It is well known that addressing quality early is crucial to avoid the propagation of problems to later artifacts (Moody, 2005). With the increasing deployment of use cases as early artifacts in software process environments, the question of how these models should be developed so as to attain high quality arises. In response, this article focuses on the use case modeling process (the act of constructing use case models) and, based on the notion of patterns (Appleton, 1997), proposes a systematic approach towards the development of use case models. The rest of the article is organized as follows. The background and related work necessary for the discussion that follows is outlined. This is followed by the presentation of a pattern-oriented use case modeling process for systematically addressing the semiotic quality of use case models in a feasible manner. Next, challenges and directions for future research are outlined, and finally, concluding remarks are given.


2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 235-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nausheen Rashida Siddiqui ◽  
Samantha Hodges ◽  
Mohammad Owaise Sharif

Objective: To identify and profile the available orthodontic smartphone apps published on the UK Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Design: A review of available smartphone apps. Setting: London, UK Methods: The Apple App Store and Google Play Store were accessed in October 2018; all orthodontic apps with a title and description available in English were included. Each app was classified according to the following criteria: name; target audience (patient or clinician); focus; platform (Apple App Store and/or Google Play Store); cost; rating and number of ratings; size; creation date; country of development and developer. Results: A total of 305 orthodontic related apps were identified for inclusion. The majority of apps were aimed at patients (n = 241) and the most of these were focussed on gaming (n = 136), many apps were also found to be developed by specialist practices (n = 63) and to provide knowledge for patients (n = 56). Two hundred and ninety-five apps were free, with some of these including the option of paying for in-app purchases. Most apps were developed in the USA (n = 84). Conclusions: There has been an increase in the availability of orthodontic apps in recent years. The majority of available apps are patient-focused, most commonly games. A number of apps aim to elicit a behaviour change in our patients; therefore, there is a need to assess the quality and educational content of these.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cath Chapman ◽  
Katrina Elizabeth Champion ◽  
Louise Birrell ◽  
Hannah Deen ◽  
Mary-Ellen Brierley ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Amid considerable community concern about the prevalence and harms associated with the use of crystal methamphetamine (“ice”), the increased use of smartphones to access health information and a growing number of available smartphone apps related to crystal methamphetamine, no previous reviews have examined the content and quality of these apps. OBJECTIVE This study aims to systematically review existing apps in the iTunes and Google Play Stores to determine the existence, composition, and quality of educational smartphone apps about methamphetamines, including ice. METHODS The iTunes and Google Play Stores were systematically searched in April 2017 for iOS Apple and Android apps, respectively. English-language apps that provided educational content or information about methamphetamine were eligible for inclusion. Eligible apps were downloaded and independently evaluated for quality by 2 reviewers using the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS). RESULTS A total of 2205 apps were initially identified, of which 18 were eligible and rated using the MARS. The mean MARS quality total score for all rated apps was 3.0 (SD 0.6), indicating poor to acceptable quality. Overall, mean scores were the highest for functionality (mean 4.0, SD 0.5) and lowest for engagement (mean 2.3, SD 0.7). CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrates a shortage of high-quality educational and engaging smartphone apps specifically related to methamphetamine. The findings from this review highlight a need for further development of engaging and evidence-based apps that provide educational information about crystal methamphetamine.


2012 ◽  
Vol 153 (45) ◽  
pp. 1787-1792 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mária Horváth ◽  
Endre Czeizel

Introduction: There is a decline in male fertility thus new treatments are needed. Aims: To test the efficacy of a new dietary supplement developed in the USA and registered as a curing drug in Hungary (OGYI). Methods: In a clinical trial 100 men with low sperm quality (spermium count 5–20 M/ml, good motility 10–40%, and adverse shape 30–50%) were examined. Results: Sperm parameters were measured before and after a 3-month treatment and after another 3-month without treatment. This dietary supplement statistically and clinically significantly improved sperm count and motility. In 74 cases this dietary supplement demonstrated a beneficial effect on sperm quality (more than 10% increase in sperm count, or quality of motility, or shape); in 16 cases the improvement exceeded 30%. No adverse effect could be accounted for this treatment. Conclusions: This new dietary supplement may contribute to the treatment of male infertility. Orv. Hetil., 2012, 153, 1787–1792.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vũ Xuân Hùng

In the process of teaching, technical teaching facilities are both a content and a means of conveying information, they help the lecturer organize and control the students' cognitive activities, in addition, they also help students be interested in learning, practice practical skills from which to form active and creative learning methods. Teaching technology is one of the necessary conditions to help teachers carry out their related work of educating, teaching and bringing up, and intellectual development, arouse the inherent intelligence qualities of students. Currently, the management of technical teaching facilities at the Central Kindergartens College has been carried out on a regular basis and achieved certain results, but in fact, there are still many inadequacies. Finding a number of limitations in the management of teaching technical facilities, thereby proposing solutions to overcome those limitations, improve the efficiency of investment, preservation and use of teaching technical facilities in the trend of Industry Revolution 4.0, improving the quality of teaching at Central Kindergarten Pedagogy colleges in the current period is a very important and urgent task.


