Personal Digital Health Assistants

Personal Digital Health Assistants (PDHA) are applications that can run on virtually any computer or mobile device including a smart phone/ personal digital assistant (PDA). A PDHA acquires, stores, and analyzes health related information of an individual. It usually communicates with remote servers of a large organization which can connect it to various resources. PDHAs are an integral part of telehealth. Their utility has increased manyfold since the start of the pandemic. The systems are increasingly more complex and are involved in all aspects of care. The PDHA are usually utilized by patients or their caregivers with assistance from professionals. Many automated systems can be utilized free of charge. Some are available as part of a prepaid health plan.

Driving and navigation habits of Austrian drivers

A proper navigation experience is essential while driving. A navigation device has not only to provide the driver with the right amount of information to find the ideal route (shortest, most spectacular, fastest), but also has to make driving safer. Since the driver looks at the user interface of navigation devices only for a few seconds, it is essential that the appropriate amount of information is in the right place. There are many options for drivers to navigate with: mobile phone app, PDA (Personal Digital Assistant)/PNA (Portable Navigation Assistant) or a built-in GPS Navigation System. The presented research examined the driving and navigation habits of 116 Austrian drivers by considering the differences between the devices they use.

MyrrorBot : A Digital Assistant Based on Holistic User Models for Personalized Access to Online Services

In this article, we present MyrrorBot , a personal digital assistant implementing a natural language interface that allows the users to: (i) access online services, such as music, video, news, and food recommendation s, in a personalized way, by exploiting a strategy for implicit user modeling called holistic user profiling ; (ii) query their own user models, to inspect the features encoded in their profiles and to increase their awareness of the personalization process. Basically, the system allows the users to formulate natural language requests related to their information needs. Such needs are roughly classified in two groups: quantified self-related needs (e.g., Did I sleep enough? Am I extrovert? ) and personalized access to online services (e.g., Play a song I like ). The intent recognition strategy implemented in the platform automatically identifies the intent expressed by the user and forwards the request to specific services and modules that generate an appropriate answer that fulfills the query. In the experimental evaluation, we evaluated both qualitative (users’ acceptance of the system, usability) as well as quantitative (time required to complete basic tasks, effectiveness of the personalization strategy) aspects of the system, and the results showed that MyrrorBot can improve the way people access online services and applications. This leads to a more effective interaction and paves the way for further development of our system.

Assessing the Attitude of the Physicians towards e-prescribing in Chennai

Electronic prescribing simply means writing the prescriptions with the support of hand held personal digital assistant and touch screen or it could be typed in using a laptop or a personal computer. E-prescribing also is referred to as a means of sending prescriptions electronically from a doctor to a pharmacist or a patient. However, in either case, there should be minimal or no usage of paper is strictly adhered to (Spooner, 2005). Although e-prescription has many benefits associated with it, the adoption rate in the country is very less. Many factors could be attributed to the slow adoption of e-prescription out of which the attitude of physicians play a major role. Therefore the study aims to assess the efficiency of using e-prescribing facility. This is a descriptive study which involves analysis of the collected data through questionnaire. Simple random technique of selecting the samples was used. Hundred physicians were approached with the help of the consultancy, out of which 90 physician responded. Survey was also conducted through mail. The result shows that majority of the physicians had positive attitude towards e-prescription. The experience of the physician and E-prescribing facility helps to spend lesser time on prescribing the drugs when compared to hand written prescribing (P<0.05). The electronic prescriptions will improve the competence of health care system, when the physicians start using it in their practice. The greatest challenge in e-prescribing is there is no standard guidelines, cost incurred, security and confidentiality of the information prescribed by the physician.

Effectiveness of Integrated Technology Apps for Supporting Healthy Food Purchasing and Consumption: A Systematic Review

A healthy diet is essential for good health and nutrition, though literature showed that there are various factors affecting the intention to purchase and consume healthy food. Technology integration is known to be useful in various aspects, but findings from studies on the efficacy of technology integration to improve healthy food consumption and purchase have largely been inconsistent. Therefore, we aimed to examine the efficacy of interventions that use technology apps to improve healthy food purchasing and consumption in adults. Relevant studies were identified through PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL, SportDiscuss and ACM Digital Library. Twenty studies were included in the systematic review. The majority of studies (n = 18) used a smartphone in the intervention, and only two studies used a personal digital assistant. The results showed that technology integration-based intervention favoured healthy changes in household food purchases, and increased consumption of healthy food and healthy eating outcomes – albeit to different extents. Overall, technology apps are convenient and user-friendly tools to encourage a change in healthy food purchase and consumption among people.

