U-Care: Requirements Elicitation For Ambient Assisted Living

Western countries are facing similar trends in healthcare: population is aging, life expectations are growing, the number of healthcare professionals is decreasing, cost pressure on healthcare systems is increasing and urbanization is taking place. ICT can however provide routes to more efficient healthcare solutions: it may provide both quantitative and qualitative improvements by improving access, reducing cost and raising quality.\ud Home care is one important healthcare area. It aids elderly to stay at home as long as possible before moving towards more intensive care environments; it has the potential to alleviate care needs and costs; and it potentially improves the health status of elderly by empowerment and context-dependent monitoring and treatment. This submission presents our requirements elicitation approach for ICT-based home care services, also referred to as Ambient Assisted Living (AAL).\u

Fine-tuning a context-aware system application by using user-centred design methods

Context-Aware Systems in the home environment can provide an effective solution for supporting wellbeing and autonomy for the elderly. The definition and implementation of the system architecture for a particular assisted living healthcare application entail both technological and usability challenges. If issues regarding users’ concerns and desires are taken into account in the early stages of the system development users can benefit substantially more from this technology. In this paper, we describe our initial experiences with different user-centred design methods, as they are applied in the process of fine-tuning a context-aware system architecture to improve quality of life for elderly THR patients (Total Hip Replacement). The insights resulting from this approach result in a clearer functional specification towards a better fit with the user needs regarding information need of the patient as well as the physiotherapist. Important system requirements as timing and content of the feedback are much more fruitful in an earlier phase of the development process. User-centred design methods help to better understand the needed functional features of a context-aware system, thereby saving time and helping developers to improve adoption of the system by the users

Myotel: adressing motor behavior in neck shoulder pain by assessing and feedback semg in the daily (work) environment

Subjects with chronic pain differ in motor behavior especially with a decreased ability to relax their muscles. A myofeedback system has been developed that assesses muscle relaxation in an ambulant way during daily activities. The objective of this study was to examine the RMST on technical efficacy for clinical use and explore changes in clinical outcome

The political economy of e-learning educational development: Strategies, standardisation and scalability

The development of e-learning by government through policy, funding allocations, research-based collaborative projects and alliances has increased recently in both developed and under-developed nations. The paper notes that government, industry and corporate users are increasingly focusing on standardisation issues and the scalability of technology platforms to meet demand. This paper assesses the challenges for further development that e-learning faces in the coming years, including: access to appropriate technology, scalability, measurement, and changed governance structures. © 2004, Emerald Group Publishing Limite

Changes in circle area after gravity compensation training in chronic stroke patients

After a stroke, many people experience difficulties to selectively activate muscles. As a result many patients move the affected arm in stereotypical patterns. Shoulder abduction is often accompanied by elbow flexion, reducing the ability to extend the elbow. This involuntary coupling reduces the patient's active range of motion. Gravity compensation reduces the activation level of shoulder abductors which limits the amount of coupled elbow flexion. As a result, stroke patients can instantaneously increase their active range of motion [1]. The objective of the present study is to examine whether training in a gravity compensated environment can also lead to an increased range of motion in an unsupported environment. Parts of this work have been presented at EMBC2009, Minneapolis, USA

Exploring Patterns of Activities of Daily Living in the Home Environment

Background: Senior citizens tend to live longer and longer independently. Judging whether a senior person is still capable of living on his own is often based on the occurrence of incidents, with all consequences thereof. In the specific case of early dementia, the symptoms are not immediately apparent and the occurrence and severity of incidents progress gradually over time. In this case, the children or grandchildren are burdened by the question whether or not the elderly adult can still live safely and independently in his or her own home. This decision is only based on input obtained through incidental visits. We believe that the capability of independent living can only be objectively judged, by a health professional, if long term objective information on the elderly person's daily activities of living (ADL) is available

Biosignal and context monitoring: Distributed multimedia applications of body area networks in healthcare

We are investigating the use of Body Area Networks (BANs), wearable sensors and wireless communications for measuring, processing, transmission, interpretation and display of biosignals. The goal is to provide telemonitoring and teletreatment services for patients. The remote health professional can view a multimedia display which includes graphical and numerical representation of patients’ biosignals. Addition of feedback-control enables teletreatment services; teletreatment can be delivered to the patient via multiple modalities including tactile, text, auditory and visual. We describe the health BAN and a generic mobile health service platform and two context aware applications. The epilepsy application illustrates processing and interpretation of multi-source, multimedia BAN data. The chronic pain application illustrates multi-modal feedback and treatment, with patients able to view their own biosignals on their handheld device

Sport sponsorship alliances: relationship management for shared value

© 2014, © Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Purpose – Using a case study of an international sport event, the purpose of this paper is to examine the inter-organisational relationship between a sport event property and its corporate sponsors. Design/methodology/approach – Interviews were conducted with personnel from the national sport organisation responsible for the delivery of this major event, and from four of its corporate sponsorship partners. Findings – The findings indicated that both formal and informal governance were critical to the relationships underpinning these sponsorship alliances. From a dyadic perspective, it was found that the satisfaction of sponsorship partners had two key elements: tangible commercial benefits from the sponsor-sponsee alliance, and the less tangible but nonetheless valuable relationship support within the partnership. In short, partner satisfaction and alliance stability stemmed from relational constructs and the balance of formal governance mechanisms. Originality/value – This paper explores the variables that generate value and maintain alliance stability for improved sponsorship governance. These findings, while focused on a single case study, have implications for research in the field of sponsorship and to the area of business-to-business relationships more broadly

Myoelectric forearm prostheses: State of the art from a user-centered perspective

User acceptance of myoelectric forearm prostheses is currently low. Awkward control, lack of feedback, and difficult training are cited as primary reasons. Recently, researchers have focused on exploiting the new possibilities offered by advancements in prosthetic technology. Alternatively, researchers could focus on prosthesis acceptance by developing functional requirements based on activities users are likely to perform. In this article, we describe the process of determining such requirements and then the application of these requirements to evaluating the state of the art in myoelectric forearm prosthesis research. As part of a needs assessment, a workshop was organized involving clinicians (representing end users), academics, and engineers. The resulting needs included an increased number of functions, lower reaction and execution times, and intuitiveness of both control and feedback systems. Reviewing the state of the art of research in the main prosthetic subsystems (electromyographic [EMG] sensing, control, and feedback) showed that modern research prototypes only partly fulfill the requirements. We found that focus should be on validating EMG-sensing results with patients, improving simultaneous control of wrist movements and grasps, deriving optimal parameters for force and position feedback, and taking into account the psychophysical aspects of feedback, such as intensity perception and spatial acuity