Author(s):  
Seunghwa Park ◽  
Inhan Kim

Today’s buildings are getting larger and more complex. As a result, the traditional method of manually checking the design of a building is no longer efficient since such a process is time-consuming and laborious. It is becoming increasingly important to establish and automate processes for checking the quality of buildings. By automatically checking whether buildings satisfy requirements, Building Information Modeling (BIM) allows for rapid decision-making and evaluation. In this context, the work presented here focuses on resolving building safety issues via a proposed BIM-based quality checking process. Through the use case studies, the efficiency and usability of the devised strategy is evaluated. This research can be beneficial in promoting the efficient use of BIM-based communication and collaboration among the project party concerned for improving safety management. In addition, the work presented here has the potential to expand research efforts in BIM-based quality checking processes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aulia Dwi Oktavia ◽  
Aam Alamudi ◽  
Budi Susetyo

Unemployment is one of the economic problems in Indonesia. Judging from the level of education that was completed there were unemployment from the level of college graduates. This encourages the level of competition in getting jobs to be more stringent, so that college graduates (bachelor of Statistics in IPB) must have the preparation of various factors to maintain the quality of their graduates. The quality of college graduates can be seen from the length of time waiting to get a job. This study aims to determine the influential factors in getting a job for graduates of the IPB Statistics degree, so that the CHAID method can be used in this study. The results of CHAID's analysis in this study in the form of tree diagrams using α = 10% explained that the factors influencing the waiting period variables were sex, internship, and the ability to master statistical software, where the accuracy value generated by the classification model was 79.3 %.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mina Zibaei ◽  
Reza Khajouei

BACKGROUND In Iran, around 0.05 of population suffer from epilepsy. Poorer health outcomes stem from limited health literacy. The use of mHealth, especially for educating patients in terms of self-care can be very effective. But the important thing is the content that is presented by apps, especially when unreliable or biased information can negatively affect the patient-doctor relationship, causing anxiety or stress. Also, usability of mHealth apps and their impact on behavior change are the other important issues that should be considered. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to assess the quality of Persian language epilepsy-related mobile applications in terms of functionality and quality with a focus on content. METHODS The Persian equivalent of the keywords 'epilepsy' and 'seizure' were searched in the Google Play, Cafe Bazaar and IranApps app stores and the Persian language applications about epilepsy were extracted. These apps were evaluated by two trained reviewers independently using the uMARS scale and DISCERN instrument. Also apps’ prices and the number of installations were assessed. RESULTS A total of 659 applications were retrieved, 78 of which were epilepsy-related. After exclusion of non-Persian language and duplicate apps, there remained 11 relevant apps. The overall mean uMARS score was 2.8 out of 5 while six out of 11 apps (54%) scored higher than 3. The mean figures for the section-specific scores were as follows: engagement 2.2, functionality 4.0, aesthetics 3.3, and information 2.3. The overall DISCERN scores ranged from 26 to 40 out of 80, while the mean score was 34.5. The mean score of reliability was 18.5. CONCLUSIONS This study showed that the overall information quality of the epilepsy apps is poor. The most important missing characteristics of these apps include lack of functionalities for self-care, missing entry date, lack of details about additional sources and inexistence of the risks/benefits of each treatment. The findings suggest that more efforts should be made to develop evidence-based epilepsy-related apps to cover broader domains of self-care and behavioral change techniques.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arfan Ahmed ◽  
Nashva ALi ◽  
Sarah Aziz ◽  
Alaa A Abd-Alrazaq ◽  
Asmaa Hassan ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Anxiety and depression rates are at an all-time high along with other mental health disorders. Smartphone-based mental health chatbots or conversational agents can aid psychiatrists and replace some of the costly human based interaction and represent a unique opportunity to expand the availability and quality of mental health services and treatment. Regular up-to-date reviews will allow medics and individuals to recommend or use anxiety and depression related smartphone based chatbots with greater confidence. OBJECTIVE Assess the quality and characteristics of chatbots for anxiety and depression available on Android and iOS systems. METHODS A search was performed in the App Store and Google Play Store following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) protocol to identify existing chatbots for anxiety and depression. Eligibility of the chatbots was assessed by two individuals based on predefined eligibility criteria. Meta-data of the included chatbots and their characteristics were extracted from their description and upon installation by 2 reviewers. Finally, chatbots quality information was assessed by following the mHONcode principles. RESULTS Although around 1000 anxiety and depression related chatbots exist, only a few (n=11) contained actual chatbots that could provide the user a real substitute for a human-human based interaction, even with today's Artificial Intelligence advancements, only one of these chatbots had voice as an input/output modality. Of the selected apps that contained chatbots all were clearly built with a therapeutic human substitute goal in mind. The majority had high user ratings and downloads highlighting the popularity of such chatbots and their promising future within the realm of anxiety and depression. CONCLUSIONS Anxiety and depression chatbot apps have the potential to increase the capacity of mental health self-care providing much needed assistance to professionals. In the current covid-19 pandemic, chatbots can also serve as a conversational companion with the potential of combating loneliness, especially in lockdowns where there is a lack of social interaction. Due to the ubiquitous nature of chatbots users can access them on-demand at the touch of a screen on ones’ smartphone. Self-care interventions are known to be effective and exist in various forms and some can be made available as chatbot features, such as assessment, mood tracking, medicine tracking, or simply providing conversation in times of loneliness.


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