scholarly journals COVIDCare: A Digital Solution for Follow-up of Individuals with Suspected or Diagnosed COVID-19 (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofie H. Willems ◽  
Jyotsna Rao ◽  
Sailee Bhambere ◽  
Dipu Patel ◽  
Yvonne Biggins ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has generated unprecedented and sustained health management challenges worldwide. Healthcare systems continue to struggle to support the needs of the majority of infected individuals that are either asymptomatic or have mild symptoms. OBJECTIVE To rapidly and safely address gaps in the healthcare support available from initially, and repeatedly, overwhelmed providers and systems. We sought to create a digital healthcare solution that could appropriately monitor and manage needs of individuals requiring self-isolation due to suspected or diagnosed COVID-19 with mild to moderate symptoms. METHODS A theoretically grounded multiplatform digital healthcare application was created to safely monitor and support this group of affected individuals based on rapidly emerging scientific guidance. The solution – COVIDCare – was designed to address this need and to be flexible enough to adapt to the evolving management requirements of various stakeholders to reduce COVID-19 infection rates, acute hospitalizations and mortality. RESULTS The COVIDCare multiplatform solution provides a hybrid model of care that includes mobile and online platforms, paired with direct clinician input. The patient mobile application includes four program components: 1) symptom management, 2) patient education, 3) wellbeing support, and 4) communication with healthcare providers. The clinician web-based portal includes secure, bi-directional, chat communication between the patient and clinician. CONCLUSIONS COVIDCare can flexibly address strategic needs of strained healthcare systems and is customizable to meet the needs of employers and public health stakeholders who continue to manage the lasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Author(s):  
Byeong Jin Ye ◽  
Ju Young Kim ◽  
Chunhui Suh ◽  
Seong Pil Choi ◽  
Maro Choi ◽  
...  

(1) Background: Follow-up management of workers’ general health examination (WGHE) is important, but it is not currently well done. Chatbot, a type of digital healthcare tool, is used in various medical fields but has never been developed for follow-up management of WGHE in Korea. (2) Methods: The database containing results and explanations related to WGHE was constructed. Then, the channel, which connects users with the database was created. A user survey regarding effectiveness was administered to 23 healthcare providers. Additionally, interviews on applicability for occupational health services were conducted with six nurses in the agency of occupational health management. (3) Results: Chatbot was implemented on a small scale on the Amazon cloud service (AWS) EC2 using KaKaoTalk and Web Chat as user channels. Regarding the effectiveness, 21 (91.30%) rated the need for chatbots as very high; however, 11 (47.83%) rated the usability as not high. Of the 23 participants, 14 (60.87%) expressed overall satisfaction. Nurses appreciated the chatbot program as a method for resolving accessibility and as an aid for explaining examination results and follow-up management. (4) Conclusions: The effectiveness of WGHE and the applicability in the occupational health service of the chatbot program for follow-up management can be confirmed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. e000173
Author(s):  
Maria Stavrou ◽  
Eva Lioutas ◽  
Joanna Lioutas ◽  
Richard J Davenport

BackgroundRemote consulting is an emerging model in managing chronic neurological conditions and has been widely implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. The objective of this national survey was to investigate the initial experiences of remote consulting for neurologists and patients with established neurological conditions under follow-up during the first COVID-19 phase.MethodsIn collaboration with the Scottish Association of Neurological Sciences and the Neurological Alliance of Scotland, we conducted a web-based survey of neurologists and patients between October and November 2020.FindingsData was available for 62 neurologists and 201 patients. The consensus among neurologists was that remote consulting is a satisfactory way of delivering healthcare in selected groups of patients. For practical and technical reasons, there was preference for phone over video consultations (phone 63% vs video 33%, p=0.003). The prevailing opinion among clinicians was that considerable training interventions for remote consultation skills are required (‘yes’ 63% vs ‘no’ 37%, p=0.009) to improve clinician consultation skills and successfully embed this new model of care.Most patients perceived remote consultations as safe, effective and convenient, with 89% of patients being satisfied with their remote consultation experience. Although traditional face-to-face consultations were the favoured way of interaction for 62% of patients, a significant proportion preferred that some of their future consultations be remote.InterpretationAlthough not a replacement for face-to-face consultations, this survey illustrates that remote consulting can be an acceptable adjunct to traditional face-to-face consultations for doctors and patients. More research is required to identify overall safety and applicability.


