The Impact of the Peduli Lindungi Electronic System on Human Rights and Personal Data Protection

With the pandemic that has lasted for 2 years, the government has made efforts to reduce the spread of the Corona Virus (Covid-19). With people able to go back to travel, the government issued the Peduli Lindungi application which was designated as an application to help detect the flow of spread and limit the growth of Covid-19. However, due to the nature of the application which relies heavily on personal data and community participation, this application raises concerns and issues in the field of personal data protection and human rights. This study uses a normative juridical research method. The approach in this study uses a statutory approach. The formulation of research questions in this research is first, what is the Impact of the Peduli Lindungi Electronic System on the Protection of Personal Data? And secondly, what is the impact of the Peduli Lindungi Electronic System on Human Rights? The conclusions from the research questions include, firstly, the Peduli Lindungi Application has the potential to violate personal data for the public, and second, the Peduli Lindungi application has the potential to violate human rights. © 2023 EDP Sciences. All rights reserved.

Vaccine hesitancy and distrust: concerns of healthcare workers of Pakistani origin-a survey

Background: Vaccine acceptance can play a pivotal role towards control of COVID-19. Many healthcare workers (HCWs) have articulated safety and effectiveness concerns despite being the frontline takers of vaccination. This survey was aimed to investigate the causes of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and distrust among HCWs of Pakistani origin. Methodology: This internet-based survey was conducted on 138 HCWs of Pakistani origin from January 2021 to April 2021. Result(s): Out of a total of 138 subjects, 137 (99.3%) HCWs responded to the survey. COVID-19 vaccinations had already been administered to 101 (74%) of the respondents. Out of 36 (26.2%) unvaccinated individuals, 19 (14%) completely declined the vaccination. The prevalence of participants who distrust vaccination effectiveness and safety was 110 (80.3%), while 94 (68.6%) believed vaccine safety was compromised due to rapid development. The prevalence of HCWs who believed long-term adverse effects and that the manufacturers falsified the data was 36 (26.3%) and 22 (16%) respectively. Conclusion(s): Our survey found that fears and concerns about the efficacy of the vaccine can impasse struggles to disease transmission and vaccine distribution. Healthcare workers in Pakistan had a higher prevalence of vaccine acceptance compared to other surveys. Copyright © 2022 Faculty of Anaesthesia, Pain and Intensive Care, AFMS. All rights reserved.

Design and Implementation of an IoT-Based Healthcare Monitoring System

According to ways-to-die website, over 150,000 people die every day. And the most common cause of death, i.e., about 20% of all deaths, is heart diseases. So, the most crucial contribution from our side to lower this percentage can be to monitor the cardiac values as much as possible. There are conventional methods to measure patients' health and condition, but they are laborious;have possibilities of errors;and nocturnal monitoring has as well been very difficult. Moreover, since 2019, COVID19 has caused more than five million deaths all around the world, as stated by WHO. And it made the physical presence of doctors and caretakers almost impossible. So, we have designed an up-to-date IoT-based project that continuously monitors the patient's body temperature, heart-rate and oxygen saturation level;keep the data readings in display before the patient and in the screen of the doctor's mobile;and it also provides a non-touching handsanitizing system. The proposed design integrates NodeMCU, DS18B20 Temperature sensor, Max30100 Pulse-oximeter, and other required materials in a small box. The readings are as accurate as the conventional medical equipments while it just takes less than a minute of time to perform the whole procedure. The developed project has outperformed the conventional method by providing a safer, less complex, cost effective and faster service. © 2022 IEEE.

