Taking connected mobile-health diagnostics of infectious diseases to the field.

Mobile Health or mHealth - The application of mobile devices, their components and related technologies to healthcare is improving patients’ access to treatment and advice. Now, in combination with connected diagnostic devices it offers new possibilities to diagnose, track and control infectious diseases and improve health system efficiencies. In this context we look at these technologies and highlight their promise but also the challenges in realising their potential to increase patient access to testing, aid in their treatment and improve the capability of public health authorities to monitor outbreaks, implement responses, and assess the impact of interventions across the world

Introduction to the Special Issue on Software Technologies for Embedded & Ubiquitous Systems

Ubiquitous embedded systems are one of the technology drivers to improve our daily life, much more than we normally recognize. To engineer such systems we have to overcome many challenges. For example, such systems typically have to support low-power network connection with nearby computing devices in the context of high mobility, while at the same time incorporating the latest hardware developments in order to allow for cost-effective yet powerful systems. The following five articles in this special issue cover two important issues of software technologies for embedded and ubiquitous systems: safety critical systems and wireless networking technologies and applicationsPeer reviewedSubmitted Versio

Human Computation and Convergence

Humans are the most effective integrators and producers of information, directly and through the use of information-processing inventions. As these inventions become increasingly sophisticated, the substantive role of humans in processing information will tend toward capabilities that derive from our most complex cognitive processes, e.g., abstraction, creativity, and applied world knowledge. Through the advancement of human computation - methods that leverage the respective strengths of humans and machines in distributed information-processing systems - formerly discrete processes will combine synergistically into increasingly integrated and complex information processing systems. These new, collective systems will exhibit an unprecedented degree of predictive accuracy in modeling physical and techno-social processes, and may ultimately coalesce into a single unified predictive organism, with the capacity to address societies most wicked problems and achieve planetary homeostasis.Comment: Pre-publication draft of chapter. 24 pages, 3 figures; added references to page 1 and 3, and corrected typ

Data and Digital Solutions to Support Surveillance Strategies in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: In order to prevent spread and improve control of infectious diseases, public health experts need to closely monitor human and animal populations. Infectious disease surveillance is an established, routine data collection process essential for early warning, rapid response, and disease control. The quantity of data potentially useful for early warning and surveillance has increased exponentially due to social media and other big data streams. Digital epidemiology is a novel discipline that includes harvesting, analysing, and interpreting data that were not initially collected for healthcare needs to enhance traditional surveillance. During the current COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of digital epidemiology complementing traditional public health approaches has been highlighted. Objective: The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview for the application of data and digital solutions to support surveillance strategies and draw implications for surveillance in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Methods: A search was conducted in PubMed databases. Articles published between January 2005 and May 2020 on the use of digital solutions to support surveillance strategies in pandemic settings and health emergencies were evaluated. Results: In this paper, we provide a comprehensive overview of digital epidemiology, available data sources, and components of 21st-century digital surveillance, early warning and response, outbreak management and control, and digital interventions. Conclusions: Our main purpose was to highlight the plausible use of new surveillance strategies, with implications for the COVID-19 pandemic strategies and then to identify opportunities and challenges for the successful development and implementation of digital solutions during non-emergency times of routine surveillance, with readiness for early-warning and response for future pandemics. The enhancement of traditional surveillance systems with novel digital surveillance methods opens a direction for the most effective framework for preparedness and response to future pandemics

Digital technologies in the public-health response to COVID-19

Digital technologies are being harnessed to support the public-health response to COVID-19 worldwide, including population surveillance, case identification, contact tracing and evaluation of interventions on the basis of mobility data and communication with the public. These rapid responses leverage billions of mobile phones, large online datasets, connected devices, relatively low-cost computing resources and advances in machine learning and natural language processing. This Review aims to capture the breadth of digital innovations for the public-health response to COVID-19 worldwide and their limitations, and barriers to their implementation, including legal, ethical and privacy barriers, as well as organizational and workforce barriers. The future of public health is likely to become increasingly digital, and we review the need for the alignment of international strategies for the regulation, evaluation and use of digital technologies to strengthen pandemic management, and future preparedness for COVID-19 and other infectious diseases

Review on the Use of ICT Driven Solutions Towards Managing Global Pandemics

A pandemic is a contagious disease outbreak that happens over a large geographic area and affects a great portion of the population while new pathogens appear for which people have less immunity and no vaccines are available. The disease can spread from person to person in a very short time. Health workers are at greater risk of infection because of patients who are carriers. In the 21st century, where everyone is connected through digital technologies, information and communication technology (ICT) plays a critical role in improving healthcare for individuals and larger communities. ICT can be divided into a wide variety of application domains that signify its importance as a major technological paradigm. It is currently drawing large attention because of its potential to alleviate the burden on healthcare systems caused by the rise in chronic diseases, aging populations and pandemic situations. This study surveyed substantial knowledge on how effective ICT healthcare solutions can be used towards managing global pandemics. In order to make it more comprehensive, we also present a four-phase strategic framework that can be deployed to alleviate the strain on healthcare resources during a pandemic, which was derived from the reviewed literature. Further, we also discuss how ICT technologies can be used towards managing pandemic situations chronographically during the transformation from a simple disease outbreak into a global pandemic

An overview of technologies and devices against COVID-19 pandemic diffusion: virus detection and monitoring solutions

none5siThe year 2020 will remain in the history for the diffusion of the COVID-19 virus, originating a pandemic on a world scale with over a million deaths. From the onset of the pandemic, the scientific community has made numerous efforts to design systems to detect the infected subjects in ever-faster times, allowing both to intervene on them, to avoid dangerous complications, and to contain the pandemic spreading. In this paper, we present an overview of different innovative technologies and devices fielded against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The various technologies applicable to the rapid and reliable detection of the COVID-19 virus have been explored. Specifically, several magnetic, electrochemical, and plasmonic biosensors have been proposed in the scientific literature, as an alternative to nucleic acid-based real-time reverse transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) (RT-qPCR) assays, overcoming the limitations featuring this typology of tests (the need for expensive instruments and reagents, as well as of specialized staff, and their reliability). Furthermore, we investigated the IoT solutions and devices, reported on the market and in the scientific literature, to contain the pandemic spreading, by avoiding the contagion, acquiring the parameters of suspected users, and monitoring them during the quarantine period.openR. de Fazio, A. Sponziello, D. Cafagna, R. Velazquez, P. Viscontide Fazio, R.; Sponziello, A.; Cafagna, D.; Velazquez, R.; Visconti, P

Impact of COVID-19 on iot adoption in healthcare, smart homes, smart buildings, smart cities, transportation and industrial IoT

COVID-19 has disrupted normal life and has enforced a substantial change in the policies, priorities and activities of individuals, organisations and governments. These changes are proving to be a catalyst for technology and innovation. In this paper, we discuss the pandemic's potential impact on the adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) in various broad sectors namely healthcare, smart homes, smart buildings, smart cities, transportation and industrial IoT. Our perspective and forecast of this impact on IoT adoption is based on a thorough research literature review, a careful examination of reports from leading consulting firms and interactions with several industry experts. For each of these sectors, we also provide the details of notable IoT initiatives taken in wake of COVID-19. We also highlight the challenges that need to be addressed and important research directions that will facilitate accelerated IoT adoption.Comment: This is the version accepted at Sensors 202