A systematic review on incentive-driven mHealth technology: As used in diabetes management

Introduction Mobile Health (mHealth) technologies have been shown to improve self-management of chronic diseases, such as diabetes. However, mHealth tools, such as Apps, often have low rates of retention, eroding their potential benefits. Using incentives is a common mechanism for engaging and retaining patients that is applied by mHealth tools. We conducted a systematic review aiming to categorise the different types of incentive mechanisms employed in mHealth tools for diabetes management, which we defined as Incentive-driven Technologies (IDTs). As an auxiliary aim, we also analysed barriers to adoption of IDT technologies. Methods Literature published in English between January 2008 and August 2014 was identified through searching leading publishers and indexing databases: IEEE, Springer, Science Direct, NCBI, ACM, Wiley and Google Scholar. Results A total of 42 articles were selected. Of these, 34 presented mHealth tools with IDT mechanisms. Many of these contained more than one IDT, with Education the most common (n=21), followed by Reminder (n=11), Feedback (n=10), Social (n=8), Alert (n=5), Gamification (n=3), and Financial (n=2). The remaining 8 articles were review papers and a qualitative study of focus groups and interviews with patients with diabetes, where no new technologies were proposed, from which we defined barriers for adoption. Discussion We identified that while mHealth technologies have advanced over the last 5 years, the core IDT mechanisms have remained consistent. Instead, IDT mechanisms have evolved with the upgrades in technology, such as moving from manual to automatic content delivery and personalisation of content

mHealth Engineering: A Technology Review

In this paper, we review the technological bases of mobile health (mHealth). First, we derive a component-based mHealth architecture prototype from an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)-based multistage research and filter process. Second, we analyze medical databases with regard to these prototypic mhealth system components.. We show the current state of research literature concerning portable devices with standard and additional equipment, data transmission technology, interface, operating systems and software embedment, internal and external memory, and power-supply issues. We also focus on synergy effects by combining different mHealth technologies (e.g., BT-LE combined with RFID link technology). Finally, we also make suggestions for future improvements in mHealth technology (e.g., data-protection issues, energy supply, data processing and storage)

The survey on Near Field Communication

PubMed ID: 26057043Near Field Communication (NFC) is an emerging short-range wireless communication technology that offers great and varied promise in services such as payment, ticketing, gaming, crowd sourcing, voting, navigation, and many others. NFC technology enables the integration of services from a wide range of applications into one single smartphone. NFC technology has emerged recently, and consequently not much academic data are available yet, although the number of academic research studies carried out in the past two years has already surpassed the total number of the prior works combined. This paper presents the concept of NFC technology in a holistic approach from different perspectives, including hardware improvement and optimization, communication essentials and standards, applications, secure elements, privacy and security, usability analysis, and ecosystem and business issues. Further research opportunities in terms of the academic and business points of view are also explored and discussed at the end of each section. This comprehensive survey will be a valuable guide for researchers and academicians, as well as for business in the NFC technology and ecosystem.Publisher's Versio

Technical and Behavioral Interventions for Medication Adherence through Mobile Health

In this research, we present a novel intervention, Carrot and Stick, to improve the outcome of one of the self-management tasks, medication adherence (MA), among patients with chronic disease(s). Our design incorporates the growing importance of mobile health (m-health) in Health Information Technology (HIT) with the users’ dependency on mobile phones to facilitate valuable behavioral changes. Drawing on Social Cognitive Theory, Social Exchange Theory, Goal-setting Theory, and people’s dependence on smartphones, we develop the functionalities in our intervention, including positive and negative reinforcement, goal-setting, and social connections. The iterative process of our development follows the Design Science Approach. In the evaluation and validation of our intervention, we not only examine the intervention’s impacts on patients through analytical models and simulation but also demonstrate the possible active support of the intervention from healthcare providers based on the current pay-for-performance (P4P) scheme. Our results suggest that (1) with the help of electronic medication container, appropriate reminder design can reduce the patients’ chances of forgetting doses, overdosing, and intaking doses at the wrong time, (2) positive reinforcement can help increase the probability of the patient achieving expected MA, while negative reinforcement has a further impact that is added to the increment, (3) our intervention can assist the patient in saving more than $600 per year, and (4) under the current P4P scheme, physicians with the exceptional performance or with bad performance are likely to invest in the intervention to change their patients’ behaviors, while physicians with good performance are less likely to participate. Our research is the first to utilize negative reinforcement in intervention design to enhance MA; it is also the first to provide corresponding interventional solutions that are customized according to elements derived from theories. Besides, the focus and understanding of healthcare providers’ involvement in the incentive program can facilitate the adoption, prescription, and implementation of the proposed intervention

Visiting Nurses\u27 Knowledge, Attitudes and Beliefs Regarding Telehealth to Promote Medication Compliance in the Elderly Population

