Contextualising Digital Health Contributions to Fighting the COVID-19 Pandemic

Author(s):  
Anthony Maeder ◽  
Niranjan Bidargaddi ◽  
Patricia Williams

The COVID-19 pandemic has catalysed numerous changes worldwide in healthcare systems and service delivery practices, many relying on biomedical technologies including digital health. The rapid development and widespread adoption of these changes has led to many being reported on extensively in grey literature and public media, but not yet in the conventional scientific peer reviewed literature. In particular, digital health contributions have received much attention but the main topics of reporting have been prominent public perception issues, with technical aspects being largely ignored. This perspective paper therefore responds to the need for a systematic contextualisation framework to describe digital health contributions to the current COVID-19 pandemic situation.  The framework recommends four focus areas or “dimensions” for contextual settings: clinical processes, health system, stakeholder and technology.  Two examples are used to motivate these dimensions:  mobile phone tracking, and telehealth consultations. It is suggested that use of the framework in presenting digital health innovations more broadly and in context using these example cases, will convey a more informative understanding of the nature of such contributions now and in the post-COVID-19 period.

Diagnostics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 2283
Author(s):  
Osama A. Alswailem ◽  
Bashar K. Horanieh ◽  
Arwa AlAbbad ◽  
Sarab AlMuhaideb ◽  
Abdulkarim AlMuhanna ◽  
...  

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in global disruptions within healthcare systems, leading to quick dynamic fluctuations in hospital operations and supply chain management. During the early months of the pandemic, tertiary multihospital systems were highly viewed as the go-to hospitals for handling these rapid healthcare challenges caused by the rapidly increasing number of COVID-19 cases. Yet, this pandemic has created an urgent need for coordinated mechanisms to alleviate increasing pressures on these large multihospital systems and ensure services remain high-quality, accessible, and sustainable. Digital health solutions have been identified as promising approaches to address these challenges. This case report describes results for developing multidisciplinary visualizations to support digital health operations in one of the largest tertiary multihospital systems in the Middle East. The report concludes with some lessons and insights learned from the rapid development and delivery of this user-centric COVID-19 multihospital operations intelligent platform.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ihoghosa Iyamu ◽  
Oralia Gómez-Ramírez ◽  
Alice X.T. Xu ◽  
Hsiu-Ju Chang ◽  
Devon Haag ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND There has been rapid development and application of digital technologies in public health domains, which are considered to have the potential to transform public health. However, this growing interest in digital tools in public health has not been accompanied by a clarity of scope to guide policy, practice, and research in this rapidly emergent field. OBJECTIVE This scoping review seeks to determine the scope of digital health as described by public health researchers and practitioners, and to consolidate a conceptual framework of digital public health. METHODS The review follows Arksey and O’Malley’s framework for conducting scoping reviews with improvements as suggested by Levac. The search strategy will be applied to Embase, Medline and Google Scholar. A grey literature search will be conducted on intergovernmental agency websites and country specific websites. Titles and abstracts will be reviewed by independent reviewers, while full text reviews will be conducted by two reviewers to determine eligibility based on prespecified inclusion and exclusion criteria. The data will be coded using an iterative approach using the best-fit framework analysis methodology. RESULTS N/A CONCLUSIONS Ethics and dissemination: Ethical approval is not required for this review as it uses publicly available data. Results of the review will be strategically disseminated through publications in scientific journals, conferences and engagement fora with relevant stakeholders. CLINICALTRIAL N/A


