ABSTRACT
Typical management of chronic conditions is through sporadic office visits. But health indicators (such as blood pressure) can fluctuate significantly within a day. The infrequent office visits, however, offer the provider little information about the medical history of the patient between office visits resulting in delayed and sometimes inappropriate interventions. Use of mobile health (mHealth) technology in clinical care can help make appropriate interventions at the patient's location before the worsening condition leads to costlier consequences. mHealth enables patients to remotely upload measurements and providers to continuously monitor these measurements and intervene if necessary. mHealth, therefore, results in bidirectional information flow between providers and patients, thereby reducing information asymmetry. Our study examines redesigning of chronic care delivery using mHealth. It is important to make sure the redesigned delivery process is both efficient (reduces cost) and effective (improves patient health). In this paper, we first present a big picture of the redesigned care delivery process. We then show how this delivery process can improve patient health by analyzing a panel dataset of 1627 patients. We examine the relationship between use of mobile health applications and quality of care delivery for hypertensive patients. We observe the blood pressure readings to decrease with frequency of app usage and time since adoption. With the use of mHealth apps increasing in the post COVID-19 era, our analysis indicates an efficient use of physician's time and an increased role for support-staff under the supervision of the physician. The chronic care delivery process can therefore be redesigned with the help of mHealth, improving patient health and reducing cost for both patients and providers. © 2023 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, increasing attention has been paid to designing a cold chain logistics mechanism to ensure the quality of vaccine delivery. In this study, a cold chain digital twins-based risk analysis model is constructed to handle and monitor the vaccine delivery process with a high level of reliability and traceability. The model integrates the Internet of Things (IoT) and digital twins to acquire data on environmental conditions and shipment movements and connect physical cold chain logistics to the digital world. Through the simulation of cold chain logistics in a virtual environment, the risk levels relating to physical operations at a certain forecast horizon can be predicted beforehand, to prevent a 'broken' cold chain. The result of this investigation will reshape the cold chain in the digital age, benefit society in terms of sustainability and environmental impact, and hence contribute to the development of cold chain logistics in Hong Kong. © 2023 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Last-mile delivery services have become ubiquitous in the recent past. Delivery services for food (eg., DoorDash, Grubhub, Uber Eats) and groceries (eg., Instacart, Cornershop) earned a combined revenue of $25B in 2020, and are expected to exceed $72B in revenues by 2025. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the growth of such services by making their value proposition even more attractive. The lower risk of contact coupled with the convenience of ordering from the comfort of their homes led to widespread customer adoption. Even so, most last-mile delivery services are not profitable. The high cost of delivery is cited as the major cause of losses. Thus, analyzing the factors influencing delivery costs is crucial for understanding the long-term viability of these services. The pooling of orders is a critical source of efficiency in last-mile delivery. We propose a queuing-based spatial model for the delivery process to analyze the value created by pooling. We demonstrate how the trade-off between delivery times and the cost of delivery, mediated by the extent of pooling, dictates which services will be economically viable. Our simulation study of a typical grocery delivery service in Los Angeles, California suggests that delivery times of less than 1 hour are unprofitable for most regions in the US. We find that driver wages account for 90% of the delivery cost. We also discuss the potential impact of technological innovations such as automated delivery and labor regulations on the profitability of last-mile delivery services. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Although home caregivers have been increasingly recognized as essential contributors to healthcare delivery, their perceived difficulties and requisites remain underexposed. With the emergence of telehealth adoption during Covid-19, caregivers are forced to be part of this technology. However, little attention has been given to their perceptions of telehealth technologies. This study explores the factors that impact caregivers' satisfaction with telehealth. We found that caregivers who thought that telehealth makes them use their time better are more likely to be satisfied with using it during Covid-19 (OR= 2.33 [1.89-15.35], P=0.006). In addition, the more caregivers thought telehealth helps them avoid problems of parking, driving, and delaying treatment, the more they were satisfied with their online visits. An increase in telehealth use due to Covid-19 made caregivers more satisfied with using it. Efforts to improve telehealth should not only focus on the design of the technology used and its usefulness. They, however, need to consider caregivers as part of the healthcare delivery process and adapt the technology to their needs. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Greenhouse gases emissions and packaging waste of online shopping pollution in the delivery process getting critical in recent years, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. To reduce the pollution impact of online shopping on the environment from the perspective of the user, this research was meant to be conducted. Survey methodology is suggested for data gathering in this research follow by stratified sampling to identify the targeted users. In this research paper, the implementation of an eco-friendly online shopping process is justified for discovering the value of the proposed system. The proposed system is to provide an eco-friendlier delivery option to the online shopping consumer and convey the knowledge to support the decision they make. The proposed system was looking forward to being implemented in all e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Lazada to maximize the value outcome of it to the environment. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Pharmaceuticals is an industry of paramount importance considering the present day scenarios taking into account the evolving variants of the COVID-19 virus. It holds the cards in diagnosis, control and treatment of any disease. Therefore accuracy and precision of the medicinal administration is critical in treatment. The revolutionary and immeasurable capabilities and potential of application of robotics in health-care industry have proven to attain perfection and raise the bar of efficiency and quality of health-care theoretically and practically worldwide. The interdisciplinary characters of robotics have contributed limitless dominance in the field broadening the quality standards and also expedite the discovery and delivery process of specific drug formulary. The objective of this project is to design and develop a prototype of drug delivery robot that fetches the specified drug from the stockpile that have been categorized appropriately by adopting a simple pick-and-place operation by the robot to fetch any drug that has been specified to it from the source of storage. The input specified will be the prescribed medicine and the robot autonomously navigates fetches the medicine from the source of storage. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
During the COVID-19 outbreak, most face-to-face teaching and practice-based learning placements were suspended. Universities provided ongoing health and social care education, including interprofessional education, using online technology. Focusing on changes in the delivery of interprofessional education, this second article in a series on interprofessional education provides an international perspective through facilitators' case reports. It considers the key factors that enabled a rapid shift from face-to-face to online interprofessional education, and the key aspects that had to change. The significant changes reported from literature and case reports reflect on remote and online learning, the duration of education sessions, individual and team learning aspects and facilitation skills. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of British Journal of Midwifery is the property of Mark Allen Holdings Limited and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)