Thea: empowering the therapeutic alliance of children with ASD by multimedia interaction

The Therapeutic Alliance (TA) between patient and health provider (therapist or clinician) is one of the most relevant factors for the success of a therapy. In the case of people suffering from Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), the alliance is extended to all the people involved in their care (i.e., teachers, therapists, clinicians, relatives). In this paper, we propose a multimedia application named Thea for empowering the TA of children with ASD by improving the communication among the TA members, sharing guidelines, multimedia contents, and strategies to comply with challenging behaviors and progress with particular attention towards end-users who are occasional smart-users. A detailed process for empowering the TA members by enhancing the informed interaction among all of them is proposed and implemented. A vocal assistant also supports patients/caregivers and therapists in documenting their activity with the person with ASD by recording videos in a free-hand modality. After a contextual analysis based on Thematic Analysis Template, Thea has been implemented using a user-centered development approach. We performed three iterations involving the end-users. A user study is performed at the third iteration. Results of the user study revealed a positive attitude towards the application. In particular, the perception of empowerment of participants increased after the tool had been used. We also highlighted the guidelines and tools that may be adopted for empowering different kinds of patients. The first results seem to suggest that the use of Thea may increase the belief of the caregivers of a person with ASD to be able to better take care of her, in a more controlled and informed way.

Connected Hearing Devices and Audiologists: The User-Centered Development of Digital Service Innovations

Today, medical technology manufacturers enter the service market through the development of digital service innovations. In the field of audiology, these developments increasingly shift the service capacities from audiologists to manufacturers and technical systems. However, the technology-driven developments of manufacturers lack acceptance of hearing device users and undermine the important role of audiologists within the service provision. By following a user-centered design approach in order to deal with the technological and social challenges of disruptive services, we aim to develop service innovations on an integrated service platform in the field of tele-audiology. To ensure the acceptance of technology-driven service innovations among hearing device users and audiologists, we systematically integrated these actors in a participatory innovation process. With qualitative and quantitative data we identified several requirements and preferences for different service innovations in the field of tele-audiology. According to the preferences of the different actors, we proposed a service platform approach based on a connected hearing device in three pillars of application: 1) one-to-one (1:1) service innovations based on a remote fitting concept directly improve the availability of services offered by audiologists without being physically present. Based on this, 2) one-to-many (1:N) service innovations allow the use of the connected hearing device as an indirect data source for training a machine learning algorithm that empowers users through the automation of service processes. A centralized server system collects the data and performs the training of this algorithm. The optimized algorithm is provided to the connected hearing devices to perform automatic acoustic scene classification. This in turn allows optimization of the hearing devices within each acoustic scene. After the user-centered development of the different service innovations which are designed to converge on an integrated service platform, we experimentally evaluated the functionality and applicability of the system as well as the associated role models between the technical system, the hearing device users and audiologists. As a future outlook, we show potentials to use the connected hearing device for 3) cross-industry (N:M) service innovations in contexts outside the healthcare domain and give practical implications for the market launch of successful service innovations in the field of tele-audiology.

Agilität und Weltkulturerbe: Erfahrungen mit sieben Jahren agilen Methoden an der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Eine Fallstudie I/II

This series of two articles describes the introduction and establishment of agile methods at the Berlin State Library (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin) during its ongoing digital transformation. This article showcases structural factors and typical challenges that can be addressed well with agile methods and also be transferred to other organizations. The article focusses on a chronological presentation of carried-out actions and the resulting agile approaches chosen to leverage the collaborative and user-centered development of digital library services.

User-Centered Development of a Web Platform Supporting Community-Based Health Care Organizations for Older Persons in Need of Support: Qualitative Focus Group Study

Background The ongoing changes in population demographics increase the relevance of dignified aging across Europe. Community-based health care (CBHC) organizations are necessary to provide sustainable strategies for organizing care for older persons in need of support. To support the digitalization of these organizations, new business models and suitable web platforms are necessary. Objective This study, which is part of the European Active and Assisted Living (AAL) project called “ICareCoops”, aimed to explore concepts, approaches, and workflows of CBHC organizations to achieve a comprehensive understanding of extant services offered and relevant requirements to support these services with information and computer technology (ICT) solutions. Methods A qualitative study with six focus groups (FGs) with 40 participants was conducted in Switzerland and Slovenia to identify potential stakeholders’ needs and requirements for the user-centered development of a web platform. Data were collected from three different stakeholder groups: (1) older persons in need of support as care receivers, (2) significant others of older persons in need of support, and (3) managers or care providers of CBHC organizations. A semistructured interview guide with open questions was used for data collection. FG sessions were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Thematic content analysis was used to analyze the content of the FG sessions. To assist with further web platform development, the responses of the FG participants were translated into user stories to describe technical requirements. Results By analyzing the transcripts, five main categories were identified: (1) ICT usage behavior of users, (2) challenges of web platform usage, (3) content and technical requirements for the web platform, (4) form and services of CBHC organizations, and (5) rationales of CBHC organizations. The main issues identified were the need for seniors to have individual contact with the CBHC organization and the possibility to coordinate routine services via the web platform, such as ordering meals-on-wheels or booking a caregiver to accompany an older person to the doctor. Conclusions The majority of participants showed a lack of familiarity with the usage of ICT. Nevertheless, they were open-minded regarding web platform usage to facilitate workflows and to benefit CBHC organizations. Cooperatives as an organizational model demonstrate a high potential to address users’ needs. Therefore, the web platform offers an essential tool for innovative health care models in the future. Searching for care services, contacting care providers, and communicating with care providers was preferred via personal contact and seemed to be the key element for user acceptance and for the successful implementation of a web platform like “ICareCoops” to support CBHC organizations.