scholarly journals The making of a professional digital caregiver: personalisation and friendliness as practices of humanisation

2021 ◽  
pp. medhum-2020-011975
Author(s):  
Johan Hallqvist
Keyword(s):  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
User Study ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Professional Discourse ◽  
Medical Responsibility ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research Project ◽  
Caregiver Needs ◽  
Real Person ◽  
Study Participants

The aim of this paper is to explore how a digital caregiver, developed within a Swedish interdisciplinary research project, is humanised through health-enhancing practices of personalisation and friendliness. The digital caregiver is developed for being used in older patients’ homes to enhance their health. The paper explores how the participants (researchers and user study participants) of the research project navigate through the humanisation of technology in relation to practices of personalisation and friendliness. The participants were involved in a balancing act between making the digital caregiver person-like and friend-like enough to ensure the health of the patient. Simultaneously, trying to make the patients feel like as if they were interacting with someone rather than something—while at the same time not making the digital caregiver seem like a real person or a real friend. This illustrates the participants’ discursive negotiations of the degree of humanisation the digital caregiver needs in order to promote the health of the patient. A discursive conflict was identified between a patient discourse of self-determination versus a healthcare professional discourse of authority and medical responsibility: whether the digital caregiver should follow the patient’s health-related preferences or follow the healthcare professionals’ health rules. Hence, a possible conflict between the patient and the digital caregiver might arise due to different understandings of friendliness and health; between friendliness (humanisation) as a health-enhancing practice governed by the patient or by the healthcare professionals (healthcare professionalism).

scholarly journals Smartphone-Based System for Learning and Inferring Hearing Aid Settings

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (09) ◽  
pp. 732-749 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel Aldaz ◽  
Sunil Puria ◽  
Larry J. Leifer
Keyword(s):  
Noise Reduction ◽  
Hearing Aids ◽  
User Study ◽  
Hearing Aid ◽  
Sensor Data ◽  
Significant Preference ◽  
Environmental Sound ◽  
Sound Environment ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Hearing System

Background: Previous research has shown that hearing aid wearers can successfully self-train their instruments’ gain-frequency response and compression parameters in everyday situations. Combining hearing aids with a smartphone introduces additional computing power, memory, and a graphical user interface that may enable greater setting personalization. To explore the benefits of self-training with a smartphone-based hearing system, a parameter space was chosen with four possible combinations of microphone mode (omnidirectional and directional) and noise reduction state (active and off). The baseline for comparison was the “untrained system,” that is, the manufacturer’s algorithm for automatically selecting microphone mode and noise reduction state based on acoustic environment. The “trained system” first learned each individual’s preferences, self-entered via a smartphone in real-world situations, to build a trained model. The system then predicted the optimal setting (among available choices) using an inference engine, which considered the trained model and current context (e.g., sound environment, location, and time). Purpose: To develop a smartphone-based prototype hearing system that can be trained to learn preferred user settings. Determine whether user study participants showed a preference for trained over untrained system settings. Research Design: An experimental within-participants study. Participants used a prototype hearing system—comprising two hearing aids, Android smartphone, and body-worn gateway device—for ˜6 weeks. Study Sample: Sixteen adults with mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss (HL) (ten males, six females; mean age = 55.5 yr). Fifteen had ≥6 mo of experience wearing hearing aids, and 14 had previous experience using smartphones. Intervention: Participants were fitted and instructed to perform daily comparisons of settings (“listening evaluations”) through a smartphone-based software application called Hearing Aid Learning and Inference Controller (HALIC). In the four-week-long training phase, HALIC recorded individual listening preferences along with sensor data from the smartphone—including environmental sound classification, sound level, and location—to build trained models. In the subsequent two-week-long validation phase, participants performed blinded listening evaluations comparing settings predicted by the trained system (“trained settings”) to those suggested by the hearing aids’ untrained system (“untrained settings”). Data Collection and Analysis: We analyzed data collected on the smartphone and hearing aids during the study. We also obtained audiometric and demographic information. Results: Overall, the 15 participants with valid data significantly preferred trained settings to untrained settings (paired-samples t test). Seven participants had a significant preference for trained settings, while one had a significant preference for untrained settings (binomial test). The remaining seven participants had nonsignificant preferences. Pooling data across participants, the proportion of times that each setting was chosen in a given environmental sound class was on average very similar. However, breaking down the data by participant revealed strong and idiosyncratic individual preferences. Fourteen participants reported positive feelings of clarity, competence, and mastery when training via HALIC. Conclusions: The obtained data, as well as subjective participant feedback, indicate that smartphones could become viable tools to train hearing aids. Individuals who are tech savvy and have milder HL seem well suited to take advantages of the benefits offered by training with a smartphone.

scholarly journals A study of socio-demographic profile and pattern of drug use among substance abusers attending mind care de-addiction center in Ahmedabad

