Towards a Holistic Approach to Designing Theory-based Mobile Health Interventions

Increasing evidence has shown that theory-based health behavior change interventions are more effective than non-theory-based ones. However, only a few segments of relevant studies were theory-based, especially the studies conducted by non-psychology researchers. On the other hand, many mobile health interventions, even those based on the behavioral theories, may still fail in the absence of a user-centered design process. The gap between behavioral theories and user-centered design increases the difficulty of designing and implementing mobile health interventions. To bridge this gap, we propose a holistic approach to designing theory-based mobile health interventions built on the existing theories and frameworks of three categories: (1) behavioral theories (e.g., the Social Cognitive Theory, the Theory of Planned Behavior, and the Health Action Process Approach), (2) the technological models and frameworks (e.g., the Behavior Change Techniques, the Persuasive System Design and Behavior Change Support System, and the Just-in-Time Adaptive Interventions), and (3) the user-centered systematic approaches (e.g., the CeHRes Roadmap, the Wendel's Approach, and the IDEAS Model). This holistic approach provides researchers a lens to see the whole picture for developing mobile health interventions

In a Highly Outsourced Environment, What are Companies Doing Around Staff Development or Their IT Workforce?

[Excerpt] IT skills are more necessary than ever for competitive strategic initiatives. With the rise of shadow IT (unauthorized IT within organizations) and the ever-increasing skills gap in the IT labor market, companies need to invest in training and developing their IT technicians’ skills, no matter where they sit. With IT workers being a large part of the contingent workforce, they are susceptible to becoming underdeveloped and often lack the skills required to succeed in their positions. Typically, organizations have been focused on hard skills, but soft skills have become a requirement for IT departments. In typical working arrangements, soft IT skills are learned through on the job experience. Experiences such as relevant training and mentoring mechanisms offer opportunities for IT professionals to develop and refine their soft and hard skills. However, in highly outsourced environments these skills are less likely to be developed. Furthermore, with the development of new and exciting fields such as cloud, AI, and blockchain, IT technicians must develop new, rare, and difficult skills. According to Gartner, 20% of companies will need to allocate 10% of their IT staff on AI-related projects by 2020. With very little available talent in this space, this need will be difficult to fill

Human computer interaction for international development: past present and future

Recent years have seen a burgeoning interest in research into the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the context of developing regions, particularly into how such ICTs might be appropriately designed to meet the unique user and infrastructural requirements that we encounter in these cross-cultural environments. This emerging field, known to some as HCI4D, is the product of a diverse set of origins. As such, it can often be difficult to navigate prior work, and/or to piece together a broad picture of what the field looks like as a whole. In this paper, we aim to contextualize HCI4D—to give it some historical background, to review its existing literature spanning a number of research traditions, to discuss some of its key issues arising from the work done so far, and to suggest some major research objectives for the future

Video in development : filming for rural change

This book is about using video in rural interventions for social change. It gives a glimpse into the many creative ways in which video can be used in rural development activities. Capitalising on experience in this field, the books aims to encourage development professionals to explore the potential of video in development, making it a more coherent, better understood and properly used development tool - in short, filming for rural change

What are Some Key Adjustments Companies Need to Consider over the Next 5 Years to Best Engage Millennials?

Millennials also known as Generation Y– those born between 1980 and 2000 – are becoming the predominant force entering the workplace. They are expected to comprise 50% of the global workforce by 2020 and 75% by 2025. In the oil & gas industry, where this shift is known as “the Great Crew Change,” the implications are magnified by a dearth of mid-level professionals created by a downturn-related hiring freeze in the 1980s. Approximately 71% of the energy workforce is 50 or more years old, and the American Petroleum Institute estimates that as many as 50% of skilled energy workers may retire over the next five to seven years. As many of the positions vacated by the retiring generation will be filled by less-experienced, younger workers, successfully managing, developing, and transferring skills to millennials has become a business imperative. With the media inundated with reports about the supposed monumental differences between millennial employees and previous generations, employers are often left to sort fact from fiction in designing effective integration plans for this new cohort. Fortunately for companies, most substantive surveys and empirical studies find that many of the negative allegations about Generation Y are myths (e.g. a preference for job hopping) and that millennials’ preferences are not all that different from previous generations at similar points in their careers. It is also of limited value to make overly broad generalizations about millions of workers within a 20-year age range. Still, as the largest generation in history and one that will soon comprise a majority of the workforce, companies will be wise to develop a deeper understanding of the emerging millennial workforce. The following summary surveys the findings of consulting firms, corporate executives, survey data, and academics to reveal insights on Generation Y and offers considerations and recommendation that should aid in better engaging employees of all ages

Healthcare Robotics

Robots have the potential to be a game changer in healthcare: improving health and well-being, filling care gaps, supporting care givers, and aiding health care workers. However, before robots are able to be widely deployed, it is crucial that both the research and industrial communities work together to establish a strong evidence-base for healthcare robotics, and surmount likely adoption barriers. This article presents a broad contextualization of robots in healthcare by identifying key stakeholders, care settings, and tasks; reviewing recent advances in healthcare robotics; and outlining major challenges and opportunities to their adoption.Comment: 8 pages, Communications of the ACM, 201

Integrating Taxonomies into Theory-Based Digital Health Interventions for Behavior Change: A Holistic Framework

Digital health interventions have been emerging in the last decade. Due to their interdisciplinary nature, digital health interventions are guided and influenced by theories (e.g., behavioral theories, behavior change technologies, persuasive technology) from different research communities. However, digital health interventions are always coded using various taxonomies and reported in insufficient perspectives. The inconsistency and incomprehensiveness will bring difficulty for conducting systematic reviews and sharing contributions among communities. Based on existing related work, therefore, we propose a holistic framework that embeds behavioral theories, behavior change technique (BCT) taxonomy, and persuasive system design (PSD) principles. Including four development steps, two toolboxes, and one workflow, our framework aims to guide digital health intervention developers to design, evaluate, and report their work in a formative and comprehensive way