scholarly journals Examining Mental Workload Relating to Digital Health Technologies in Health Care: Protocol for a Systematic Review Focusing on Assessment Methods (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisanne Kremer ◽  
Myriam Lipprandt ◽  
Rainer Röhrig ◽  
Bernhard Breil
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Mental Workload ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Health Technologies ◽  
Care Protocol

BACKGROUND The workload in healthcare is steadily increasing - physicians and nurses report stress as well as a very demanding environment with complex and multiple tasks. As a result, mental health issues are on the rise among health care professionals, the proneness to errors in tasks could increase. The digitization of patient care is intended to counteract processes of demographic change, which are partly the cause of higher stress levels. It remains unclear whether the health information systems (HIS) and digital health technologies (DHT) used relieve the professionals or even represent a further burden. The mental construct that describes this burden of technologies is Mental Workload (MWL). Work in the clinic can be viewed as working in safety-critical environments. Particularly in this sensitive setting, the measurement methods of MWL are relevant - mainly due to their strongly differing intrusiveness and sensitivity. The method of eye tracking could provide a useful way to be able to measure MWL directly in the field. OBJECTIVE The systematic review addresses two different, but related objectives. 1. In which manner do DHT contribute to the overall MWL of health care workers: 1.1. Can we observe a direct or indirect effect of DHT on MWL? 1.2. Which aspects or factors of DHT contribute to an increase of MWL? 2. Which methods/ assessments are applied to measure MWL related to HIS/ DHT? 2.1. Which role does eye tracking/ pupillometry play in context of measure? 2.2. Which outcomes are being assessed via eye tracking? METHODS Following the PRISMA statement, we conduct a systematic review. Based on the research question, we define keywords that we then combine in search terms. The review follows the following steps: literature search, article selection, data extraction, risk of bias assessment, data analysis and data synthesis. RESULTS As the systematic review is currently ongoing, no results are available yet. The preliminary searches have been completed, the piloting of the study selection process as well as the formal screening against eligibility criteria has started. We are currently analyzing the data and expect to complete the review in spring 2021. CONCLUSIONS We are expecting conclusions after finalizing the review. CLINICALTRIAL PROSPERO registration: CRD42021233271; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.php?ID=CRD42021233271&ID=CRD42021233271

scholarly journals Harnessing Digital Health Technologies During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic: Context Matters (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Petracca ◽  
Oriana Ciani ◽  
Maria Cucciniello ◽  
Rosanna Tarricone
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Organizational Context ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Health Technologies ◽  
Digital Reconstruction ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Care Systems

UNSTRUCTURED A common development observed during the COVID-19 pandemic is the renewed reliance on digital health technologies. Prior to the pandemic, the uptake of digital health technologies to directly strengthen public health systems had been unsatisfactory; however, a relentless acceleration took place within health care systems during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, digital health technologies could not be prescinded from the organizational and institutional merits of the systems in which they were introduced. The Italian National Health Service is strongly decentralized, with the national government exercising general stewardship and regions responsible for the delivery of health care services. Together with the substantial lack of digital efforts previously, these institutional characteristics resulted in delays in the uptake of appropriate solutions, territorial differences, and issues in engaging the appropriate health care professionals during the pandemic. An in-depth analysis of the organizational context is instrumental in fully interpreting the contribution of digital health during the pandemic and providing the foundation for the digital reconstruction of what is to come after.

scholarly journals Hackathons as Stepping Stones in Health Care Innovation: Case Study With Systematic Recommendations

10.2196/17004 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. e17004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akira-Sebastian Poncette ◽  
Pablo-David Rojas ◽  
Joscha Hofferbert ◽  
Alvaro Valera Sosa ◽  
Felix Balzer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Participation Rate ◽  
Multidisciplinary Teams ◽  
Stepping Stones ◽  
Health Technologies ◽  
Health Community ◽  
Cost Efficient