How Has Gamification Within Digital Platforms Affected Self-Regulated Learning Skills During the COVID-19 Pandemic? Mixed-Methods Research

Gamification systems on digital platforms are among the essential systems that can motivate learners towards achieving educational gains and goals. Self-regulated learning skills (SRLS) have become one of the most important learning requirements in the COVID-19 pandemic context so that the learner can plan and manage their learning tasks. The current research examines the impact of using Digital Platform Based Gamification (DPBG) on SRLS during the pandemic. A blended research approach based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches was used to better understand the impact of gamification on digital platforms for SRLS during the pandemic. The descriptive approach was used to analyze the previous literature and develop SRLS. The quasi-experimental approach was used to compare the first experimental group that used the DPBG (G1 -DPBG) and the second experimental group that used the same Digital Platform without Gamification (DPWG) (G2-DPWG). The phenomenological approach was used to gain a better understanding of how gamification affects SRLS. The research sample in the quantitative study consisted of 60 students from the tenth-grade students in Jeddah who were randomly distributed to the two research groups. The participants in the qualitative research were eight students who were intentionally selected from students who use gamification. A scale of SRLS was developed that included four themes: Goal Setting and Planning, Monitoring, Rehearsing and Memorizing, and Seeking Social Assistance with a total of 28 items. A qualitative tool was developed that includes a set of open-ended questions for semi-structured interviews that were carried out after completing all quantitative data collection. The quantitative results demonstrated the superiority of gamification via digital platforms in developing SRLS. The outputs of the objective analysis of the qualitative data also provided more in-depth explanations and insights from the students' perspective on the role of DPBG in enhancing SRLS during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Clinical outcomes of critically ill COVID-19 patients seen through teleicu services in Pakistan

INTRODUCTION: As the surge of COVID-19 continues, low resource settings such as Pakistan have encountered an acute shortage of ICU facilities and trained intensivists. The dearth of resources is apparent in the remote region of Northern Pakistan. Therefore, we established a tele-ICU consultation service model to address these concerns and leverage critical care capacity in these remote settings. METHODOLOGY: This study was conducted in Gilgit and Chitral secondary care hospital in Northern Pakistan. Gilgit is a 46-bedded hospital with 6 ventilators, and Chitral is a 25-bedded hospital with 3 ventilators in their ICU. The study duration is 1 year from July 2020 till June 2021. This is a centralised and decentralised hub-and-spoke tele-ICU model. The main hub is located in Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) in the metropolitan city Karachi. The distance from the main hub to the remote facilities is approximately 1800km. The tele-ICU followed a 24/7 Scheduled Care Model (periodic consultations on a predetermined time) and Responsive Care Model (unscheduled teleconsultations prompted by an alert) to provide care. The mode of communication is teleconference calls, video calls, and text messaging. This service is provided by 24/7 AKUH trained intensivists. Patient information such as demographics, clinical course, teleconsultation interventions, and management were obtained from these remote ICUs. RESULTS: A total of 157 patients presented to the tele-ICU from Pakistan's remote regions of Gilgit and Chitral. Of these, 60% were male (n=95). 86% (n=135) patients presented with COVID-19. 64% (n=97) patients had comorbidities with hypertension (47%, n=46) being the most common. Invasive mechanical ventilation was provided to 12% (n=18) of the tele-ICU patients, while 62% patients (n=98) received noninvasive mechanical ventilation interventions. Average length of stay of patients in the tele-ICU was 9 days with a range of 1-41 days. 72% (n=113) patients were discharged home from the hospital. Tele-ICU mortality was 29% (n=44). CONCLUSION: We utilized a peer-to-peer tele-consult model to support critical care services in Northern Pakistan. The survival rate achieved by this model is comparable to national and international hospital published data. This was possible through use of multimodal information technology in Pakistan.

Health consequences during pandemic: A review

COVID-19 pandemic has brought many changes in daily life. The pandemic has affected all populations in the world and lead to WHO calling for the global action to minimize the spread of this infection. Social distancing, work from home and movement control order are some of the strategies implemented to mitigate this infectious outbreak. Health consequences on non-communicable disease, mental health, social crisis among schoolchildren and burnout among healthcare providers have been affected during the pandemic. This review will provide a brief explanation on these health consequences of COVID-19 to the population. Future strategies that can be implemented during pandemic will also be discussed in the review. © 2021 UPM Press. All rights reserved.

