Learning based on challenges in the context of multidisciplinary teamwork in ehealth: an evaluation of the students' experience

Education in eHealth is becoming of transcendental importance in the European social context. The progressive aging of the population has generated an increase in the prevalence of people with disabilities who demand more effective, adapted and flexible services. Advances in computer science and technology are enabling a qualitative leap in the care of these people, offering solutions to health demands. However, the incorporation of technology in the field of health requires the acquisition of new skills. The eHealth Eurocampus is an EU-funded Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership, whose primary aim is to support the development of innovative teaching materials and activities that will improve the relevance and quality of higher education in the field of eHealth. A total of 10 European institutions participate in the project, including universities, hospitals and technology companies. We present the results corresponding to the third edition of the summer school that took place in Barcelona during the month of July 2019. On this occasion, the main topic was the use of robotics and medical imaging for the treatment of physical and cognitive disability. A teaching methodology based on the presentation of challenges was used and for which the different groups had to work and give a technological solution. The challenges were proposed by real patients and healthcare professionals who, from their experience, presented a problem of their daily life: they went from issues related to the mobility of people with physical disabilities to the usability of medical devices in hospital settings. The students were organized in multi-disciplinary and multicultural teams, and they had to develop their prototypes to respond to the proposed challenge. The resulting projects were presented publicly to the patients and professionals themselves for further discussion. The results presented refer to the perceptions of participating students about the effectiveness of this methodology in the training of skills and competences for multidisciplinary work. In general, the adequacy of the methodology for the described objective is verified. Students highlight the importance of soft skills training in this type of context. Communication has appeared as the most important competence. Some students have mentioned that one of the great challenges encountered was to understand each other among the different backgrounds. However, they consider that the effort involved in having to reason their positions with understandable terms for all team members has improved their communication and conflict resolution skills. Another of the strengths that stand out in the results is the fact that the project was raised from real cases. However, the students identify as an aspect of improvement a greater interaction with the people who propose the challenges to validate the proposed solution during the development process of the project, and not only at the end. In conclusion, the results demonstrate the effectiveness of experiences of this type in the training of skills necessary for work in the context of digital health. It is important to incorporate initiatives of this type in the current university degrees for greater adaptation of training to the needs and demands of the social and professional context.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

VR4Health: personalized teaching and learning anatomy using VR

Virtual Reality (VR) is being integrated into many different areas of our lives, from industrial engineering to video-games, and also including teaching and education. We have several examples where VR has been used to engage students and facilitate their 3D spatial understanding, but can VR help also teachers? What are the benefits teachers can obtain on using VR applications? In this paper we present an application (VR4Health) designed to allow students to directly inspect 3D models of several human organs by using Virtual Reality systems. The application is designed to be used in an HMD device autonomously as a self-learning tool and also reports information to teachers in order that he/she becomes aware of what the students do and can redirect his/her work to the concrete necessities of the student. We evaluate both the students’ and the teachers’ perception by doing an experiment and asking them to fill-in a questionnaire at the end of the experiment.This study was partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (grant number TIN2017-88515-C2-1-R).Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Educational Needs in oncology nursing: A scoping review

Care in oncology requires both technical and psychosocial skills by nursing staff, so continuous learning is necessary. Evidence suggests there are some educational gaps in oncology nursing staff, and continuing educational interventions have been effective in overcoming these defificiencies. Aim: to determine the basic educational lines that a continuous training program should have for oncology nurses. A bibliographic review study was carried out in two phases from October 2020 to January 2021. In a fifirst phase, the main databases were analyzed: PubMed, Web of Science, Dialnet and Medline, following the PRISMA methodology; and subsequently, an analysis of the most important thematic nuclei that a training program in cancer nursing should contain. The DAFO matrix and the Hanlon prioritization method were used. Four competencies that every oncology nurse should have were described: communication, coping, self-direction of learning and technical health. The thematic contents that a training program should contain were then determined, and aspects such as stress prevention and burnout, adequate communication with patient and family, and continuous educational and technical skills were considered. The results found suggest that there are defificiencies in the education of nursing staff. Continuing education programs are effective in supplementing them. They should develop the four skills described in the results section