Background Until recently, developing health technologies was time-consuming and expensive, and often involved patients, doctors, and other health care professionals only as passive recipients of the end product. So far, users have been minimally involved in the ideation and creation stages of digital health technologies. In order to best address users’ unmet needs, a transdisciplinary and user-led approach, involving cocreation and direct user feedback, is required. In this context, hackathon events have become increasingly popular in generating enthusiasm for user-centered innovation. Objective This case study describes preparatory steps and the performance of a health hackathon directly involving patients and health care professionals at all stages. Feasibility and outcomes were assessed, leading to the development of systematic recommendations for future hackathons as a vehicle for bottom-up innovation in health care. Methods A 2-day hackathon was conducted in February 2017 in Berlin, Germany. Data were collected through a field study. Collected field notes were subsequently discussed in 15 informal meetings among the research team. Experiences of conducting two further hackathons in December 2017 and November 2018 were included. Results In total, 30 participants took part, with 63% (19/30) of participants between 25 and 34 years of age, 30% (9/30) between 35 and 44 years of age, and 7% (2/30) younger than 25 years of age. A total of 43% (13/30) of the participants were female. The participation rate of medical experts, including patients and health care professionals, was 30% (9/30). Five multidisciplinary teams were formed and each tackled a specific health care problem. All presented projects were apps: a chatbot for skin cancer recognition, an augmented reality exposure-based therapy (eg, for arachnophobia), an app for medical neighborhood connectivity, a doctor appointment platform, and a self-care app for people suffering from depression. Patients and health care professionals initiated all of the projects. Conducting the hackathon resulted in significant growth of the digital health community of Berlin and was followed up by larger hackathons. Systematic recommendations for conducting cost-efficient hackathons (n≤30) were developed, including aspects of community building, stakeholder engagement, mentoring, themes, announcements, follow-up, and timing for each step. Conclusions This study shows that hackathons are effective in bringing innovation to health care and are more cost- and time-efficient and potentially more sustainable than traditional medical device and digital product development. Our systematic recommendations can be useful to other individuals and organizations that want to establish user-led innovation in academic hospitals by conducting transdisciplinary hackathons.

scholarly journals Hackathons as Stepping Stones in Health Care Innovation: Case Study With Systematic Recommendations (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akira-Sebastian Poncette ◽  
Pablo-David Rojas ◽  
Joscha Hofferbert ◽  
Alvaro Valera Sosa ◽  
Felix Balzer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Participation Rate ◽  
Multidisciplinary Teams ◽  
Stepping Stones ◽  
Health Technologies ◽  
Health Community ◽  
Cost Efficient

BACKGROUND Until recently, developing health technologies was time-consuming and expensive, and often involved patients, doctors, and other health care professionals only as passive recipients of the end product. So far, users have been minimally involved in the ideation and creation stages of digital health technologies. In order to best address users’ unmet needs, a transdisciplinary and user-led approach, involving cocreation and direct user feedback, is required. In this context, hackathon events have become increasingly popular in generating enthusiasm for user-centered innovation. OBJECTIVE This case study describes preparatory steps and the performance of a health hackathon directly involving patients and health care professionals at all stages. Feasibility and outcomes were assessed, leading to the development of systematic recommendations for future hackathons as a vehicle for bottom-up innovation in health care. METHODS A 2-day hackathon was conducted in February 2017 in Berlin, Germany. Data were collected through a field study. Collected field notes were subsequently discussed in 15 informal meetings among the research team. Experiences of conducting two further hackathons in December 2017 and November 2018 were included. RESULTS In total, 30 participants took part, with 63% (19/30) of participants between 25 and 34 years of age, 30% (9/30) between 35 and 44 years of age, and 7% (2/30) younger than 25 years of age. A total of 43% (13/30) of the participants were female. The participation rate of medical experts, including patients and health care professionals, was 30% (9/30). Five multidisciplinary teams were formed and each tackled a specific health care problem. All presented projects were apps: a chatbot for skin cancer recognition, an augmented reality exposure-based therapy (eg, for arachnophobia), an app for medical neighborhood connectivity, a doctor appointment platform, and a self-care app for people suffering from depression. Patients and health care professionals initiated all of the projects. Conducting the hackathon resulted in significant growth of the digital health community of Berlin and was followed up by larger hackathons. Systematic recommendations for conducting cost-efficient hackathons (n≤30) were developed, including aspects of community building, stakeholder engagement, mentoring, themes, announcements, follow-up, and timing for each step. CONCLUSIONS This study shows that hackathons are effective in bringing innovation to health care and are more cost- and time-efficient and potentially more sustainable than traditional medical device and digital product development. Our systematic recommendations can be useful to other individuals and organizations that want to establish user-led innovation in academic hospitals by conducting transdisciplinary hackathons.

