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Diverse countries throughout the world were quar-antined due to the novel pandemic known as COVID-19, even after vaccination,. As a result of this grim circumstance, most socioeconomic and political spheres have encountered deep crisis and from there people have experienced stress, anxiety, depression, and even suicide, In this paper, we propose a smart pervasive conversational agent for psychological assistance during and after COVID-19 quarantine, which could converse with a regular citizen to raise awareness of the genuine threat of the outbreak and the importance of vaccination. Our proposed conversational agent could be able to recognize and manage stress and anxiety using natural language understanding (NLU) and international stress and anxiety scales. The messages given by our agent and its mode of communication may help to alleviate anxiety following the world's lockdown. Our agent's comment threads and management styles may be able to soothe people's worry during the world's lockdown. Our proposed approach is a mobile healthcare service with three interdependent units: an input processing (IP) that performs natural language understanding (NL), a Storage that stores every interaction, and a response manager (RM) that controls the responses of our conversational agent. © 2022 IEEE.
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The twin focus on healthcare and digital transformation during the past two decades, which was intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic to an unanticipated level, has resulted in the mushrooming of literature in the area. While this has enriched the available insights, it has also created a certain amount of confusion, and there is now a need to make sense of what has been achieved before undertaking research that contributes more meaningfully to theory and practice in the area. Motivated by this need, we systematically analyze and evaluate the existing empirical research on the topic of disruptive digital innovations in healthcare. We followed a five-step approach to identify and analyze 42 congruent studies spread across domains, publishers, and geographies to achieve our objective. The outcome of our review is a conceptual framework that could serve to motivate and support future research. First, we presented a bibliographic sketch of the literature to clarify the milieu and descriptives. Next, we performed content analysis to organize the existing evidence into meaningful streams. Towards this end, we followed a structured approach to the review by defining the scope through a matrix–form conceptual framework to guide thematic analysis. Accordingly, we reported on the findings from three perspectives—theoretical, enabler, and barrier—anchoring them in four innovation implementations/outcomes: products, services, processes, and business models. Our analysis suggests that existing scholarship has drawn upon various interdisciplinary theories to map the enablers as well as the barriers that may inhibit the adoption and usage of these disruptive innovations. Based on the findings of our structured approach, we offer useful recommendations to advance research and practice in this field.
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With the emergence of COVID-19, mobile health applications have increasingly become crucial in contact tracing, information dissemination, and pandemic control in general. Apps warn users if they have been close to an infected person for sufficient time, and therefore potentially at risk. The distance measurement accuracy heavily affects the probability estimation of being infected. Most of these applications make use of the electromagnetic field produced by Bluetooth Low Energy technology to estimate the distance. Nevertheless, radio interference derived from numerous factors, such as crowding, obstacles, and user activity can lead to wrong distance estimation, and, in turn, to wrong decisions. Besides, most of the social distance-keeping criteria recognized worldwide plan to keep a different distance based on the activity of the person and on the surrounding environment. In this study, in order to enhance the performance of the COVID-19 tracking apps, a human activity classifier based on Convolutional Deep Neural Network is provided. In particular, the raw data coming from the accelerometer sensor of a smartphone are arranged to form an image including several channels (HAR-Image), which is used as fingerprints of the in-progress activity that can be used as an additional input by tracking applications. Experimental results, obtained by analyzing real data, have shown that the HAR-Images are effective features for human activity recognition. Indeed, the results on the k-fold cross-validation and obtained by using a real dataset achieved an accuracy very close to 100%.
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Background: Telehealth has seen breakthroughs in many fields of medicine, but utilization remains limited in orthopedic sports medicine. The purpose of this investigation was to compare patient satisfaction, duration of care, and overall patient experiences with telehealth and in-person clinical visits for sports-related injuries. Methods: A cross-sectional survey study was conducted at an orthopedic sports medicine clinic during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic between March and November 2020. Anonymous electronic surveys were used to record patient responses and statistical comparisons were drawn through two-sample t-tests. Results: A total of 175 patients (82 telehealth vs. 93 in-person) consented to participate in this investigation, and all were included in the final analysis. The overall composite satisfaction score, when compared between the two groups, did not differ (p = 0.63). Duration of care was significantly longer in the 93 patients who had in-person clinical visits as compared with the 82 patients who had telehealth visits (61/93: >31 min vs. 75/82: <30 min; p < 0.001). Finally, of the 82 patients who had telehealth, 3 respondents said they were "very unlikely" and "unlikely" to request another virtual clinical visit and/or recommend this mode of health care delivery to friends or family. Of the 93 patients had in-person clinical visits, only 15 respondents stated they were uninterested in telehealth under any circumstance. Conclusion: Most patients presenting to an orthopedic sports medicine clinic are open to telehealth, recognize its utility, and believe it to be just as comparable with in-person clinical visits. Level of Evidence: IV.
