Affective Medicine: a review of Affective Computing efforts in Medical Informatics

Background: Affective computing (AC) is concerned with emotional interactions performed with and through computers. It is defined as “computing that relates to, arises from, or deliberately influences emotions”. AC enables investigation and understanding of the relation between human emotions and health as well as application of assistive and useful technologies in the medical domain. Objectives: 1) To review the general state of the art in AC and its applications in medicine, and 2) to establish synergies between the research communities of AC and medical informatics. Methods: Aspects related to the human affective state as a determinant of the human health are discussed, coupled with an illustration of significant AC research and related literature output. Moreover, affective communication channels are described and their range of application fields is explored through illustrative examples. Results: The presented conferences, European research projects and research publications illustrate the recent increase of interest in the AC area by the medical community. Tele-home healthcare, AmI, ubiquitous monitoring, e-learning and virtual communities with emotionally expressive characters for elderly or impaired people are few areas where the potential of AC has been realized and applications have emerged. Conclusions: A number of gaps can potentially be overcome through the synergy of AC and medical informatics. The application of AC technologies parallels the advancement of the existing state of the art and the introduction of new methods. The amount of work and projects reviewed in this paper witness an ambitious and optimistic synergetic future of the affective medicine field

A single case study of a family-centred intervention with a young girl with cerebral palsy who is a multimodal communicator

Background - This paper describes the impact of a family-centred intervention that used video to enhance communication in a young girl with cerebral palsy. This single case study describes how the video-based intervention worked in the context of multimodal communication, which included high-tech augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) device use. This paper includes the family's perspective of the video intervention and they describe the impact of it on their family. Methods - This single case study was based on the premise that the video interaction guidance intervention would increase attentiveness between participants during communication. It tests a hypothesis that eye gaze is a fundamental prerequisite for all communicative initiatives, regardless of modality in the child. Multimodality is described as the range of communicative behaviours used by the child and these are coded as AAC communication, vocalizations (intelligible and unintelligible), sign communication, nodding and pointing. Change was analysed over time with multiple testing both pre and post intervention. Data were analysed within INTERACT, a computer software to analyse behaviourally observed data. Behaviours were analysed for frequency and duration, contingency and co-occurrence. Results - Results indicated increased duration of mother's and girl's eye gaze, increased frequency and duration in AAC communication by the girl and significant change in frequency [χ2 (5, n = 1) = 13.25, P < 0.05] and duration [χ2 (5, n = 1) = 12.57, P < 0.05] of the girl's multimodal communicative behaviours. Contingency and co-occurrence analysis indicated that mother's eye gaze followed by AAC communication was the most prominent change between the pre- and post-intervention assessments. Conclusions - There was a trend for increased eye gaze in both mum and girl and AAC communication in the girl following the video intervention. The family's perspective concurs with the results

Empowering Expression for Users with Aphasia through Constrained Creativity

Creative activities allow people to express themselves in rich, nuanced ways. However, being creative does not always come easily. For example, people with speech and language impairments, such as aphasia, face challenges in creative activities that involve language. In this paper, we explore the concept of constrained creativity as a way of addressing this challenge and enabling creative writing. We report an app, MakeWrite, that supports the constrained creation of digital texts through automated redaction. The app was co-designed with and for people with aphasia and was subsequently explored in a workshop with a group of people with aphasia. Participants were not only successful in crafting novel language, but, importantly, self-reported that the app was crucial in enabling them to do so. We refect on the potential of technology-supported constrained creativity as a means of empowering expression amongst users with diverse needs

The use of computers and augmentative and alternative communication devices by children and young with cerebral palsy