Author(s):  
Anna Koval ◽  

he end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twentyfirst century has begun the rapid development of scientific researches in the biological and medical fields. This process is associated with using of fundamentally new methods, which are primarily aimed at the disease prevention, as well as the introduction into the treatment of human diseases with the latest scientific and innovative technologies, methods and techniques of their application. These opportunities in the development of scientific technologies in the field of biology and medicine have led to the emergence of such a direction of scientific activity as "biotechnology". The proposed article notes that using of biomedical technologies has caused a number of new problems in the field of law and ethics. Legal arrangement in the field of the health protection have become much more complicated. Thanks to new opportunities, today these relations regulate rights and responsibilities of a fairly large number of people. Modern relations in the field of medical services and medical care lead to the emergence of new approaches to their regulation by both legal and ethical norms. In the past, relations in the field of the health protection were usually between two subjects, a doctor and a healthcare consumer. Nowadays, in a medical practice, relations in the field of the health protection involve: a health-care consumer, his family members (e.g., in the case of hereditary diseases diagnosis, blood and organ donation etc.) and third parties (e.g., organ donation, reproductive cell donation, surrogacy etc.). In the general doctrinal concept, biotechnology is the industrial use of living organisms or their parts (microorganisms, fungi, algae, plant and animal cells, cellular organs, enzymes etc.) for product producing or modifying, improving plants and animals, and in medical practice - in relation of the individual human organs (or body as a whole) functioning. These circumstances require improving the legal regulation of modern medicine public relations, bringing them into line with emerging realities. Moreover, the specifics of relations in this field determines the specifics of their legal regulation. The application of new medical technologiesin relation to human treatment has given rise to a significant number of moral and ethical problems that could not be solved within the framework of medical ethics and deontology alone. In connection with this, the way out of the current situation could be the consolidation of bioethics as an interdisciplinary field of knowledge, as a science, which makes it possible to explain moral, ethical and legal aspects of the medicine. This, for example, determines the allocation of medical law in an independent branch of law in some Western countries and Ukraine. The article focuses on biomedical ethics, which is a component of the medical activities system regulation. In the context of considering the levels of social regulation of medical activities, bioethics (biomedical ethics) is an interdisciplinary science that studies moral and ethical, social and legal problems of medical activities in the context of human rights protection. Bioethics should create a set of moral principles, norms and rules that are binding on all mankind and delineate the limits of scientific interference in the nature of the human body, the transition through which is unacceptable.


Author(s):  
Sharon C Perelman ◽  
Steven Erde ◽  
Lynda Torre ◽  
Tunaidi Ansari

Abstract COVID-19 quickly immobilized healthcare systems in the United States during the early stages of the outbreak. While much of the ensuing response focused on supporting the medical infrastructure, Columbia University College of Dental Medicine pursued a solution to triage and safely treat patients with dental emergencies amidst the pandemic. Considering rapidly changing guidelines from governing bodies, dental infection control protocols and our clinical faculty's expertise, we modeled, built, and implemented a screening algorithm, which provides decision support as well as insight into COVID-19 status and clinical comorbidities, within a newly integrated Electronic Health Record (EHR). Once operationalized, we analyzed the data and outcomes of its utilization and found that it had effectively guided providers in triaging patient needs in a standardized methodology. This article describes the algorithm's rapid development to assist faculty providers in identifying patients with the most urgent needs, thus prioritizing treatment of dental emergencies during the pandemic.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dror Ben-Zeev ◽  
Benjamin Buck ◽  
Sarah Kopelovich ◽  
Suzanne Meller

Abstract Developments in digital health technologies have the potential to expedite and strengthen the path towards recovery for people with psychosis. This perspective piece provides a snapshot of how a range of digital technologies can be deployed to support a young adult’s efforts to cope with schizophrenia-spectrum illness. In conjunction with a day in the life of this individual, we provide examples of innovations in digital health research designed for this clinical population, as well as brief summaries of the evidence supporting the usability, feasibility, or effectiveness of each approach. From early detection to ongoing symptom management and vocational rehabilitation, this day-in-the-life vignette provides an overview of the ways in which digital health innovations could be used in concert to augment, scaffold, and enhance schizophrenia-spectrum illness management and recovery.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatima Comartova ◽  
Andrey Pomazanskiy ◽  
Elena Nikitina ◽  
Saria Nanba ◽  
Timur Mel'nik ◽  
...  