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Integration of mobile health (mHealth) applications (apps) into chronic lung disease management is becoming increasingly popular. MHealth apps may support adoption of self-management behaviors to assist people in symptoms control and quality of life enhancement. However, mHealth apps' designs, features, and content are inconsistently reported, making it difficult to determine which were the effective components. Therefore, this review aims to summarize the characteristics and features of published mHealth apps for chronic lung diseases. A structured search strategy across five databases (CINAHL, Medline, Embase, Scopus and Cochrane) was performed. Randomized controlled trials investigating interactive mHealth apps in adults with chronic lung disease were included. Screening and full-text reviews were completed by three reviewers using Research Screener and Covidence. Data extraction followed the mHealth Index and Navigation Database (MIND) Evaluation Framework (https://mindapps.org/), a tool designed to help clinicians determine the best mHealth apps to address patients' needs. Over 90,000 articles were screened, with 16 papers included. Fifteen distinct apps were identified, 8 for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (53%) and 7 for asthma (46%) self-management. Different resources informed app design approaches, accompanied with varying qualities and features across studies. Common reported features included symptom tracking, medication reminders, education, and clinical support. There was insufficient information to answer MIND questions regarding security and privacy, and only five apps had additional publications to support their clinical foundation. Current studies reported designs and features of self-management apps differently. These app design variations create challenges in determining their effectiveness and suitability for chronic lung disease self-management. Registration: PROSPERO (CRD42021260205). Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13721-023-00419-0.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the importance of health literacy in disseminating information on health in a non-contact society. This study focused on examining the acceptance capacity by older adults of smart devices in Korea and investigating the potential differences between men and women in terms of e-health literacy and technology-use anxiety. The study included 1369 respondents who were adults over 50 years of age and used welfare centers, public health centers, senior citizen centers, and exercise centers in Seoul and Incheon. An online survey was conducted from 1 June 2021 to 24 June 2021. The study found that the older adults' low levels of digital literacy could limit their access to health information and negatively impact their health. The difference between men and women in terms of technology-use anxiety was statistically significant, with the latent mean for men being higher than that for women. The effect sizes of the potential mean differences were found to be at a medium level for e-health literacy and a significant level for technology-use anxiety. With Korea's aging population and the need for the continuous management of chronic diseases among older adults, it is essential to discuss internet-based health information for disease maintenance and treatment.
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Today, social and healthcare systems at a global level are facing constant challenges dictated by an increasing mismatch between the demand for care services and the supply of human and economic resources. Such a situation has been exacerbated in the past two years by the Covid-19 pandemic. This has led to an increase in the leverage of digitalisation, which has proved to be a crucial tool for the development and application of new organisational models at both hospital and territorial levels, thus addressing the various criticalities already present in the system. In this sense, the Virtual Hospital has emerged as a potential model for increasing effectiveness and efficiency in delivering sociomedical services. Starting from these premises, an EFTE (estimate, feedback, talk, estimate) approach was used to acquire an expert consensus within a multidisciplinary panel of academics and healthcare managers of the Veneto Region in Italy. This article reports the expert opinion on the possible application of the Virtual Hospital model in the national context, starting from the existing international evidence and good practices, highlighting the potential advantages and barriers to its implementation. Furthermore, the article analyses the most relevant areas of investment for the development of intangible assets and the acquisition of tangible assets necessary for its implementation.