Pervasive intelligent multi-node health monitoring system for monitoring basketball players health and energy using IoT and 6G technology

Effective health monitoring of players in team sports like basketball allows for understanding external requirements and internal response concerning exercise and competition phases. The explosive growth of wireless devices stimulates the advancement of the internet-of-things (IoT) and 6G technologies, capable of connecting enormous and various “things” through wireless communications. Players face health issues while playing basketball are severe lower body lesions like ankle sprains, shortness of breath, teeth, head, fingers, and hand. To overcome these issues, in this paper, the Pervasive Intelligent Multi-node Health Monitoring System (PIMN-HMS) has been proposed for basketball player’s continuous health tracking based on IoT and 6G communication. With the aid of wearable monitoring sensors to gathers health information and monitor exercise records. The system consists of several sensor nodes, a network coordinator, which monitors physical movements and heart rate, and a personal server on a personal digital assistant using 6G networks. The numerical results have been performed, and the suggested PIMN-HMS model enhances the accuracy ratio of 96.7%, prediction ratio of 97.3%, low latency ratio of 11.2%, delay rate of 22.3%, and efficiency ratio of 98.7% compared to other existing models.

Fully mobile functional brain spectroscopy using near-infrared light and wireless networks

This thesis presents research that creates a mobile solution to monitor human brain functions during real-life activities. The solution utilizes the Internet, the Global Standard for Mobile Communication (GSM) wireless networks, Bluetooth technology, and a number of data protocols. It consists of three main parts: 1. a Bluetooth portable near-infratred light sensor, 2. a personal digital assistant (PDA), and 3. a personal computer (PC). The near real time data acquisition is performed by the sensor while mobility is provided by the GSM PDA. The data is sent over a multi-protocol stack until it reaches the final destination PC. The system provides a light-weight, tissue hemoglobin monitoring system for real-life situations not restricted to a lab.

Hubungan Penggunaan Smartphone pada Malam Hari Terhadap Kualitas Tidur Mahasiswa Program Studi Pendidikan Dokter Fakultas Kedokteran Universitas Andalas

Smartphone adalah telepon yang menggabungkan kemampuan-kemampuan canggih dan merupakan bentuk lanjutan dari Wireless Mobile Device (WMD) yang bisa berfungsi seperti komputer dengan menawarkan fitur-fitur yaitu Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), akses internet, e-mail, dan Global Positioning System (GPS). Indonesia merupakan pengguna aktif smartphone terbesar keempat di dunia setelah Cina, India, dan Amerika. Smartphone dilengkapi dengan tampilan light-emitting diode (LED) yang dapat menyebabkan penekanan produksi melatonin pada malam hari dan mempengaruhi regulasi sirkadian dari siklus tidur-bangun, sehingga mempengaruhi kualitas tidur. Tujuan: Mengetahui hubungan penggunaan smartphone pada malam hari terhadap kualitas tidur mahasiswa program studi Pendidikan Dokter Fakultas Kedokteran Universitas Andalas. Metode: Penelitian menggunakan metode analitik dengan desain cross-sectional yang dilakukan di Fakultas Kedokteran Universitas Andalas pada bulan Oktober 2019 – Juni 2020 . Teknik pengambilan sampel adalah stratified random sampling dengan jumlah total 261 sampel. Hasil: Penggunaan smartphone pada malam hari <2 jam (11,1 %), >2 jam (88,9%), kualitas tidur baik (37,9%), kualitas tidur buruk (62,1%). Hasil analisis bivariat didapatkan nilai p-value 0,024 (<0,05) yang berarti terdapat hubungan yang bermakna antara penggunaan smartphone pada malam hari terhadap kualitas tidur mahasiswa Pendidikan Dokter Fakultas Kedokteran Universitas Andalas. Simpulan: Terdapat hubungan yang bermakna antara penggunaan smartphone pada malam hari terhadap kualitas tidur mahasiswa program studi Pendidikan Dokter Fakultas Kedokteran Universitas Andalas. Kata Kunci: Smartphone, kualitas tidur.

Fully mobile functional brain spectroscopy using near-infrared light and wireless networks

This thesis presents research that creates a mobile solution to monitor human brain functions during real-life activities. The solution utilizes the Internet, the Global Standard for Mobile Communication (GSM) wireless networks, Bluetooth technology, and a number of data protocols. It consists of three main parts: 1. a Bluetooth portable near-infratred light sensor, 2. a personal digital assistant (PDA), and 3. a personal computer (PC). The near real time data acquisition is performed by the sensor while mobility is provided by the GSM PDA. The data is sent over a multi-protocol stack until it reaches the final destination PC. The system provides a light-weight, tissue hemoglobin monitoring system for real-life situations not restricted to a lab.