BMC Surgery ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian Scherer ◽  
Frank Keller ◽  
Hans-Christoph Pape ◽  
Georg Osterhoff

Abstract Background eHealth applications have been proposed as an alternative to monitor patients in frequent intervals or over long distances. The aim of this study was to assess whether patients would accept an application on their smartphone to be monitored by their physicians. Methods During September 2017 and December 2017 a survey amongst smartphone users was conducted via paper and web-based questionnaires. Results More than half of the 962 participants (54%) were older than 55 years of age. The majority of the participants (68.7%) would accept a follow-up by a smartphone application obtaining personal healthcare data. 72.6% of all patients older than 55 years of age would use the application. The most prevalent reason against installing the application was data protection. Patients being currently treated in an orthopaedic practice and pedestrians were more eager to accept a follow-up by a mobile app than participants from social media. Conclusion The majority of participants would accept a mobile application, collecting personal health-related data for postoperative follow-up, and saw a direct benefit for the patient in such an application.


2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 805-814 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan J Mortimer ◽  
Joel Rhee ◽  
Rebecca Guy ◽  
Andrew Hayen ◽  
Annie Y S Lau

Abstract Objective To determine if a web-based personally controlled health management system (PCHMS) could increase the uptake of sexually transmitted infections (STI) screening among a young university population. Methods A non-blinded parallel-group randomized controlled trial was conducted. Participants aged 18–29 years were recruited from a university environment between April and August 2013, and randomized 1:1 to either the intervention group (immediate online PCHMS access) or control group (no PCHMS access). The study outcome was self-reported STI testing, measured by an online follow-up survey in October 2013. Results Of the 369 participants allocated to the PCHMS, 150 completed the follow-up survey, and of the 378 in the control group, 225 completed the follow-up survey. The proportion of the PCHMS group who underwent an STI test during the study period was 15.3% (23/150) compared with 7.6% (17/225) in the control group (P = .017). The difference in STI testing rates within the subgroup of sexually active participants (20.4% (23/113) of the PCHMS group compared with 9.6% (15/157) of the control group) was significantly higher (P = .027) than among non-sexually active participants. Discussion Access to the PCHMS was associated with a significant increase in participants undergoing STI testing. This is also the first study to demonstrate efficacy of a PCHMS targeting a health concern where susceptibility is generally perceived as low and the majority of infections are asymptomatic. Conclusion PCHMS interventions may provide an effective means of increasing the demand for STI testing which, combined with increased opportunistic testing by clinicians, could reduce the high and sustained rates of STIs in young people.


2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 167-173
Author(s):  
Giri Madhavan

Aims and MethodThe aims of this review were to explore the effectiveness and patient and provider acceptability of telepsychiatry consultations in intellectual disability, contrasting this with direct face-to-face consultations and proposing avenues for further research and innovation. Computerised searches of databases including AMED and EMBASE were conducted.ResultsFour USA studies of intellectual disability telepsychiatry services have been reported. The majority (75%) focused on children with intellectual disability. Sample sizes ranged from 38 to 900 participants, with follow-up from 1 to 6 years. Outcome measures varied considerably and included cost savings to patients and healthcare providers, patient and carer satisfaction and new diagnoses.Clinical implicationsThe innovations summarised suggest a requirement to further explore telepsychiatry models. Despite some promising outcomes, there is a relative dearth in the existing literature. Further studies in other healthcare systems are required before concluding that telepsychiatry in intellectual disability is the best approach for providing psychiatric services to this population.Declaration of interestNone.


2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lori Foster Thompson ◽  
Eric A. Surface ◽  
Don L. Martin ◽  
Gary B. Barrett
Keyword(s):  

Author(s):  
Sagar Pathane ◽  
Uttam Patil ◽  
Nandini Sidnal

The agricultural commodity prices have a volatile nature which may increase or decrease inconsistently causing an adverse effect on the economy. The work carried out here for predicting prices of agricultural commodities is useful for the farmers because of which they can sow appropriate crop depending on its future price. Agriculture products have seasonal rates, these rates are spread over the entire year. If these rates are known/alerted to the farmers in advance, then it will be promising on ROI (Return on Investments). It requires that the rates of the agricultural products updated into the dataset of each state and each crop, in this application five crops are considered. The predictions are done based on neural networks Neuroph framework in java platform and also the previous years data. The results are produced on mobile application using android. Web based interface is also provided for displaying processed commodity rates in graphical interface. Agricultural experts can follow these graphs and predict market rates which can be informed to the farmers. The results will be provided based on the location of the users of this application.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. e000542
Author(s):  
Nabil Issa ◽  
Whitney E Liddy ◽  
Sandeep Samant ◽  
David B Conley ◽  
Robert C Kern ◽  
...  

