Identifying App-Based Meditation Habits and the Associated Mental Health Benefits: Longitudinal Observational Study

Background: Behavioral habits are often initiated by contextual cues that occur at approximately the same time each day; so, it may be possible to identify a reflexive habit based on the temporal similarity of repeated daily behavior. Mobile health tools provide the detailed, longitudinal data necessary for constructing such an indicator of reflexive habits, which can improve our understanding of habit formation and help design more effective mobile health interventions for promoting healthier habits. Objective: This study aims to use behavioral data from a commercial mindfulness meditation mobile phone app to construct an indicator of reflexive meditation habits based on temporal similarity and estimate the association between temporal similarity and meditation app users’ perceived health benefits. Methods: App-use data from June 2019 to June 2020 were analyzed for 2771 paying subscribers of a meditation mobile phone app, of whom 86.06% (2359/2771) were female, 72.61% (2012/2771) were college educated, 86.29% (2391/2771) were White, and 60.71% (1664/2771) were employed full-time. Participants volunteered to complete a survey assessing their perceived changes in physical and mental health from using the app. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was used to evaluate the ability of the temporal similarity measure to predict future behavior, and variable importance statistics from random forest models were used to corroborate these findings. Logistic regression was used to estimate the association between temporal similarity and self-reported physical and mental health benefits. Results: The temporal similarity of users’ daily app use before completing the survey, as measured by the dynamic time warping (DTW) distance between app use on consecutive days, significantly predicted app use at 28 days and at 6 months after the survey, even after controlling for users’ demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, total app sessions, duration of app use, and number of days with any app use. In addition, the temporal similarity measure significantly increased in the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for models predicting any future app use in 28 days (AUC=0.868 with DTW and 0.850 without DTW; P\u3c.001) and for models predicting any app use in 6 months (AUC=0.821 with DTW and 0.802 without DTW; P\u3c.001). Finally, a 1% increase in the temporal similarity of users’ daily meditation practice with the app over 6 weeks before the survey was associated with increased odds of reporting mental health improvements, with an odds ratio of 2.94 (95% CI 1.832-6.369). Conclusions: The temporal similarity of the meditation app use was a significant predictor of future behavior, which suggests that this measure can identify reflexive meditation habits. In addition, temporal similarity was associated with greater perceived mental health benefits, which demonstrates that additional mental health benefits may be derived from forming reflexive meditation habits

Tissue Apposition: From Bench to Bedside

L’endoscopie flexible a considérablement évolué au cours des cinquante dernières années. D’une procédure purement diagnostique, elle est aujourd’hui principalement thérapeutique. Des procédures telles que dilatation, implantation de prothèse et polypectomie sont pratiquées quotidiennement dans des centres qualifiés.Depuis toujours l’apposition tissulaire est pratiquée par les chirurgiens pour réaliser des anastomoses et des sutures. L’apposition de séreuse à séreuse, créant un attachement permanent par la cicatrisation, ne s’est développée que récemment en endoscopie. Pour réaliser cela, de nouveaux outils devaient être créés. L’idée principale pour permettre d’apposer et de suturer des tissus est d’obtenir un système de triangulation permettant de travailler perpendiculairement à l’axe de l’endoscope.En collaboration avec les ingénieurs de la faculté polytechnique de notre Université, un nouveau système de triangulation a été créé. Au début complexe et manipulé par un système robotique, il a ensuite été simplifié pour devenir mécanique et rigide.Cette plateforme pouvant être assemblée à l’intérieur du corps permet la réalisation de sutures endoluminales, sans équivalent actuel parmi les dispositifs médicaux disponibles. Cela nous a permis de mener des études scientifiques pour tester la validité, la sécurité et enfin l’efficacité de ce dispositif, ainsi que de concevoir et d’améliorer la technique dans une indication bariatrique, et de rechercher de nouvelles indications.La première partie de notre travail a révélé la performance de la réduction gastrique dans la prise en charge des patients obèses. La procédure a initialement été conçue et testée sur des animaux, puis une première étude de sécurité chez l’homme a été menée. Cette étude a mis en évidence la sécurité de la technique mais a également fourni des résultats préliminaires en termes d’efficacité. Une deuxième étude multicentrique d’efficacité a ensuite été menée sur 51 patients. Les résultats de cette étude ont été positifs en termes de perte de poids et de sécurité de la technique. Ensuite, pour évaluer l’efficacité intrinsèque de la procédure, une étude randomisée a été menée. Actuellement tous les patients ont été inclus. Le suivi à 1 an n’est pas encore disponible mais les résultats préliminaires à 6 mois sont discutés.Ayant ce nouveau dispositif à notre disposition, nous nous sommes intéressés à d’autres indications. La première concernait le traitement des diverticules œsophagiens, une maladie bénigne et difficile à traiter, que nous avons abordée initialement avec un traitement utilisant des aimants pour l’apposition des tissus. Cependant le système de sutures, initialement développé, a été modifié et utilisé avec succès dans cette indication. Parmi les autres indications explorées figurent le syndrome de l’anse afférente et la reprise de poids post Bypass gastrique. Ces études sont toujours en cours.La résection en paroi complète est une autre indication que nous avons évaluée. Dans cette indication particulière, nous avons effectué une première étude de sécurité et de faisabilité animale, qui nous a permis, via des ajustements de matériel, de démarrer une étude chez l’homme. Le premier patient traité avec succès ayant déjà été rapporté.Nous évaluons actuellement d’autres indications telles que le traitement des comorbidités associées à l’obésité (Diabète de type 2 et NASH) ou la prise en charge du reflux gastro-œsophagien.En résumé, ce travail rend compte des différentes études cliniques issues du développement, avec nos collègues ingénieurs, d’un nouveau dispositif médical. Il illustre les différentes étapes nécessaire pour établir la sécurité et l’efficacité d’une nouvelle procédure qui pourrait représenter un changement de paradigme dans la gestion de l’obésité, mais montre également comment un nouveau concept peut représenter un intérêt pour d’autres indications rares et nouvelles.Doctorat en Sciences médicales (Médecine)info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublishe