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 286
Author(s):  
Bhavesh B. Prajapati ◽  
Mihir R. Dedun ◽  
Harshdev S. Jalfava ◽  
Aparajita A. Shukla
Keyword(s):  
Substance Abuse ◽  
Drug Use ◽  
Substance Abusers ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Alcoholic Beverages ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Environmental Aspect ◽  
Economic Class ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Study Participants

Background: Substance abuse has emerged as a global phenomenon and prevalent throughout the world in all the cultures. Abuse of alcoholic beverages and tobacco are endemic in many societies, whilst the abuse of other psychoactive substances is growing concern in India. It has major impact on physical, psychological, social and environmental aspect of life.Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out amongst 100 persons attended at Mind Care de-addiction centre, Ahmedabad during the period of 1st January to 28th February 2018 with the help of pretested semi structured questionnaire.Results: Majority of the substance abusers were males (98%) and within the age group of 31 to 45 years (46%). Out of total abusers 28% were graduate and 47% doing skilled work. Majority of study participants were married (47%), belong to joint families (92%) and belongs to socio economic class I and II (50%). Most commonly used drug was alcohol (64%), followed by tobacco (20%), cannabis (12%) and opium (4%). Majority of users started to use it for social reasons (33%) and stress (26%). They got it for the first time from friends in 62% cases and 36% got by themselves. Health related changes were experienced in more than 50% of cases. Out of them, 84% feel improvement after visiting the centre.Conclusions: Drug use pattern is ever changing and has emerged as a global burden as it causes serious public health problems. There is a felt need for the assessment of the evolving trends of substance abuse. And suitable interventions for primary prevention should be considered. 

Developing the Methodology for an Applied, Interdisciplinary Research Project: Documenting the Journey Toward Philosophical Clarity

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 450-468 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loene M. Howes
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Methodological Choices ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research Project ◽  
Logic Of Inquiry ◽  
Methodological Refinement

Methodologists have urged researchers who use mixed methods to justify their methodological choices and provide greater clarity about the philosophical underpinnings and implications of their approaches. This article outlines the reasoning process undertaken in an endeavor to develop philosophical clarity for an applied, interdisciplinary, mixed methods research project about the communication of scientific evidence in the legal system. I used Greene’s domains of methodology for social inquiry as a framework for addressing reflexive questions about assumptions. Flowing from the domains of values and philosophies, the logic of inquiry was developed before the implications for the integration of findings and reporting of research were outlined. Early engagement in reflexive questioning provided a foundation for methodological refinement throughout the ongoing research journey.

scholarly journals Analysis of the Most Viewed First 50 Videos on YouTube about Breast Cancer

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Isil Yurdaisik
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Accurate Information ◽  
Cancer Type ◽  
Common Cancer ◽  
Health Related ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Common Cancer Type

Objective. Breast cancer is the most common cancer type among women worldwide. Today, health consumers search the Internet to gain health information about many diseases including breast cancer. YouTube™ is the second most commonly used website on the Internet. However, the quality and accuracy of health-related YouTube™ videos are controversial. The objective of this study was to investigate the quality and accuracy of breast cancer-related videos on YouTube™. Material and Methods. “Breast cancer” keyword was entered into YouTube™ search bar, and after excluding advertisement, duplicate, and non-English videos, the first most viewed 50 videos were analyzed. Videos’ length, the number of views, comments, likes, and dislikes were recorded. DISCERN and JAMA scores and Video Power Index (VPI) values of the videos were calculated. All videos were evaluated by two independent radiologists experienced on breast cancer. The correlation between the two observers was also analyzed. Results. Of all videos, 14% were uploaded by physicians, 26% by health channels, 20% by patients, 10% by news channels, 2% by herbalists, 2% by blog channels, and 2% by nonprofit activism channels. The mean DISCERN score was calculated as 26.70±10.99 and the mean JAMA score as 2.23±0.97. The mean VPI value, which was calculated to determine the popularity of the videos, was found as 94.10±4.48. A strong statistically significant correlation was found between the two observers in terms of both DISCERN and JAMA scores. There was an excellent agreement between the two observers. Conclusion. The overall quality of the viewed videos was found as poor. Healthcare professionals should be encouraged to upload breast cancer-related videos with accurate information to promote patients for screening and direct them appropriately.

scholarly journals Coworking, a Way to Achieve Sustainable Mobility? Designing an Interdisciplinary Research Project

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (24) ◽  
pp. 7161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Lejoux ◽  
Aurore Flipo ◽  
Nathalie Ortar ◽  
Nicolas Ovtracht ◽  
Stéphanie Souche-Lecorvec ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Computer Science ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Research Community ◽  
Community Research ◽  
Sustainable Mobility ◽  
Relevant Research ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Mobility Studies ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research Project ◽  
Transportation Studies