BackgroundCricothyrotomy is associated with significant aerosolization that increases the potential risk of infection among healthcare providers. It is important to identify simple yet effective methods to suppress aerosolization and improve the safety of healthcare providers.Methods5 ear, nose and throat and general surgeons used a locally developed hybrid cricothyrotomy simulator with a porcine trachea to test three draping methods to suppress aerosolization during the procedure: an X-ray cassette drape, dry operating room (OR) towels and wet OR towels. The three methods were judged based on three categories: effectiveness of suppression, availability in all healthcare systems and ease of handling.ResultsAll five surgeons performed the procedure independently using each of the three suppression methods. The wet OR towel drape was found to be an effective method to suppress aerosolization, and it did not hinder the surgeons from performing the procedure accurately. This finding was confirmed by using an atomized fluorescein dye injection into the porcine trachea, representing aerosolized material while performing the procedure.ConclusionsWe present a novel intervention using wet towels to suppress aerosolization during cricothyrotomy. Wet towels are cheap and readily available within any healthcare setting regardless of the financial resources available.


Author(s):  
Ching-Fang Lee ◽  
Fur-Hsing Wen ◽  
Yvonne Hsiung ◽  
Jian-Pei Huang ◽  
Chun-Wei Chang ◽  
...  

During pregnancy, a woman’s enlarged uterus and the developing fetus lead to symptom distress; in turn, physical and psychological aspects of symptom distress are often associated with adverse prenatal and birth outcomes. This study aimed to identify the trends in the trajectory of these symptoms. This longitudinal study recruited 95 pregnant women, with a mean age of 32 years, from the prenatal wards of two teaching hospitals in northern Taiwan. Symptom distress was measured by a 22-item scale related to pregnancy-induced symptoms. The follow-up measurements began during the first trimester and were taken every two to four weeks until childbirth. More than half of the pregnant women experienced symptom distress manifested in a pattern depicted to be “Decreased then Increased” (56.8%). Other noticeable patterns were “Continuously Increased” (28.4%), “Increased then Decreased” (10.5%) and “Continuously Decreased” (4.2%), respectively. It is worth noting that most pregnant women recorded a transit and increase in their symptom distress, revealed by their total scores, at the second trimester (mean 22.02 weeks) of pregnancy. The participants’ major pregnancy-related distress symptoms were physical and included fatigue, frequent urination, lower back pain, and difficulty sleeping. The mean scores for individual symptoms ranged from 2.32 to 3.61 and were below the “moderately distressful” level. This study provides evidence that could be used to predict women’s pregnancy-related symptom distress and help healthcare providers implement timely interventions to improve prenatal care.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 175628722199813
Author(s):  
Mai Ahmed Banakhar

Objective: To study the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on sacral neuromodulation (SNM) implanted patients and examine patient concerns. Methodology: A web-based survey was sent to all SNM patients, including those with implants and who had a cancelled operation because of the pandemic. The survey consisted of 15 questions in Arabic language, which sought to evaluate outcomes, as well as patient concerns and preferences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: A total of 66 patients were contacted, and of which, 62 replied. Most of the patients ( n = 51; 82.3%) had the device implanted, and 11 (17.7%) patients had a postponed operation secondary to the pandemic. There were 20 males and 42 females. The mean age was 34 years ± SD 16.5 (9–62 years). Indications for sacral neuromodulation therapy were refractory overactive bladder OAB 35 (56.5%), retention 17 (27.4%), OAB + retention 3 (4.8%). When questioning the effect of the lockdown on patients, most reported no effect (43.5%), while 14.5% had some programming difficulties. The patients preferred telephone calls for device emergencies and clinic follow-up with 88.7% and 98.4%, respectively. Most patients had no concerns regarding their Interstim device during the pandemic and found it manageable; 8.1% had insurance concerns due to the economic changes. Conclusion: Patients with implanted SNM for lower urinary tract symptoms were mainly concerned with device programming. Telemedicine is a great solution for continuous care in this group.


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