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While the global health crisis was not responsible for the creation of virtual environments, the COVID-19 pandemic has spawned increased interest in the use of virtual technologies in the workplace and beyond. The current review highlights some of the methods, modalities, and outcomes of the pivot from in-person (offline) therapeutic interactions to the mode of telehealth (online) strategies. Global social-distancing mandates were especially troubling for mental health clients accustomed to in-person counseling and psychotherapy. Panic, fear, and isolation only compounded the reality of health and financial concerns. Lessons about the advantages of telehealth therapies during the most recent global health crisis, will help prepare us all for the next Disease X event. The primary aim of this brief report is to inform the reader about recent research on the advantages of telehealth modalities. In particular, an examination of online technologies in the midst of a Disease X milieu (i.e., COVID-19) was explored. While the current review is far from exhaustive, research in general should leave us optimistic about the "new normal" of utilizing online communication strategies in mental health and beyond. While a Disease X event did not directly lead to the creation of virtual meetings, emerging research is beginning to enlighten the positive consequences of making the pivot from offline to online therapeutic interventions.
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Professionals who work in clinical sexology intervene in situations related to mental health, such as sexual dysfunctions and marital conflicts, often with vulnerable populations, e.g., people with chronic illnesses or trans people. In this work, we wanted to understand the perceptions these professionals have about using Internet interventions and how they perceive-based on their COVID-related experience and the reflections it brought about non-face-to-face interventions-the use of online interventions. During the first lockdown due to COVID-19 in Portugal, we used an online survey and collected answers from 39 Portuguese sexual health professionals to open questions about the use of Internet interventions. The data were analyzed following the summative content analysis procedures. Our results showed that sexual health professionals had several difficulties in clinical practice during the lockdown period, such as the perception that sexuality moved to the backseat in people's lives. Even so, they stated that Internet interventions have several advantages, such as easy accessibility and excellent promotion of social justice. However, disadvantages were also pointed out. The current study allowed us to understand clinicians' perception of the impact of the pandemic on sexual healthcare access and brought recommendations for good practice of sexual medicine with e-health.
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COVID-19 is highly infectious and has been extensively spread worldwide, with approximately 651 million definite cases crosswise the globe including Pakistan. At that era of pandemic where patients are not able to approach a doctor for even the routine checkups, in such curial situation even normal disease checkups are ignored by many families due to pandemic situations, those diseases may lead to be a perilous disease are results of it. Human disorders portray scenarios that even disturb or permanently cutoff the essential functions of a body parts. Consequently, the aim is to transform raw health data potential into actionable insights to applying the promising outcomes of Body Sensor Network (BSN) and State-of-Art Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques to get proper medicine allocation to the particular health state of patient. In this paper the different techniques of Deep Learning and Machine Learning introduced to predict the actual medicine for the specific health state of patient according to data from the BSN. Experiments have been conducted on large dataset which shepherd it into 16 states of patient's health which will allotted to AI model to predict the medicine accordingly to the health state of patient. Experimental results show the 87.46% by Random Forest, 92.74% by K-Nearest Neighbors, 74.57% by Naive Bayes, 94.41% by Extreme Gradient Boost, 84.88% by Multi-Layer Perceptron in terms of precision of model training in event of classification. © 2023 IEEE.
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The COVID-19 pandemic and the policy responses adopted to curtail it have drastically altered how health services are delivered around the globe. To enable the public to continue accessing health care, e-health innovations have become the most viable tool to provide convenient, timely, effective and safe care, while reducing the spread of the virus. This paper utilized data from existing literature to explore the benefits and challenges of implementing e-health technologies in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) amid this pandemic. Evidence suggests that these technologies have the potential to strengthen public health systems in SSA as they have in First World countries. However, there are a number of challenges that need to be addressed first in order to realize the full promises of e-health on the continent. The paper proposes that African governments should come together and implement similar e-health policies, share software, expertise and other critical ICT infrastructure as it can result in the successful implementation of e-health innovations, while reducing the financial burden associated with their set up.