Sustainable mobility has been one of the central paradigms of research in the field of transport and mobility for several decades. However, the implications of adopting the concept of “sustainable mobility” for the conduct of interdisciplinary research has been little discussed within the relevant research community. Research in the field of transport and mobility has nevertheless been the setting for major debates in recent years on the question of interdisciplinarity, or even transdisciplinarity, with the emergence of mobility studies as opposed to transportation studies. The objective of this paper is to show, empirically, how researchers who are specialised in mobility and transport issues, but who belong to different disciplines (anthropology, computer science, economics, geomatics, sociology and urban planning) have sought to build an interdisciplinary research project—which is currently ongoing—around the links between the development of coworking, which is a new way of organising work, mobility and sustainability. This paper sets out to highlight cross-fertilisation between disciplines, the issues raised, and the difficulties encountered. As such, it provides an account that is as faithful as possible to our experience of conducting interdisciplinary research in the area of sustainable mobility.

scholarly journals Enhancing Interaction with Augmented Reality through Mid-Air Haptic Feedback: Architecture Design and User Feedback

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (23) ◽  
pp. 5123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Vaquero-Melchor ◽  
Ana M. Bernardos
Keyword(s):  
Augmented Reality ◽  
User Study ◽  
Haptic Feedback ◽  
Form Perception ◽  
Natural Interaction ◽  
Head Mounted Displays ◽  
Flexible Architecture ◽  
Immersive Visualization ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Interface Metaphor

Nowadays, Augmented-Reality (AR) head-mounted displays (HMD) deliver a more immersive visualization of virtual contents, but the available means of interaction, mainly based on gesture and/or voice, are yet limited and obviously lack realism and expressivity when compared to traditional physical means. In this sense, the integration of haptics within AR may help to deliver an enriched experience, while facilitating the performance of specific actions, such as repositioning or resizing tasks, that are still dependent on the user’s skills. In this direction, this paper gathers the description of a flexible architecture designed to deploy haptically enabled AR applications both for mobile and wearable visualization devices. The haptic feedback may be generated through a variety of devices (e.g., wearable, graspable, or mid-air ones), and the architecture facilitates handling the specificity of each. For this reason, within the paper, it is discussed how to generate a haptic representation of a 3D digital object depending on the application and the target device. Additionally, the paper includes an analysis of practical, relevant issues that arise when setting up a system to work with specific devices like HMD (e.g., HoloLens) and mid-air haptic devices (e.g., Ultrahaptics), such as the alignment between the real world and the virtual one. The architecture applicability is demonstrated through the implementation of two applications: (a) Form Inspector and (b) Simon Game, built for HoloLens and iOS mobile phones for visualization and for UHK for mid-air haptics delivery. These applications have been used to explore with nine users the efficiency, meaningfulness, and usefulness of mid-air haptics for form perception, object resizing, and push interaction tasks. Results show that, although mobile interaction is preferred when this option is available, haptics turn out to be more meaningful in identifying shapes when compared to what users initially expect and in contributing to the execution of resizing tasks. Moreover, this preliminary user study reveals some design issues when working with haptic AR. For example, users may be expecting a tailored interface metaphor, not necessarily inspired in natural interaction. This has been the case of our proposal of virtual pressable buttons, built mimicking real buttons by using haptics, but differently interpreted by the study participants.

Impact of anger on the health-related quality of life of multiple sclerosis patients

2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 630-641 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrés Labiano-Fontcuberta ◽  
Alex J Mitchell ◽  
Sara Moreno-García ◽  
Verónica Puertas-Martín ◽  
Julián Benito-León
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Multiple Sclerosis ◽  
Anger Expression ◽  
Health Related Quality ◽  
Psychotherapeutic Interventions ◽  
Related Quality ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Multiple Sclerosis Patients ◽  
Study Participants

Background: There is evidence of the presence of a disturbed pattern of anger in multiple sclerosis (MS). Emotion changes, including anger, are thought to influence health-related quality of life (HRQoL). However, although deleterious consequences of anger on physical health have been well reported, there are no studies that have analysed the effects of anger on the HRQoL in patients with MS. Our purpose was to assess the extent to which anger impacts on the HRQoL of a cohort of MS patients. Methods: One hundred and fifty-seven consecutive MS patients were enrolled in the study. Participants were administered affective trait measures (Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Anxiety Inventory) and anger measures (the Spanish adapted version of the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2). HRQoL was quantified using the Functional Assessment of MS. Results: Linear regression analyses revealed that even after controlling for socio-demographic and clinical variables, higher levels of anger expression-in (tendency to handle anger by keeping it inside) independently predicted worse overall HRQoL of MS patients (β = −0.15, p = 0.04). We further found that this relationship was moderated by gender, showing that anger expression-in is a more influential predictor of the HRQoL in women with MS. Conclusion: The present study provides evidence that anger negatively affects the HRQoL of MS patients. Our results may have implications for those involved in treating emotional complications of MS and especially regarding psychotherapeutic interventions to improve HRQoL of MS patients.

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