Introduction: Medication noncompliance in the elderly home dwelling adult is a persistent problem resulting in decreased quality of life, hospital readmission within a 30-day period and increased morbidity. Visiting nurses are in a key position to assist the elderly population to employ medication compliance strategies that are tailor-made to fit their individual needs and abilities. The introduction of telehealth technology, while meant to aid elderly home dwelling individuals, may negatively impact the infusion of medication compliance strategies and thus increase medication noncompliance if visiting nurses are not effective in employing this technology. Aim: The aim of this study is to evaluate visiting nurses’ knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs of incorporating telehealth technology while using medication compliance strategies. Once factors are identified future work can seek to design programs to improve the use of telehealth technology in the home care environment by visiting nurses. Materials and Methods: The study employed a qualitative research approach using semi-structured interviews to hear the voices of the visiting nurses. The Diffusion of Innovation theory (DOI) and the Knowledge, Attitudes and Behavior (KAB) model were used as lenses through which to design interview guide questions that could assess visiting nurse’s knowledge, attitudes and beliefs regarding employing telehealth technology in the home care environment to assist the elderly dwelling patient with medication management strategies. One on one interviews were conducted via Teams platform for a max of 60 minutes. Participants were visiting nurses who were employed at home health agencies working with elderly dwelling adults, and who use telehealth technology to advance medication compliance strategies. Results: 10 interviews were conducted at which time data saturation occurred. The PI coded all data manually and intercoder agreement was obtained. Several themes emerged from the data. This study provided evidence that visiting nurses accept telehealth technology, are supportive of its continued use, and are willing to be educated on future advances in this technology to assist the elderly home care patient with medication compliance strategies. Visiting nurses enjoy utilizing telehealth technology, state that they find it convenient and easy to use. Telehealth technology enables nurses to fill the visit void related to limited staff and financial restraints. Conclusion: Given the aging population of patients in the US requiring home health services the health care system must provide opportunities for nurses to continue to explore and adopt new technologies to advance medication compliance in the elderly population. Specifically, Universities and home health agencies must ensure that nurses are prepared to utilize telehealth technologies in order to promote the use of telehealth in the home care environment with the elderly patient to reduce medication non-compliance issues

Battery-less near field communications (nfc) sensors for internet of things (iot) applications

L’ implementació de la tecnologia de comunicació de camp proper (NFC) en els telèfons intel·ligents no para de créixer degut a l’ús d’aquesta per fer pagaments, això, junt amb el fet de poder aprofitar l’energia generada pel mòbil no només per la comunicació, sinó també per transmetre energia, el baix cost dels xips NFC, i el fet de que els telèfons tinguin connectivitat amb internet, possibilita i fa molt interesant el disseny d’etiquetes sense bateria incorporant-hi sensors i poder enviar la informació al núvol, dins del creixent escenari de l’internet de les coses (IoT). La present Tesi estudia la viabilitat d’aquests sensors, analitzant la màxima distància entre lector i sensor per proveir la potència necessària, presenta tècniques per augmentar el rang d’operació, i analitza els efectes de certs materials quan aquests estan propers a les antenes. Diversos sensors han estat dissenyats i analitzats i son presentats en aquest treball. Aquests son: Una etiqueta que mesura la humitat de la terra, la temperatura i la humitat relativa de l’aire per controlar les condicions de plantes. Un sensor per detectar la humitat en bolquers, imprès en material flexible que s’adapta a la forma del bolquer. Dues aplicacions, una per estimació de pH i una altre per avaluar el grau de maduració de fruites, basats en un sensor de color. I, per últim, s’estudia la viabilitat de sensors en implants per aplicacions mèdiques, analitzant l’efecte del cos i proposant un sistema per augmentar la profunditat a la que aquests es poden llegir utilitzant un telèfon mòbil. Tots aquests sensors poden ser alimentats i llegits per qualsevol dispositiu que disposin de connexió NFC.La implementación de la tecnología de comunicaciones de campo cercano (NFC) en los teléfonos inteligentes no para de crecer debido al uso de esta para llevar a cabo pagos, esto, junto con el hecho de poder aprovechar la energía generada por el móvil no sólo para la comunicación, sino también para transmitir energía, el bajo coste de los chips NFC, i el hecho que los teléfonos tengan conectividad a internet, posibilita y hace muy interesante el diseño de etiquetas sin batería que incorporen sensores i poder enviar la información a la nube, enmarcado en el creciente escenario del internet de las cosas (IoT). La presente Tesis estudia la viabilidad de estos sensores, analizando la máxima distancia entre lector i sensor para proveer la potencia necesaria, presenta técnicas para aumentar el rango de operación, y analiza los efectos de ciertos materiales cuando estos están cerca de las antenas. Varios sensores han sido diseñados y analizados y son presentados en este trabajo. Estos son: Una etiqueta que mide la humedad de la tierra, la temperatura y la humedad relativa del aire para controlar las condiciones de plantas. Un sensor para detectar la humedad en pañales, impreso en material flexible que se adapta a la forma del pañal. Dos aplicaciones, una para estimación de pH y otra para evaluar el grado de maduración de frutas, basados en un sensor de color. Y, por último, se estudia la viabilidad de sensores en implantes para aplicaciones médicas, analizando el efecto del cuerpo y proponiendo un sistema para aumentar la profundidad a la que estos se pueden leer usando un teléfono móvil. Todos estos sensores pueden ser alimentados y leídos por cualquier dispositivo que disponga de conexión NFC.The implementation of near field communication (NFC) technology into smartphones grows rapidly due the use of this technology as a payment system. This, altogether with the fact that the energy generated by the phone can be used not only to communicate but for power transfer as well, the low-cost of the NFC chips, and the fact that the smartphones have connectivity to internet, makes possible and very interesting the design of battery-less sensing tags which information can be sent to the cloud, within the growing internet of things (IoT) scenario. This Thesis studies the feasibility of these sensors, analysing the maximum distance between reader and sensor to provide the necessary power, presents techniques to increase the range of operation, and analyses the effects of certain materials when they are near to the antennas. Several sensors have been designed and analysed and are presented in this work. These are: a tag that measures the soil moisture, the temperature and the relative humidity of the air to control the conditions of plants. A moisture sensor for diapers, printed on flexible material that adapts to the diaper shape. Two applications, one for pH estimation and another for assessing the degree of fruit ripening, based on a colour sensor. And finally, the feasibility of sensors in implants for medical applications is studied, analysing the effect of the body and proposing a system to increase the depth at which they can be read using a mobile phone. All of these sensors can be powered and read by any NFC enabled device