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Adolescent mental health and well-being have been adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this preregistered longitudinal study, we evaluated whether adolescents' well-being improved after playing the multiplayer serious game app Grow It! During the first lockdown (May-June 2020), 1282 Dutch adolescents played the Grow It! app (age = 16.67, SD = 3.07, 68% girls). During the second lockdown (December-May 2020 onwards), an independent cohort of 1871 adolescents participated (age = 18.66, SD = 3.70, 81% girls). Adolescents answered online questionnaires regarding affective and cognitive well-being, depressive symptoms, anxiety, and impact of COVID-19 at baseline. Three to six weeks later, the baseline questionnaire was repeated and user experience questions were asked (N = 462 and N = 733 for the first and second cohort). In both cohorts, affective and cognitive well-being increased after playing the Grow It! app (t = - 6.806, p < 0.001; t = - 6.77, p < 0.001; t = - 6.12, p < 0.001; t = - 5.93, p < 0.001; Cohen's d range 0.20-0.32). At the individual level, 41-53% of the adolescents increased in their affective or cognitive well-being. Adolescents with higher risk profiles (i.e., more depressive symptoms, lower atmosphere at home, and more COVID-19 impact) improved more strongly in their well-being. Positive user evaluations and app engagement were unrelated to changes in affective and cognitive well-being. This proof-of-concept study tentatively suggests that Grow It! supported adolescents during the pandemic.
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PurposeTaking a business lens of telehealth, this article aims to review and provide a state-of-the-art overview of telehealth research.Design/methodology/approachThis research conducts a systematic literature review using the scientific procedures and rationales for systematic literature reviews (SPAR-4-SLR) protocol and a collection of bibliometric analytical techniques (i.e. performance analysis, keyword co-occurrence, keyword clustering and content analysis).FindingsUsing performance analysis, this article unpacks the publication trend and the top contributing journals, authors, institutions and regions of telehealth research. Using keyword co-occurrence and keyword clustering, this article reveals 10 major themes underpinning the intellectual structure of telehealth research: design and development of personal health record systems, health information technology (HIT) for public health management, perceived service quality among mobile health (m-health) users, paradoxes of virtual care versus in-person visits, Internet of things (IoT) in healthcare, guidelines for e-health practices and services, telemonitoring of life-threatening diseases, change management strategy for telehealth adoption, knowledge management of innovations in telehealth and technology management of telemedicine services. The article proposes directions for future research that can enrich our understanding of telehealth services.Originality/valueThis article offers a seminal state-of-the-art overview of the performance and intellectual structure of telehealth research from a business perspective.
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The aim of this research is to describe the use of telemedicine applied to patients characterised by a particular state of illness, which often drives them toward a frail and chronic status, in a systematic manner. This work employed the Tranfield approach to carry out a systematic literature review (SLR), in order to provide an efficient and high-quality method for identifying and evaluating extensive studies. The methodology was pursued step by step, analysing keywords, topics, journal quality to arrive at a set of relevant open access papers that was analysed in detail. The same papers were compared to each other and then, they were categorised according to significant metrics, also evaluating technologies and methods employed. Through our systematic review we found that most of the patients involved in telemedicine programs agreed with this service model and the clinical results appeared encouraging. Findings suggested that telemedicine services were appreciated by patients, they increased the access to care and could be a better way to face emergencies and pandemics, lowering overall costs and promoting social inclusion.Copyright © 2022 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.
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The COVID-19 pandemic severely affected people of all ages, particularly affecting how they adapted themselves to the new normal lifestyle. However, these effects were especially observed in the older adults. Subsequently, the purpose of this study was to develop e-health literacy indicators for older Thai adults in adjusting to live with the new normal lifestyle. In addition, this study collected data to empirically test the hypothesized model with e-health literacy indicators model for older Thai adults. Respondents of the study were 410 older Thai adults, living or working in Bangkok and its vicinity. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were performed to validate the factor structures obtained by EFA. These factor structures were validated through the first order of CFA;and the indicators and components found were: 1) media and information literacy component, with 19 indicators;2) computer and social media literacy component, with 12 indicators;3) COVID-19 literacy component, with 9 indicators;4) healthcare literacy component, with 11 indicators;and 5) health risk literacy component, with 5 indicators. The second order of CFA proved that the e-health literacy indicators model had an acceptable fit with Chisquare/ df = 2.41, RMSEA = 0.06, GFI = 0.95, NFI = 0.99, CN = 204.13. These findings potentially contribute towards facilitating the ease of living for older Thai adults, capable of using social media literately on a daily basis while maintaining personal self-care standards in accordance with the recognized new normal guidelines. © Behavioral Science Research Institute
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Telemedicine has become widespread during the covid 19 pandemic. This chapter discusses the use of telemedicine for spine care and emphasizes physical examination capabilities using telemedicine. © The Author(s), 2022. All rights reserved.
