Recent advances of HCI in decision-making tasks for optimized clinical workflows and precision medicine.

The ever-increasing amount of biomedical data is enabling new large-scale studies, even though ad hoc computational solutions are required. The most recent Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques have been achieving outstanding performance and an important impact in clinical research, aiming at precision medicine, as well as improving healthcare workflows. However, the inherent heterogeneity and uncertainty in the healthcare information sources pose new compelling challenges for clinicians in their decision-making tasks. Only the proper combination of AI and human intelligence capabilities, by explicitly taking into account effective and safe interaction paradigms, can permit the delivery of care that outperforms what either can do separately. Therefore, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) plays a crucial role in the design of software oriented to decision-making in medicine. In this work, we systematically review and discuss several research fields strictly linked to HCI and clinical decision-making, by subdividing the articles into six themes, namely: Interfaces, Visualization, Electronic Health Records, Devices, Usability, and Clinical Decision Support Systems. However, these articles typically present overlaps among the themes, revealing that HCI inter-connects multiple topics. With the goal of focusing on HCI and design aspects, the articles under consideration were grouped into four clusters. The advances in AI can effectively support the physicians' cognitive processes, which certainly play a central role in decision-making tasks because the human mental behavior cannot be completely emulated and captured; the human mind might solve a complex problem even without a statistically significant amount of data by relying upon domain knowledge. For this reason, technology must focus on interactive solutions for supporting the physicians effectively in their daily activities, by exploiting their unique knowledge and evidence-based reasoning, as well as improving the various aspects highlighted in this review

Health Figures: An Open Source JavaScript Library for Health Data Visualization

The way we look at data has a great impact on how we can understand it, particularly when the data is related to health and wellness. Due to the increased use of self-tracking devices and the ongoing shift towards preventive medicine, better understanding of our health data is an important part of improving the general welfare of the citizens. Electronic Health Records, self-tracking devices and mobile applications provide a rich variety of data but it often becomes difficult to understand. We implemented the hFigures library inspired on the hGraph visualization with additional improvements. The purpose of the library is to provide a visual representation of the evolution of health measurements in a complete and useful manner. We researched the usefulness and usability of the library by building an application for health data visualization in a health coaching program. We performed a user evaluation with Heuristic Evaluation, Controlled User Testing and Usability Questionnaires. In the Heuristics Evaluation the average response was 6.3 out of 7 points and the Cognitive Walkthrough done by usability experts indicated no design or mismatch errors. In the CSUQ usability test the system obtained an average score of 6.13 out of 7, and in the ASQ usability test the overall satisfaction score was 6.64 out of 7. We developed hFigures, an open source library for visualizing a complete, accurate and normalized graphical representation of health data. The idea is based on the concept of the hGraph but it provides additional key features, including a comparison of multiple health measurements over time. We conducted a usability evaluation of the library as a key component of an application for health and wellness monitoring. The results indicate that the data visualization library was helpful in assisting users in understanding health data and its evolution over time.Comment: BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making 16.1 (2016

Augmented Reality Technology to Facilitate Proficiency in Emergency Medical Procedures

Background: Augmented reality (AR) conveys an experience during which the user’s real-time environment is enhanced by computer-generated perceptual information; it is being investigated as a solution to enhance medical education and clinical practice. There is little literature on its utility for teaching emergency procedures. Methods: A within-subjects trial was performed comparing traditional training to AR guidance for two emergency procedures. Lay-subjects and emergency medical technicians received video training and AR guidance for performing bag-valve-mask ventilation and needle-decompression. Subjects performed both procedures in a simulation setting after each training modality. Subject performance, acceptability and usability were analyzed. Results: There was no difference in procedural performance between lay or EMT subjects for AR training, and no difference in subject-reported usefulness between the AR and control training. Conclusion: AR mediated guidance for emergency medical procedures is feasible and efficacious. Subject performance after AR training was statistically undistinguishable from a didactic educational modality

Evaluating Security and Usability of Profile Based Challenge Questions Authentication in Online Examinations

© 2014 Ullah et al.; licensee Springer. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited.Student authentication in online learning environments is an increasingly challenging issue due to the inherent absence of physical interaction with online users and potential security threats to online examinations. This study is part of ongoing research on student authentication in online examinations evaluating the potential benefits of using challenge questions. The authors developed a Profile Based Authentication Framework (PBAF), which utilises challenge questions for students’ authentication in online examinations. This paper examines the findings of an empirical study in which 23 participants used the PBAF including an abuse case security analysis of the PBAF approach. The overall usability analysis suggests that the PBAF is efficient, effective and usable. However, specific questions need replacement with suitable alternatives due to usability challenges. The results of the current research study suggest that memorability, clarity of questions, syntactic variation and question relevance can cause usability issues leading to authentication failure. A configurable traffic light system was designed and implemented to improve the usability of challenge questions. The security analysis indicates that the PBAF is resistant to informed guessing in general, however, specific questions were identified with security issues. The security analysis identifies challenge questions with potential risks of informed guessing by friends and colleagues. The study was performed with a small number of participants in a simulation online course and the results need to be verified in a real educational context on a larger sample sizePeer reviewedFinal Published versio

Leveraging VR/AR/MR/XR Technologies to Improve Cybersecurity Education, Training, and Operations

The United States faces persistent threats conducting malicious cyber campaigns that threaten critical infrastructure, companies and their intellectual property, and the privacy of its citizens. Additionally, there are millions of unfilled cybersecurity positions, and the cybersecurity skills gap continues to widen. Most companies believe that this problem has not improved and nearly 44% believe it has gotten worse over the past 10 years. Threat actors are continuing to evolve their tactics, techniques, and procedures for conducting attacks on public and private targets. Education institutions and companies must adopt emerging technologies to develop security professionals and to increase cybersecurity awareness holistically. Leveraging Virtual/ Augmented/Mixed/Extended Reality technologies for education, training, and awareness can augment traditional learning methodologies and improve the nation’s cybersecurity posture. This paper reviews previous research to identify how distance and remote education are conducted generally, and how Virtual/Augmented/Extended/Mixed reality technologies are used to conduct cybersecurity awareness training, cybersecurity training, and conduct operations. Finally, barriers to adopting these technologies will be discussed. Understanding how these technologies can be developed and implemented provides one potential way of overcoming the cybersecurity workforce gap and increasing the competencies and capabilities of cybersecurity professionals