The rapid development of modern biomedicine creates both hopes for solving global problems of humanity, and risks associated with the enormous potential of its impact on human nature. In this regard, the processes of development and application of biomedical technologies need timely and adequate legal regulation that defines the boundaries of biotechnological intervention in human life. This publication is devoted to the theoretical development of general legal approaches to the essence, content, social orientation and the main industry features of the regulation of relations in the field of biomedicine, which would allow to form a special legal regulation in this area. For researchers, teachers, postgraduates, students, practicing lawyers, employees of public authorities.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Godwin Denk Giebel ◽  
Christian Speckemeier ◽  
Carina Abels ◽  
Kirstin Börchers ◽  
Jürgen Wasem ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Usage of digital health applications (DHA) is increasing internationally. More and more regulatory bodies develop regulations and guidelines to enable an evidence-based and safe use. In Germany, DHA fulfilling predefined criteria (Digitale Gesundheitsanwendungen (="DiGA")) can be prescribed and are reimbursable by the German statutory health insurance scheme. Due to the increasing distribution of DHA problems and barriers should receive special attention. OBJECTIVE This study aims to identify relevant problems and barriers related to the use of DHA fulfilling the criteria of DiGA. The research done in this area will be mapped and research findings will be summarized. METHODS Conduct of the scoping review will follow published methodological frameworks and PRISMA-Scr criteria. Electronic databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsycINFO), reference lists of relevant articles and grey literature sources will be searched. Two reviewers will assess eligibility of articles by a two-stage (title/abstract and full-text) screening process. Only problems and barriers related to DHA fulfilling the criteria of DiGA are included for this research. RESULTS This scoping review serves to give an overview about the available evidence and to identify research gaps with regards to problems and barriers related to DiGA. Results are planned to be submitted to an indexed, peer-reviewed journal in the fourth quarter of 2021. CONCLUSIONS This is the first review identifying problems and barriers specifically to the use of the German definition of DiGA. Nevertheless, our findings can presumably be applied to other contexts and health care systems as well.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin van Kessel ◽  
Rok Hrzic ◽  
Ella O'Nuallain ◽  
Elizabeth Weir ◽  
Brian Li Han Wong ◽  
...  

UNSTRUCTURED The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the uptake of digital health worldwide and highlighted many benefits of these innovations. However, it also stressed the magnitude of inequalities regarding accessing digital health. This article explores the potential benefits of digital technologies for the global population, with particular reference to people living with disabilities, taking the autism community as a case study. We ultimately explore policies in Sweden, Australia, Canada, Estonia, the United Kingdom, and the United States to learn how policies can lay an inclusive foundation for digital health systems. We conclude that digital health ecosystems should be designed with health equity at the forefront to avoid deepening existing health inequalities. We call for a more sophisticated understanding of digital health literacy to better assess the readiness to adopt digital health innovations. Finally, people living with disabilities should be positioned at the centre of digital health policy and innovations to ensure they are not left behind.


2019 ◽  
pp. 281-292
Author(s):  
Gina Neff

The Internet and digital media are increasingly seen as having enormous potential for solving problems facing healthcare systems. This chapter traces emerging “digital health” uses and applications, focusing on the political economy of data. For many people, the ability to access their own data through social media and connect with people with similar conditions holds enormous potential to empower them and improve healthcare decisions. For researchers, digital health tools present new forms of always-on data that may lead to major discoveries. Technology and telecommunications companies hope their customers? data can answer key health questions or encourage healthier behavior. At the same time, Gina Neff argues that digital health raises policy and social equity concerns regarding sensitive personal data, and runs a risk of being seen as a sort of silver bullet instead of mere technological solutionism.


BMJ Open ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. e025267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bertalan Meskó ◽  
Nóra Radó ◽  
Zsuzsa Győrffy

ObjectivesWe aimed to explore the opinion leader empowered patients’ relationship with their medical professionals, their experiences and beliefs about technologies, and how they see the future. We also attempted to determine whether technologies, the access to it or patient empowerment are the main driving forces behind these changes.DesignA qualitative interview study analysed with interpretative phenomenological analysis.SettingAll interviews were conducted and recorded individually with the same trained interviewer via a Skype call.ParticipantsThe study is based on qualitative, semistructured interviews with 11 opinion leader empowered patients from six countries including UK, USA, Australia, Sweden, South Africa and Ireland.ResultsWe identified four superordinate themes emerging from e-patients’ experiences: (1) impact of technology, (2) the meaning of empowerment, (3) the changing physician–patient relationship and (4) expectations for the future. The relationship e-patients have with their physicians is based on efficient communication, proactivity, the desire for asking questions and the use of technologies. The interviews have shown that the rapid development of technology has fundamentally changed the lives of these e-patients, and technology eventually is transforming the physician–patient relationship into a partnership. Regarding the future of the physician–patient partnership, e-patients emphasised that change will rather be cultural than technological.ConclusionsThe interviews have shown that cooperation between technology and healthcare is not enough on its own: the most decisive factor is the return of the human touch and reciprocal communication. All of these suggest that technology is an important ally in the ‘renaissance of medicine’ that starts to treat patients as it should have always had.


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