Delivering critical care in remote and resource-limited settings through a neoteric tele-ICU service: A COVID-19 experience from Pakistan

Background: Since February 2020, there have been 825,519 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 17,957 fatalities across Pakistan. The number of ICU beds in Pakistan is approximately 2166, a ratio of 0.7 beds per 100,000 population. Critical care resources are concentrated in metropolitan cities with limited availability in rural areas. These gross shortages have escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving large parts of the country without access to skilled personnel or ICU beds. The Aga Khan University established a free 24/7 teleICU consultation service to rapidly increase access to trained personnel during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: The tele-ICU service adheres to a Scheduled and Responsive Care Model delivered through a centralized and decentralized structure. Using two-way audio-visual technology, the tele-ICU leverages critical care expertise and connects to clinical teams in rural and remote hospital settings. Endto- end encrypted Zoom and WhatsApp applications or telephone calls are utilized. Initially, only COVID-19 patients were consulted;however, coverage was broadened to include surgical and medical patients requiring intensive care. Results: Between June 2020 and April 2021, 1709 teleconsultations have been conducted on 404 patients. These include 339 COVID-19 patients, 231 of which were severe and critically ill. An estimated 20,394 minutes of consultative services have been provided covering 26 hospitals across 4 provinces. The mean call duration of each teleconsultation was 13.29 (1-60) minutes. The major mode of communication was Zoom (45.58%) followed by Telephone (43.30%) and WhatsApp (11.12%). The overall hospital discharge outcome for the teleICU is 58.27% with a mortality rate of 29.13%. The remaining patients (12.60%) were transferred or left against medical advice. Conclusion: To combat the insufficient critical care capacity, Aga Khan University implemented a novel tele-ICU service to provide an innovative solution for coordination of care and increase availability of intensivists in remote settings across Pakistan.

20th International Workshop on Data Mining in Bioinformatics (BIOKDD 2021)

The goal of the 20th International Workshop on Data Mining in Bioinformatics (BIOKDD 2021) is to encourage KDD researchers to tackle the numerous problems and challenges in Bioinformatics using Data Mining technologies. Based on the organizers' expertise and the BIOKDD communities, BIOKDD 2021 features the theme of "Artificial Intelligence in Medicine". This topic focuses on the use of machine learning and data mining techniques for the analysis of large amounts of heterogeneous, complex, biological and medical data, with a particular focus on deep learning methods that have seen rapid advance and wider adoption in Bioinformatics (e.g., DeepVariant, AlphaFold 2). We also particularly welcome COVID-19 related research. The key goal is to accelerate the convergence between Data Mining and Bioinformatics communities to expedite discoveries in basic biology, medicine and healthcare. © 2021 Owner/Author.

Preliminary study on readiness to teach online due to covid-19 pandemic among university academician in Malaysia

—The COVID-19 pandemic has prevented close engagement with students to avoid the spread of the virus. Hence, the transition from the traditional classroom methods to fully online teaching mode is essential. Academicians need to be equipped with the necessary devices and technical skills to conduct live video meetings (synchronous) and create recorded video (asynchronous). In this study, we have conducted a survey to assess the readiness of the academicians at the Center for Foundation Studies in Science, University of Malaya to teach online. 88 academicians participated in this study which consists of 68 local staff and 20 Japanese staff. The survey was conducted using Google Form, which focused on three main aspects of readiness. They were hardware readiness, software readiness and behavior (which include experiences, opinions, and expectation on online teaching). The results show that necessary equipment to conduct video meetings for lectures and tutorials such as webcam, microphone and should be provided. Continuous training should be provided to increase academicians’ competencies in using the applications used. We hope that this research will provide some insights on the current condition that our academicians are having, what is the problem that they are facing and to plan ahead. © 2021 by the authors.