scholarly journals Interpretation as luxury: Heart patients living with data doubt, hope, and anxiety

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 205395172092443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stine Lomborg ◽  
Henriette Langstrup ◽  
Tariq Osman Andersen

Personal health technologies such as apps and wearables that generate health and behavior data close to the individual patient are envisioned to enable personalized healthcare - and self-care. And yet, they are consumer devices. Proponents of these devices presuppose that measuring will be helpful, and that data will be meaningful. However, a growing body of research suggests that self-tracking data does not necessarily make sense to users. Drawing together data studies and digital health research, we aim to further research on data ambivalence, a term we use to refer to the ambiguities and uncertainties people experience when interpreting their own data, as well as the critical obligation towards cultivating ethically sound uses and responses to such data in context. We develop the relationship between data, interpretation, and context as a central theoretical and practical problem in the datafication of healthcare. We then show how interpretation and context matter for data ambivalence through an empirical study of heart patients with an implanted advanced pacemaker who were offered a Fitbit wristband for self-tracking as part of a research project. We argue that the hope, anxiety, and doubt connected to the promise and accuracy of data are tempered by the context and purpose of self-tracking, and by individual circumstances. Finally, we link the findings on context-sensitivity in data interpretation to questions about response-ability in cloud-based care infrastructures. We discuss the ethical dilemmas associated with the use of commercial wellness-technologies in healthcare, and with researching such emerging practices.

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 83-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
V.N. Shlyapnikov

The paper analyses the ethnocultural factors of volitional regulation from the cultural-historical perspective. A hypothesis is put forward about the relationship between the specifics of volitional regulation and national self-consciousness of the individual. The aim of the work is to study the relationship between ethnic identity and features of volitional regulation among representatives of various ethnic groups (Russians, Komis, Tuvans, Kabardians, Mari, Koreans). A total of 600 people aged 18 to 30 years took part in the study (the samples were gender balanced). To evaluate the individual characteristics of volitional regulation in the respondents, the following techniques were used: the Action Control Scale by J. Kuhl; the "Questionnaire for revealing the expression of self-control in the emotional sphere, activity and behavior"; the technique for self-assessment of volitional qualities; the Purpose in Life Test. The features of ethnic identity were evaluated using the “Types of Ethnic Identity” technique (by S.V. Ryzhova, G.U. Soldatova). The study revealed significant positive correlations between the intensity of volitional self-control and the overall score of volitional self-esteem and positive ethnicity in groups where nationality occupies an important place in the structure of the subject's self-consciousness (Tuvans, Koreans, Kabardians).


2019 ◽  
pp. 002216781985909 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gianfranco Buffardi

Modern neurosciences have now undermined the notion that so-called archetypes, as conceived of by C. G. Jung in his Analytical Psychology, are innate or preexistent to the psychic development of the individual. Most existential therapists today similarly dismiss the theory of archetypes as being overly deterministic and phenomenologically inaccurate. Nonetheless, archetypes as psychological “models” nonetheless exert a powerful influence on human existence. Thus, existential therapists cannot merely minimize the archetype’s central role in basic human experience and behavior. From an existential perspective, the archetype develops in the relationship between the individual and the information she or he receives from the world. The archetype itself changes over time and across different cultures, although it self-maintains quite uniformly due to the inextricable linkage it has with the most profound aspects of instinctual human behaviors, such as common emotional responses to specific situations. Therefore, there is undeniably a deep and abiding nexus between our emotions, our instincts, and our archetypes. In this article, the author, a psychiatrist and existential therapist, affirms that the analysis during existential therapy of how the individual has interpreted and elaborated the subjective significance of his or her own archetypes promotes the expansion of the client’s “internal maps,” and facilitates the creative search for new possibilities in life.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 1004-1015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camille Nebeker ◽  
Rebecca J Bartlett Ellis ◽  
John Torous