[Abstract] The purpose of the study was to determine the use of computers and assistive devices amongst children with cerebral palsy (CP) and establish the satisfaction level of both users and educational staff. The study was carried out with 30 children with cerebral palsy. A questionnaire was designed to characterize the use of new technologies and assistive devices. Some of the questions were reserved for the teachers. Even though 29 users show some type of communication difficulty, only 4 users dispose of a computer-aided communication device, with the static symbolic board being the most widely used device (4). More than half of the participants (17) regularly use a computer, 16 of them requiring some type of assistive device. The perception of the teachers with regard to the use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) in the classrooms is positive in 5 out of 6 cases. ICTs only provide assistance if their application is accompanied by the involvement of professionals and the child's social environment. The low use of Augmentative and Alternative Communication techniques along with the absence of communication codes reveal the need to establish training protocols. The inclusion of social, physical, and personal factors is considered essential in order to evaluate the needs for assistive technology

How a Diverse Research Ecosystem Has Generated New Rehabilitation Technologies: Review of NIDILRR’s Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers

Over 50 million United States citizens (1 in 6 people in the US) have a developmental, acquired, or degenerative disability. The average US citizen can expect to live 20% of his or her life with a disability. Rehabilitation technologies play a major role in improving the quality of life for people with a disability, yet widespread and highly challenging needs remain. Within the US, a major effort aimed at the creation and evaluation of rehabilitation technology has been the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers (RERCs) sponsored by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. As envisioned at their conception by a panel of the National Academy of Science in 1970, these centers were intended to take a “total approach to rehabilitation”, combining medicine, engineering, and related science, to improve the quality of life of individuals with a disability. Here, we review the scope, achievements, and ongoing projects of an unbiased sample of 19 currently active or recently terminated RERCs. Specifically, for each center, we briefly explain the needs it targets, summarize key historical advances, identify emerging innovations, and consider future directions. Our assessment from this review is that the RERC program indeed involves a multidisciplinary approach, with 36 professional fields involved, although 70% of research and development staff are in engineering fields, 23% in clinical fields, and only 7% in basic science fields; significantly, 11% of the professional staff have a disability related to their research. We observe that the RERC program has substantially diversified the scope of its work since the 1970’s, addressing more types of disabilities using more technologies, and, in particular, often now focusing on information technologies. RERC work also now often views users as integrated into an interdependent society through technologies that both people with and without disabilities co-use (such as the internet, wireless communication, and architecture). In addition, RERC research has evolved to view users as able at improving outcomes through learning, exercise, and plasticity (rather than being static), which can be optimally timed. We provide examples of rehabilitation technology innovation produced by the RERCs that illustrate this increasingly diversifying scope and evolving perspective. We conclude by discussing growth opportunities and possible future directions of the RERC program

The Multi-faceted Implementation of Telepractice to Service Individuals with Autism

Telepractice is a method of service delivery in which professionals provide intervention, assessment and consultation services to individuals through the use of telecommunication technologies.  In response to the nationwide school-based shortage of speech-language pathologists, telepractice has emerged as a viable way to reach underserved clients. Telepractice has the potential to extend to populations in need of services, including those diagnosed with autism.  This paper examines an evidence-based clinical model for the delivery of telepractice services and describes the policies and procedures required for assessing individual need, confidentiality, technology, training and documentation within a telepractice program.  Two clinical case studies involving individuals diagnosed with autism are described and provide initial evidence for the use of telepractice as a practical method for direct and consultative service delivery. Results indicated that both the student receiving direct services, and the treating clinician receiving consultative services via telepractice, demonstrated an increased skill level in target domains

Phonological disorders in children? Design and user experience evaluation of a mobile serious game approach

This paper presents the concept and the user evaluation study of the first Super-Fon’s prototype, which is a mobile health app with a serious game approach for Android Tablets. It was developed with the main goal of working as a complement to the therapeutic intervention in phonological disorders in children between 3 and 8 years old. The app comprises a range of activities, grouped into levels, presenting a therapeutic intervention that follows the Metaphon methodology. The serious game dimension was added to better engage children in its use. The paper presents a user study conducted with two groups of children, without and with the phonological disorders. The first one worked as a control group to better help finding out if the prototype is well designed and provides a positive user experience to be well received by the children, engaging them, despite their condition. The results of the study were very positive and promising.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio