4,118 research outputs found

    Smart object for physical rehabilitation assessment

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    The technologies associated with smart healthcare are a reality nowadays, however in the physical therapy area there is still lack of patient monitoring during the physical rehabilitation and common usage of walking aids by the patients affected by lower limb impairments. Currently there are fewer systems that provide the patient monitoring during the rehabilitation process by physiotherapists, which may lead to less adequate diagnostic techniques for the patient's physical condition. The dissertation presents a solution to this problem by relying on smart equipment used in physical rehabilitation, more precisely a crutch. By embedding multiple smart sensors on crutches, the physiotherapist will be provided appropriate information regarding the interaction between the patient and the walking aids through a mobile application, developed for Android systems, which will receive data from the sensors via Bluetooth. All the data collected will be stored in a local database located on the physiotherapist’s mobile device and also on a remote server, giving the possibility of having a full offline application. This system allows for any session previously done to be consulted, which results in the possibility of visualizing historical values and comparing them with different sessions, allowing the physiotherapist to analyze the evolution of the patients.As tecnologias associadas à saúde são uma realidade na atualidade, porém na área de fisioterapia ainda há falta de monitorização dos pacientes durante a fisioterapia e o uso de objetos que auxiliam o movimento pelos pacientes afetados por deficiências nos membros inferiores. Atualmente, existem poucos sistemas que proporcionam a monitorização do paciente durante o processo de reabilitação por fisioterapeutas, o que pode levar a técnicas de diagnóstico menos adequadas para a condição física do paciente. A dissertação apresenta uma solução para este problema, contando com equipamentos inteligentes utilizados em fisioterapia, mais precisamente uma muleta. Ao incorporar vários sensores inteligentes em muletas, o fisioterapeuta receberá informações adequadas sobre a interação entre o paciente e as muletas através de uma aplicação móvel, desenvolvida para sistemas Android, que receberá dados dos sensores via Bluetooth. Todos os dados recebidos serão armazenados numa base de dados local localizada no dispositivo móvel do fisioterapeuta e também num servidor remoto para fins de sincronização, dando a possibilidade de ter um uma aplicação completamente offline

    Postoperative Telemonitoring of Flap Physiology in Microvascular Free Tissue Transfer

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    Current methods of postoperative monitoring in microvascular free tissue transfer often prove inadequate in circumstances when complications arise. Acknowledging the room for improvement, a novel system for remote and continuous monitoring of temperature and Doppler ultrasound signals was developed. The system collects data from the transferred tissue, analyzes the data using novel signal-processing algorithms, and wirelessly uploads the results to a secure remote server. Data collected from healthy subjects in a controlled study as well as from a patient recovering from a bilateral breast reconstruction indicate the novel algorithms are capable of detecting arterial and/or venous occlusion from the recorded Doppler ultrasound signal

    Gestational diabetes self-management and remote monitoring mobile platform

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    There is a high prevalence of gestational diabetes (GD) in South Africa, which is continually growing. South African women with GD are not effectively managed or educated about selfcare, do not self-monitor frequently enough and, therefore, often succumb to various GD induced complications. The ineffective management of GD is largely due to financial and time constraints caused by the regularly required outpatient services. On the other hand, healthcare professionals do not monitor their patients frequently enough because of accessibility issues, which means they cannot intervene timeously to prevent diabetes complications. The aim of this project was to develop a mobile health (mHealth) platform for GD self-management and for remote monitoring to improve the GD cycle of care in South Africa. The objectives were to assess the current GD management practices in South Africa, to assess the existing mHealth solutions for GD and to design, develop and test a GD mHealth platform. The existing GD management practices and current GD mHealth solutions were investigated. The results of the investigation informed the design of low-fidelity and high-fidelity mock-ups of the platform. The high-fidelity mock-up underwent usability testing and the insights gained were used to develop a working prototype of the new mHealth platform, which was then ready for in-lab testing. It was found that GD had a prevalence of up to 25% in parts of South Africa. Over 70% of patients in both private and public healthcare sectors did not meet their diabetic goals, which directly correlated with diabetes induced complications. However, previous research found that using mHealth as an intervention caused a statistically significant decrease of 0.38 mmol/L (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.52 mmol/L to 0.23 mmol/L) in overall blood glucose levels during pregnancy when compared to a control group. There was a higher probability of vaginal deliveries in the intervention group than in the control group (risk ratio = 1.18). It was less likely for new-borns from the intervention group to be diagnosed with hypoglycaemia than new-borns from the control group (risk ratio = 0.67). Based on the research and usability studies conducted, an alpha version of the GD mHealth platform was developed, including a mobile app used to track the patient’s blood glucose levels via a Bluetooth-enabled glucose meter. The food intake, exercise and weight gain during pregnancy were manually captured by the patient. The app reminded the patient to take medication, measure glucose levels and attend appointments. A GD educational component was available for the patient throughout the pregnancy. The platform included a web app which allowed healthcare professionals to remotely monitor and communicate with their patients so that they could analyse trends in the data and intervene when necessary. The testing done on the prototype resulted in positive feedback with 60% of participants saying that they would use the GooDMoM mobile app to manage their GD and 70% of participants saying that they would use the GooDMoM web app to manage their patients with GD. This put the platform in a good position for beta development. The solution has the potential to benefit patients both financially and timewise, by reducing the frequency of hospital visits required. It also has the potential to positively impact the healthcare professionals by reducing the tediousness of their workload and allowing for remote monitoring of patients. The platform can, thus, optimise the GD management process in South Africa and worldwide

    A System Perspective to Privacy, Security and Resilience in Mobile Applications

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    Mobile applications have changed our life so much, but they also create problems related to privacy which is one of basic human rights. Protection (or security) of privacy is an important issue in mobile applications owing to the high likelihood of privacy violation nowadays. This thesis is devoted to a fundamental study on the privacy issue in mobile applications. The overall objective of the thesis is to advance our understanding of privacy and its relevant concepts in the context of mobile applications. There are three specific objectives with this thesis. Objective 1 is to have a more comprehensive understanding of the concepts of privacy, security and resilience (PSR for short) along with their relationship in the context of mobile applications. Objective 2 is to develop the principles of design of a mobile application system with a satisfactory PSR. Objective 3 is to develop a demonstration system (PSR demo for short) to illustrate how the principles of design can be applied. A salient approach was taken in this thesis, that is based on a general knowledge architecture called FCBPSS (F: function, C: context, B: behavior, P: principle. SS: state and structure). An analysis of literature was conducted first, resulting in a classification of various privacies against the FCPBSS architecture, followed by developing a theory of privacy, protection of privacy (security), and resilience of the system that performs protection of privacy, PSR theory for short. The principles of design of a mobile application system based on the PSR theory were then developed, which are expected to guide the practice of developing a mobile application for satisfactory privacy protection. Finally, a demonstration system, regarding the doctor booking for minimum waiting time and energy consumption, was developed to issue how the PSR theory and design principles work. The main contribution of this thesis is the development of the concept of PSR, especially the relationship among privacy (P), security (S), and resilience (R), and a set of design rules to develop a mobile application based on the PSR theory

    Quantifying Parkinson\u27s Disease Symptoms Using Mobile Devices

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    Current assessments for evaluating the progression of Parkinson’s Disease are largely qualitative and based on small sets of data obtained from occasional doctor-patient interactions. There is a clinical need to improve the techniques used for mitigating common Parkinson’s Disease symptoms. Available data sets for researching the disease are minimal, hindering advancement toward understanding the underlying causes and effectiveness of treatment and therapies. Mobile devices present an opportunity to continuously monitor Parkinson’s Disease patients and collect important information regarding the severity of symptoms. The evolution of digital technology has opened doors for clinical research to extend beyond the clinic by incorporating complex sensors in commonly used devices. Leveraging these sensors to quantify characteristic Parkinson’s Disease symptoms may drastically improve patient care and the reliability of symptom assessment. The goal of this project is to design and develop a system for measuring and analyzing the cardinal symptoms of Parkinson’s using mobile devices. An application for the iPhone and Apple Watch is developed, utilizing the sensors on the devices to collect data during the performance of motor tasks. Assessments for tremor, bradykinesia, and postural instability are implemented to mimic UPDRS evaluations normally performed by a neurologist. The application connects to a cloud-based server to transfer the collected data for remote access and analysis. Example MatLab analysis demonstrates potential approaches for extracting meaningful data to be used for monitoring the progression of Parkinson’s Disease and the effectiveness of treatment and therapies. High-level verification testing is performed to show general efficacy of the assessment tasks. The system design successfully lays the groundwork for a mobile device-based assessment tool to objectively measure Parkinson’s Disease symptom

    Development of a mobile platform prototype for data gathering and monitoring of type 1 diabetes individuals during clinical trials

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    In this thesis we developed a prototype of this such platform, in the form of a mobile application where the patient can track all his data and the algorithm can be deployed to be tested. We also developed a website for clinicians to track patients levels in real time during trials. This platform allows also to save all gathered data for later use in simulations to develop even more optimized algorithms. The whole platform has been developed to fulfill requirements in privacy and usability

    Analyzing User Acceptance of Mobile Technology in Clinical Settings through Point-of-Care Mobile Applications

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    The advent of mobile phones has led to global connectivity surpassing any global conversation previously known. However, despite having access to this global network through mobile devices and ever expanding internet access, many developing countries still lack basic medical technology. In many resource-poor medical settings, existing monitors used to process and display medical data received from various sensors (temperature, blood oxygen saturation, heart rate, blood pressure, etc.) are either missing or unreliable. Furthermore, these devices are rarely designed with an interface appropriate for the needs of the end user. Additionally, the use of mobile apps for medical purposes is increasing in developing nations. However, very little structure exists to properly evaluate the usability and potential of specific medical apps. My project aims to provide an alternative to traditional monitoring systems by creating a mobile application for smartphones and tablets that serves to display patient vital signs through a modality that is easily learned and understood by the targeted end user. My project proposes to utilize current mobile phone technology available in rural, developing communities, as well as clinical settings in developed countries, to process and display patient vital signs for diagnostic and point of care purposes. The focus of this study was the experimental analysis of the mobile application user interfaces to promote widespread acceptance and continuous use of the technology for more consistent recording of patient vital signs. Three user interfaces were created for both smartphone and tablet devices and tested at two locations: Oaxaca, Mexico and Clemson, SC. These interfaces were systematically reviewed by measuring potential end users\u27 response to the technology following their direct interaction with the mobile applications. User experience was assessed using a survey that evaluated layout and function of the applications. Statistical analysis of the survey results revealed a variety of correlations between interface design and usability. It was also determined that the technology has the potential for widespread, global implementation. However, further studies integrating the mobile sensors into the interface design should be performed to determine the full potential of the technology
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