scholarly journals Harnessing Digital Health Technologies During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic: Context Matters

10.2196/21815 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (12) ◽  
pp. e21815
Author(s):  
Francesco Petracca ◽  
Oriana Ciani ◽  
Maria Cucciniello ◽  
Rosanna Tarricone
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Organizational Context ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Health Technologies ◽  
Digital Reconstruction ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Care Systems

A common development observed during the COVID-19 pandemic is the renewed reliance on digital health technologies. Prior to the pandemic, the uptake of digital health technologies to directly strengthen public health systems had been unsatisfactory; however, a relentless acceleration took place within health care systems during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, digital health technologies could not be prescinded from the organizational and institutional merits of the systems in which they were introduced. The Italian National Health Service is strongly decentralized, with the national government exercising general stewardship and regions responsible for the delivery of health care services. Together with the substantial lack of digital efforts previously, these institutional characteristics resulted in delays in the uptake of appropriate solutions, territorial differences, and issues in engaging the appropriate health care professionals during the pandemic. An in-depth analysis of the organizational context is instrumental in fully interpreting the contribution of digital health during the pandemic and providing the foundation for the digital reconstruction of what is to come after.

scholarly journals How Women Use Digital Technologies for Health: Qualitative Interview and Focus Group Study (Preprint)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Lupton ◽  
Sarah Maslen
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Online Social Networks ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Health Technologies ◽  
Health Related

BACKGROUND A range of digital technologies are available to lay people to find, share, and generate health-related information. Few studies have directed attention specifically to how women are using these technologies from the diverse array available to them. Even fewer have focused on Australian women’s use of digital health. OBJECTIVE The Australian Women and Digital Health Project aimed to investigate which types of digital technologies women used regularly for health-related purposes and which they found most helpful and useful. Qualitative methods—semistructured interviews and focus groups—were employed to shed light on the situated complexities of the participants’ enactments of digital health technologies. The project adopted a feminist new materialism theoretical perspective, focusing on the affordances, relational connections, and affective forces that came together to open up or close off the agential capacities generated with and through these enactments. METHODS The project comprised two separate studies including a total of 66 women. In study 1, 36 women living in the city of Canberra took part in face-to-face interviews and focus groups, while study 2 involved telephone interviews with 30 women from other areas of Australia. RESULTS The affordances of search engines to locate health information and websites and social media platforms for providing information and peer support were highly used and valued. Affective forces such as the desire for trust, motivation, empowerment, reassurance, control, care, and connection emerged in the participants’ accounts. Agential capacities generated with and through digital health technologies included the capacity to seek and generate information and create a better sense of knowledge and expertise about bodies, illness, and health care, including the women’s own bodies and health, that of their families and friends, and that of their often anonymous online social networks. The participants referred time and again to appreciating the feelings of agency and control that using digital health technologies afforded them. When the technologies failed to work as expected, these agential capacities were not realized. Women responded with feelings of frustration, disappointment, and annoyance, leading them to become disenchanted with the possibilities of the digital technologies they had tried. CONCLUSIONS The findings demonstrate the nuanced and complex ways in which the participants were engaging with and contributing to online sources of information and using these sources together with face-to-face encounters with doctors and other health care professionals and friends and family members. They highlight the lay forms of expertise that the women had developed in finding, assessing, and creating health knowledges. The study also emphasized the key role that many women play in providing advice and health care for family members not only as digitally engaged patients but also as digitally engaged carers.