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Novel biliary self-expanding metal stents: indications and applications.

Endoscopic insertion of a self-expanding metal stent (SEMS) through a malignant common bile duct stricture is the first line of palliation for malignant jaundice. Patency of these stents remains a major concern. SEMS dysfunction can result from tumor ingrowth, overgrowth and/or clogging. Initial SEMS modifications involved covering the central part of the stent in order to reduce ingrowth and ultimately increase patency. Fully covered stents became available shortly after reports of their use in human patients. The potential removability and radial strength of SEMS have led to evaluation of their use in new indications including benign biliary strictures, post sphincterotomy bleeding and perforation. Other aspects of development include the addition of features such as anti-reflux valves, drug elution and spontaneous biodegradability. These aspects and their clinical implications are reviewed and discussed.JOURNAL ARTICLESCOPUS: re.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Treatment of an epiphrenic diverticulum

SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Endoscopic full-thickness resection of a gastric GI stromal tumor

SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Using Mobile Meditation App Data to Predict Future App Engagement: An Observational Study

Objective Meditation with mobile apps has been shown to improve mental and physical health. However, regular, long-term meditation app use is needed to maintain these health benefits, and many people have a difficult time maintaining engagement with meditation apps over time. Our goal was to determine the length of the timeframe over which usage data must be collected before future app abandonment can be predicted accurately in order to better target additional behavioral support to those who are most likely to stop using the app. Methods Data were collected from a randomly drawn sample of 2600 new subscribers to a 1-year membership of the mobile app Calm, who started using the app between July and November of 2018. App usage data contained the duration and start time of all meditation sessions with the app over 365 days. We used these data to construct the following predictive model features: total daily sessions, total daily duration, and a measure of temporal similarity between consecutive days based on the dynamic time warping (DTW) distance measure. We then fit random forest models using increasingly longer periods of data after users subscribed to Calm to predict whether they performed any meditation sessions over 2-week intervals in the future. Model fit was assessed using the area under the receiver operator characteristic curve (AUC), and an exponential growth model was used to determine the minimal amount of data needed to reach an accurate prediction (95% of max AUC) of future engagement. Results After first subscribing to Calm, 83.1% of the sample used the Calm app on at least 1 more day. However, by day 350 after subscribing, 58.0% of users abandoned their use of the app. For the persistent users, the average number of daily sessions was 0.33 (SD = 0.02), the average daily duration of meditating was 3.93 minutes (SD = 0.25), and the average DTW distance to the previous day was 1.50 (SD = 0.17). The exponential growth models revealed that an average of 64 days of observations after subscribing to Calm are needed to reach an accurate prediction of future app engagement. Discussion Our results are consistent with existing estimates of the time required to develop a new habit. Additionally, this research demonstrates how to use app usage data to quickly and accurately predict the likelihood of users’ future app abandonment. This research allows future researchers to better target just-in-time interventions towards users at risk of abandonment

Metabolic endoscopy: Today’s science—tomorrow’s treatment

Obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis are increasing pandemic metabolic disorders. Lifestyle intervention (LSI) is the cornerstone treatment for these but is successful as standard care alone in only a few patients, given the modest weight loss at mid and long term. Conversely, bariatric surgery is the only proven effective treatment for these metabolic disorders, albeit offered only in a small percentage of cases because of its invasiveness and cost. The so-called endoscopic bariatric and metabolic therapies (EBMTs) include new, less-invasive technologies such as intragastric balloons, aspiration therapy, endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty, diversion devices, and duodenal mucosal resurfacing, currently at various stages of development. EBMTs, as an add-on to LSI, might represent an effective treatment filling the gap between medical and surgical management, taking into account, however, that obesity and its associated comorbidities constitute a chronic disease that needs lifelong therapy. In this review we describe the current scientific evidence surrounding EBMTs as well as future opportunities for such treatments in managing obesity and metabolic disorders.SCOPUS: re.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Magnetic compression for treatment of large oesophageal diverticula: A new endoscopic approach for a risky surgical disease?

SCOPUS: no.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe