Current Issue : January - March Volume : 2018 Issue Number : 1 Articles : 5 Articles
Sensors, combined with intelligent systems, can enhance the quality of the Telecare services deployed at home, improving the\ncapability for detection of risk situations and the users care.However, there are no specific studies that evaluate this kind of Telecare\nsystems by professionals that work in a Telecare center. This paper shows the results of an assessment of the current satisfaction\nand future expectations of the Telecare professionals when using advanced Telecare solutions deployed at home. The study has\nbeen conducted through structured interviews with 24 Telecare experts working in the Telecare center of the Spanish Red Cross for\nattending alarmcalls for elderly people.Theinterviews had the support of the TALISMANTelecare system that is a next-generation\nTelecare service deployed in the accessible digital home of Universidad Polit�´ecnica de Madrid. All participants showed overall\nsatisfaction with TALISMAN and their intention to use it. Results showed that perceived usefulness is an important influencing\nfactor to the intention to use it and the Quality of the Information is a key factor in the perceived usefulness. TALISMAN, as an\nexample of a next-generation Telecare system, is seen as a tool with high potential for improving the care of elderly people at home....
New smart technologies and the internet of things increasingly play a key role in healthcare\nand wellness, contributing to the development of novel healthcare concepts. These technologies\nenable a comprehensive view of an individual�s movement and mobility, potentially supporting\nhealthy living as well as complementing medical diagnostics and the monitoring of therapeutic\noutcomes. This overview article specifically addresses smart shoes, which are becoming one such\nsmart technology within the future internet of health things, since the ability to walk defines large\naspects of quality of life in a wide range of health and disease conditions. Smart shoes offer the\npossibility to support prevention, diagnostic work-up, therapeutic decisions, and individual disease\nmonitoring with a continuous assessment of gait and mobility. This overview article provides the\ntechnological as well as medical aspects of smart shoes within this rising area of digital health\napplications, and is designed especially for the novel reader in this specific field. It also stresses the\nneed for closer interdisciplinary interactions between technological and medical experts to bridge the\ngap between research and practice. Smart shoes can be envisioned to serve as pervasive wearable\ncomputing systems that enable innovative solutions and services for the promotion of healthy living\nand the transformation of health care....
Background: Traditional gender roles result in women lagging behind men in the use of modern technologies,\nespecially in developing countries. Although there is rapid uptake of mobile phone use in Bangladesh, investigation\nof gender differences in the ownership, access and use of mobile phones in general and mHealth in particular has\nbeen limited. This paper presents gender differentials in the ownership of mobile phones and knowledge of\navailable mHealth services in a rural area of Bangladesh.\nMethods: We interviewed 4915 randomly selected respondents aged 18 years and above. Associations between gender\nand knowledge of available mHealth services, use of existing mHealth services and intentions to use mHealth services in\nthe future were examined by multivariate logistic regression analysis, controlling for the effect of categorised covariates.\nResults: Of the 4915 respondents to the survey, 61.8% of men (1213/1964) and 34.4% of women (1015/2951) owned a\nmobile phone. For men, mobile phone ownership was highest among those aged 18ââ?¬â??29 years (n = 663, 76.3%), and\nfor women among those aged 30ââ?¬â??39 years (n = 825, 44.7%). A higher proportion of men owned phones compared to\nwomen, irrespective of socioeconomic status (SES) as indicated by asset index (p < 0.001). Although mobile phone\nownership on average was lower among women, they were more likely to share their mobile phone with their family\nmembers (19.7%) compared to men (11.6%, p < 0.001). Greater number of men were more likely to be aware of the\nuse of mobile phones for healthcare compared to women (38.5% vs 26.5%, p < 0.001). Knowledge about available\nmHealth services was lower among women than men; however, intention to use mHealth services in the future was\nhigh for both genders, irrespective of age, education and socioeconomic status.\nConclusions: Compared to men, women are less likely to own a mobile phone and less aware of available mHealth\nservices, despite high intention to use mHealth among both genders. To optimise the use of mHealth services and to\nachieve equity of use, uptake strategies should target women, with a focus on the poorer and less educated groups....
A scoping review was conducted tomap the research evidence on the use of videoconferencing for remote health care provision for\nolder adults in care homes. The review aimed to identify the nature and extent of the existing evidence base. Databases used were\nEmbase,Medline,Web of Science, and Cochrane Library Reviews. The review identified 26 articles for inclusion, of which 14 were\ncase studies, making the most used study design. Papers described videoconferencing as being used for assessment, management\nof health care, clinical support, and diagnosis, with eight of the papers reporting the use of videoconferencing for more than one\nclinical purpose. A further eight papers reported the use of videoconferencing for assessment alone. The literature reported the\ncollection of various types of data, with 12 papers describing the use of both qualitative and quantitative data. The outcomes mainly\naddressed staff satisfaction (...
Background: The advent of telemedicine has allowed physicians to deliver medical treatment to patients from a distance. Mobile\napps such as WhatsApp Messenger, an instant messaging service, came as a novel concept in all fields of social life, including\nmedicine. The use of instant messaging services has been shown to improve communication within medical teams by providing\nmeans for quick teleconsultation, information sharing, and starting treatment as soon as possible.\nObjective: The aim of this study was to perform a comprehensive systematic review of present literature on the use of the\nWhatsApp Messenger app as an adjunctive health care tool for medical doctors.\nMethods: Searches were performed in PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library using the term ââ?¬Å?whatsapp*ââ?¬Â in articles\npublished before January 2016. A bibliography of all relevant original articles that used the WhatsApp Messenger app was created.\nThe level of evidence of each study was determined according to the Oxford Levels of Evidence ranking system produced by the\nOxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine. The impact and the indications of WhatsApp Messenger are discussed in order to\nunderstand the extent to which this app currently functions as an adjunctive tool for telemedicine.\nResults: The database search identified a total of 30 studies in which the term ââ?¬Å?whatsapp*ââ?¬Â was used. Each articleââ?¬â?¢s list of\nreferences was evaluated item-by-item. After literature reviews, letters to the editor, and low-quality studies were excluded, a\ntotal of 10 studies were found to be eligible for inclusion. Of these studies, 9 had been published in the English language and 1\nhad been published in Spanish. Five were published by medical doctors.\nConclusions: The pooled data presents compelling evidence that the WhatsApp Messenger app is a promising system, whether\nused as a communication tool between health care professionals, as a means of communication between health care professionals\nand the general public, or as a learning tool for providing health care information to professionals or to the general population.\nHowever, high-quality and properly evaluated research is needed, as are improvements in descriptions of the methodology and\nthe study processes. These improvements will allow WhatsApp Messenger to be categorically defined as an effective telemedicine\ntool in many different fields of health care....
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