Abstract Digital technologies offer researchers new approaches to test personalized and adaptive health interventions tailored to an individual. Yet, research leveraging technologies to capture personal health data involve technical and ethical consideration during the study design phase. No guidance exists to facilitate responsible digital technology selection for research purposes. A stakeholder-engaged and iterative approach was used to develop, test, and refine a checklist designed to aid researchers in selecting technologies for their research. First, stakeholders (n = 7) discussed and informed key decision-making domains to guide app/device selection derived from the American Psychiatric Association’s framework that included safety, evidence, usability, and interoperability. We added “ethical principles” to the APA’s hierarchical model and created a checklist that was used by a small group of behavioral scientists (n = 7). Findings revealed the “ethical principles” domains of respect, beneficence, and justice cut across each decision-making domains and the checklist questions/prompts were revised accordingly and can be found at thecore.ucsd.edu. The refined checklist contains four decision-making domains with prompts/questions and ethical principles embedded within the domains of privacy, risk/benefit, data management, and access/evidence. This checklist is the first step in leading the narrative of decision-making when selecting digital health technologies for research. Given the dynamic and rapidly evolving nature of digital health technology use in research, this tool will need to be further evaluated for usefulness in technology selection.


Healthcare ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 445
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Valeriani ◽  
Iris Sarajlic Vukovic ◽  
Tomas Lindegaard ◽  
Roberto Felizia ◽  
Richard Mollica ◽  
...  

Since its early stages, the COVID-19 pandemic has interacted with existing divides by ethnicity and socioeconomic statuses, exacerbating further inequalities in high-income countries. The Swedish public health strategy, built on mutual trust between the government and the society and giving the responsibility to the individual, has been criticized for not applying a dedicated and more diverse strategy for most disadvantaged migrants in dealing with the pandemic. In order to mitigate the unequal burden on the marginalized members of society, increasing efforts have been addressed to digital health technologies. Despite the strong potential of providing collective public health benefits, especially in a highly digitalized context as Sweden, need for a stronger cooperation between the public health authorities and migrant community leaders, representatives of migrant associations, religious leaders and other influencers of disadvantaged groups has emerged. Suggestions are presented on more culturally congruent, patient-centered health care services aimed to empower people to participate in a more effective public health response to the COVID-19 crisis.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Waqas Ullah Khan ◽  
Aviv Shachak ◽  
Emily Seto

UNSTRUCTURED The decision to accept or reject new digital health technologies remains an ongoing discussion. Over the past few decades, interest in understanding the choice to adopt technology has led to the development of numerous theories and models. In 1979, however, psychologists Kahneman and Tversky published their seminal research article that has pioneered the field of behavioural economics. They named their model the “prospect theory” and used it to explain decision making behaviours under conditions of risk and uncertainty as well as to provide an understanding of why individuals may make irrational or inconsistent decisions. Although the prospect theory has been used to explain decision making in economics, law, political science, and clinically at the individual level, its application to understanding choice in the adoption of digital health technology has not been explored.


Author(s):  
Anita Medhekar

Digital health technological innovations are disrupting every sector of the economy, including medical travel/tourism. Global patients as medical tourists are using patient-centric digital health technologies, enhancing patient/medical tourists experience and making it more transparent and engaging with healthcare providers and medical tourists. Digital communication tools such as e-mail, online appointments, smartphones, instant messaging applications, social media tools, user-generated content by online patient communities, tele-medicine, tele-radiology, my-Health records, Skype consultation, WhatsApp, health video, electronic health records, health data analytics tools, and artificial intelligence-enabled health technologies enhance the medical travel decision-making process, reduce cost, improve patient care and transparency of communication, and engage the relationship between the patient and the healthcare provider with positive outcomes, medical tourist experience, and empowerment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (86) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yeva-Anna Demchenko ◽  
◽  
Oksana Lan ◽  
Petro Luno ◽  
◽  
...  

The article clarifies the problem of redistribution of energy in the human body, in its etheric body. Seven main energy channels (chakras) are described, which are located on the line of the human rod, their location, spectrum, color, sound, anatomical and physical image. The characteristics of each chakra are given, where the color of the chakra is indicated, which indicates certain fluctuations of energy in the human body with different frequency and amplitude and the correspondence of each of the chakras to a special lotus flower with different number of petals. There is a regularity of lack of energy in a chakra, and this is reflected in the physical body. Psychosomatics has also been linked to illness and emotional state. The personal manifestations of the choreographer's creative creativity, connected with artistic and figurative associations with the color of human energy chakras and the creation of a creative product using the appropriate yoga asanas in the choreographic vocabulary, were studied. The relationship between human energy, behavior and dependence on excess or lack of energy in a particular chakra is analyzed. Find out how human behavior is reflected in a choreographic image. The creation of a plastic-artistic image on the example of energy and color of human chakras is carried out. The peculiarities of creating the dynamics of the image, its character and behavior of the individual are established. The peculiarity of asanas and their connection with well-being and self-expression are analyzed and singled out. The question of researching previously unsolved parts of the general problem arises: personal manifestations of the choreographer's creative work, associated with artistic associations with the color of human energy chakras and creating a creative product using choreographic vocabulary using appropriate yoga asanas. Examples of choreographers using a special range of colors as sources-associations in the process of creating a script for choreographic performances are given; the prospects of research of creativity of the choreographer, his creativity and self-realization are defined.