scholarly journals Effectiveness of Conversational Agents (Virtual Assistants) in Health Care: Protocol for a Systematic Review

10.2196/16934 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. e16934 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline de Cock ◽  
Madison Milne-Ives ◽  
Michelle Helena van Velthoven ◽  
Abrar Alturkistani ◽  
Ching Lam ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Systematic Reviews ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Conversational Agents ◽  
Eligibility Criteria ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Care Protocol ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Meta Analyses

Background Conversational agents (also known as chatbots) have evolved in recent decades to become multimodal, multifunctional platforms with potential to automate a diverse range of health-related activities supporting the general public, patients, and physicians. Multiple studies have reported the development of these agents, and recent systematic reviews have described the scope of use of conversational agents in health care. However, there is scarce research on the effectiveness of these systems; thus, their viability and applicability are unclear. Objective The objective of this systematic review is to assess the effectiveness of conversational agents in health care and to identify limitations, adverse events, and areas for future investigation of these agents. Methods The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Protocols will be used to structure this protocol. The focus of the systematic review is guided by a population, intervention, comparator, and outcome framework. A systematic search of the PubMed (Medline), EMBASE, CINAHL, and Web of Science databases will be conducted. Two authors will independently screen the titles and abstracts of the identified references and select studies according to the eligibility criteria. Any discrepancies will then be discussed and resolved. Two reviewers will independently extract and validate data from the included studies into a standardized form and conduct quality appraisal. Results As of January 2020, we have begun a preliminary literature search and piloting of the study selection process. Conclusions This systematic review aims to clarify the effectiveness, limitations, and future applications of conversational agents in health care. Our findings may be useful to inform the future development of conversational agents and promote the personalization of patient care. International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) PRR1-10.2196/16934

scholarly journals Digital Education for the Management of Chronic Wounds in Health Care Professionals: Protocol for a Systematic Review by the Digital Health Education Collaboration

10.2196/12488 ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. e12488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Martinengo ◽  
Natalie Jia Ying Yeo ◽  
Zheng Qiang Tang ◽  
Kasturi D/O Markandran ◽  
Bhone Myint Kyaw ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Health Education ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Chronic Wounds ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Digital Education

scholarly journals Effectiveness of Conversational Agents (Virtual Assistants) in Health Care: Protocol for a Systematic Review (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline de Cock ◽  
Madison Milne-Ives ◽  
Michelle Helena van Velthoven ◽  
Abrar Alturkistani ◽  
Ching Lam ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Systematic Reviews ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Conversational Agents ◽  
Eligibility Criteria ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Care Protocol ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Meta Analyses

BACKGROUND Conversational agents (also known as chatbots) have evolved in recent decades to become multimodal, multifunctional platforms with potential to automate a diverse range of health-related activities supporting the general public, patients, and physicians. Multiple studies have reported the development of these agents, and recent systematic reviews have described the scope of use of conversational agents in health care. However, there is scarce research on the effectiveness of these systems; thus, their viability and applicability are unclear. OBJECTIVE The objective of this systematic review is to assess the effectiveness of conversational agents in health care and to identify limitations, adverse events, and areas for future investigation of these agents. METHODS The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Protocols will be used to structure this protocol. The focus of the systematic review is guided by a population, intervention, comparator, and outcome framework. A systematic search of the PubMed (Medline), EMBASE, CINAHL, and Web of Science databases will be conducted. Two authors will independently screen the titles and abstracts of the identified references and select studies according to the eligibility criteria. Any discrepancies will then be discussed and resolved. Two reviewers will independently extract and validate data from the included studies into a standardized form and conduct quality appraisal. RESULTS As of January 2020, we have begun a preliminary literature search and piloting of the study selection process. CONCLUSIONS This systematic review aims to clarify the effectiveness, limitations, and future applications of conversational agents in health care. Our findings may be useful to inform the future development of conversational agents and promote the personalization of patient care. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT PRR1-10.2196/16934

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