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Nowadays, there is an increasing demand for cloud-based remote clinical services, both for diagnosis and monitoring. The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically amplified this need. E-government programs should quickly go towards the expansion of this type of services, also to avoid that people (especially elderly) renounce treatment or adequate healthcare. However, to be effective, latency between IoT medical devices and the cloud should be reduced as much as possible. For this reason, fog computing appears the best approach, as part of the elaboration is moved closer to the user. However, some privacy threats arise. Indeed, these services can be delivered only based on secure digital identity and authentication systems, but the intermediate fog layer should learn nothing about the identity of users and the link among different service requests. In this paper, we propose a concrete solution to the above issue by leveraging eIDAS-compliant digital identity and by including a cryptographic protocol to provide anonymity and unlinkability of user's access to fog servers. Copyright © 2023 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.
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BACKGROUND: Health literacy and self-efficacy related to COVID-19 pandemic management are closely linked. Therefore, synthesis of relevant evidence regarding the positive aspects of health literacy and health-promoting protective measures among individuals during COVID-19 pandemic is necessary. OBJECTIVES: To determine the influence of e-health literacy and health-promoting coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) protective behaviors on the spread of infection during the COVID-19 pandemic. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, PubMed, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library databases, as well as PROSPERO and ClinicalTrials.gov registry platforms were searched for eligible literature published from January 2020 to July 2022. Studies were included based on predefined Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcomes and Study design (PICOS) criteria, and a summary of each study was prepared. To estimate the effect size, the standardized mean difference (SMD) of the evaluated parameters, e-health literacy and health-promoting COVID-19 protective behaviors was extracted. Using RevMan and MedCalc software, a meta-analysis was performed. RESULTS: Twelve eligible studies involving a total of 9854 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-infected individuals were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled SMD for e-health literacy was 40.39 (95% confidence interval (95% CI): 28.14-52.63), with the following heterogeneity values: Tau2 of 396.80, ÷2 of 669.48, degrees of freedom (df) of 11, I2 of 98%, Z value of 6.47, and p < 0.001. Similarly, the pooled SM for COVID-19 protective behaviors was 15.90 (95% CI: 10.96-20.84) with Tau2 of 55.25, ÷2 of 252.92, df of 11, I2 of 98%, Z of 6.31, and p < 0.001. CONCLUSION: This study confirmed that e-health literacy and health-promoting COVID-19 protective behaviors have a strong positive impact on preventing the spread of COVID-19 infection and on its effective management. We recommend that interventions and applicable policies for promoting such e-literacy programs and preventative measures be given a high level of consideration.
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Digital technology is becoming increasingly common in routine nursing practice. The adoption of digital technologies such as video calling, and other digital communication, has been hastened by the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Use of these technologies has the potential to revolutionise nursing practice, leading to potentially more accurate patient assessment, monitoring processes and improved safety in clinical areas. This article outlines key concepts related to the digitalisation of health care and the implications for nursing practice. The aim of this article is to encourage nurses to consider the implications, opportunities and challenges associated with the move towards digitalisation and advances in technology. Specifically, this means understanding key digital developments and innovations associated with healthcare provision and appreciating the implications of digitalisation for the future of nursing practice.
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COVID-19 , Humans , Pandemics , Delivery of Health Care , CommunicationABSTRACT
We aimed to understand clinician perspectives on mental healthcare delivery during COVID-19 and the utility of tele-mental health services in carceral settings. A survey was administered in November 2022 through the American College of Correctional Physicians listserv. A nationwide sample of 55 respondents included 78.2% male (n = 43) and 21.8% female (n = 12), 49.1% active clinicians (n = 27) and 50.9% medical directors (n = 28), with a median of 12 and mean of 14.5 years working in carceral settings. Most agreed that mental telehealth services could serve as a stopgap amid infection prevention measures and resource-limited settings with an increasing role moving forward (80.0%, n = 44) but may not be sufficient to replace in-person services completely. Access to mental healthcare is vital in helping achieve optimal health during incarceration. Most clinicians in a nationwide survey report an essential role of mental telehealth in the future, although they vary in beliefs on the present implementation. Future efforts should further identify facilitators and barriers and bolster delivery models, particularly via e-health.