Psychology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicoletta Cavazza ◽  
Vincent Pillaud ◽  
Fabrizio Butera

Research on attitudinal ambivalence started in the early 1970s, forty years after the first wave of research on attitudes. Ambivalent attitudes consist of both positive and negative evaluations of the same object. Early approaches proposed different measurement methods, and ambivalence can now be measured either directly (referred to as “felt ambivalence”) or indirectly (referred to as “potential ambivalence”). Because of its duality, ambivalence has been studied in comparison with univalent attitudes—which consist of either positive or negative evaluations of an object—to uncover their specific features, antecedents, and consequences. Relevant research has focused on identifying the prevalence of ambivalent attitudes, and on whether they could stem from particular personality traits or situations. Researchers have found that ambivalent attitudes seem to be widespread and can be held for a long period of time. Their relationship with behaviors has also been widely studied. At the individual level, ambivalence increases response latency when a choice has to be made, extends information processing, can affect attitude stability, and can even lead to discomfort. At the behavioral level, studies have highlighted the moderating role of attitudinal ambivalence on the relationship between attitudes and behavior. A different field of research focuses on its strength to question whether ambivalence leads to more resistance or susceptibility to persuasion and influence. It appears that ambivalent attitudes are pliable and, depending on the context, can either help individuals to be more adaptive or prevent them from arriving at a satisfying conclusion. The role of ambivalent attitudes in interpersonal relationships and self-presentation also highlight some benefits in holding an ambivalent attitude. This article opens by reviewing general overviews to provide a detailed picture of the current state of research. It then presents early approaches to attitudinal ambivalence, and reviews studies that highlight the moderating role of attitudinal ambivalence on the relationship between attitudes and behavior, as well as studies that question whether ambivalence might lead to more resistance or susceptibility to persuasion and influence. The article then focuses on the impact of ambivalence at the individual level. Antecedents of attitudinal ambivalence will be reviewed, as well as its consequences on the individual. The article concludes by presenting research questioning its functions as well as some applied work.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Waqas Ullah Khan ◽  
Aviv Shachak ◽  
Emily Seto

UNSTRUCTURED The decision to accept or reject new digital health technologies remains an ongoing discussion. Over the past few decades, interest in understanding the choice to adopt technology has led to the development of numerous theories and models. In 1979, however, psychologists Kahneman and Tversky published their seminal research article that has pioneered the field of behavioural economics. They named their model the “prospect theory” and used it to explain decision making behaviours under conditions of risk and uncertainty as well as to provide an understanding of why individuals may make irrational or inconsistent decisions. Although the prospect theory has been used to explain decision making in economics, law, political science, and clinically at the individual level, its application to understanding choice in the adoption of digital health technology has not been explored. Herein, we discuss how the prospect theory can provide valuable insight on why healthcare patients/clients, technology companies, and policymakers may decide to accept or reject digital health technologies.


Author(s):  
Anita Medhekar

Digital health technological innovations are disrupting every sector of the economy, including medical travel/tourism. Global patients as medical tourists are using patient-centric digital health technologies, enhancing patient/medical tourists experience and making it more transparent and engaging with healthcare providers and medical tourists. Digital communication tools such as e-mail, online appointments, smartphones, instant messaging applications, social media tools, user-generated content by online patient communities, tele-medicine, tele-radiology, my-Health records, Skype consultation, WhatsApp, health video, electronic health records, health data analytics tools, and artificial intelligence-enabled health technologies enhance the medical travel decision-making process, reduce cost, improve patient care and transparency of communication, and engage the relationship between the patient and the healthcare provider with positive outcomes, medical tourist experience, and empowerment.


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