Virtual reality to teach anatomy

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) have been gradually introduced in the curriculum of schools given the benefits they bring to classical education. We present an experiment designed to expose students to a VR session where they can directly inspect 3D models of several human organs by using Virtual Reality systems. Our systems allow the students to see the models directly visualized in 3D and to interact with them as if they were real. The experiment has involved 254 students of a Nursing Degree, enrolled in the Human anatomy and physiology course during 2 years (2 consecutive courses). It includes 10 3D models representing different anatomical structures which have been enhanced with meta-data to help the students understand the structure. In order to evaluate the students' satisfaction facing such a new teaching methodology, the students were asked to fill in a questionnaire with two categories. The first one measured whether or not, the teaching session using VR facilitates the understanding of the structures. The second one measured the student's satisfaction with this VR session. From the results we can see that the items most valuated are the use of the activity as a learning tool, and the satisfaction of the students' expectations. We can therefore conclude that VR session for teaching is a powerful learning tool that helps to understand the anatomical structures.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Electron effective mass and mobility in heavily doped n-GaAsN probed by Raman scattering

We investigate inelastic light scattering by longitudinal optic phonon-plasmon coupled modes LOPCMs in a series of heavily Se-doped, n-type GaAs1−xNx epilayers with x 0.4%. We perform a line shape analysis of the LOPCM spectra to estimate the optical effective mass, mopt , and the scattering time of the conduction electrons in GaAsN. We use these results to evaluate an effective carrier mobility for our samples. The values thus obtained, which we compare with measured electron Hall mobilities, indicate that the x-dependence of the mobility in GaAs1−xNx is dominated by the scattering time, rather than by the variation of the electron effective mass. The Raman analysis yields mopt values that are lower than those obtained from the band anticrossing model. © 2008 American Institute of Physics.This work is supported by the Spanish Government Projects MAT 2004-0664 and MAT2007-63617, and Ramon y Cajal Program and the EPSRC, United Kingdom. 1M. Henini, Dilute Nitride Semiconductors Elsevier Science, AmsterdamPeer reviewe

Far-infrared transmission in GaN,AlN and AlGaN thin films grown by molecular beam epitaxy

We present a far-infrared transmission study on group-III nitride thin films. Cubic GaN and AlN layers and c-oriented wurtzite GaN, AlN, and AlxGa1−xN (x<0.3) layers were grown by molecular beam epitaxy on GaAs and Si(111) substrates, respectively. The Berreman effect allows us to observe simultaneously the transverse optic and the longitudinal optic phonons of both the cubic and the hexagonal films as transmission minima in the infrared spectra acquired with obliquely incident radiation. We discuss our results in terms of the relevant electromagnetic theory of infrared transmission in cubic and wurtzite thin films. We compare the infrared results with visible Raman-scattering measurements. In the case of films with low scattering volumes and/or low Raman efficiencies and also when the Raman signal of the substrate material obscures the weaker peaks from the nitride films, we find that the Berreman technique is particularly useful to complement Raman spectroscop

eHealth Eurocampus Project: preparing innovative ICT professionals

The eHealth Eurocampus project, an EU-funded project, aims at preparing innovative professionals able to cope with the challenge of fostering a spirit of innovation in eHealth in Europe as the way forward to ensure better health and better and safer care. The main objectives of the eHealth Eurocampus are improving the relevance and quality of higher education in the field of ICT applications for health, and fostering employability through curricula adaptation to labour market needs and the development of entrepreneurship skills. In the frame of this project we are developing course materials, and implementing new and innovative teaching methods that are tested through joint learning activities (summer schools), which will be used later on in different master courses. The project includes the organization of training seminars to exchange good practices and knowledge among teachers and researchers. The eHealth Eurocampus consortium includes 8 higher education institutions, a regional centre of technological development and entrepreneurship promotion, and a European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation. The partnership represents different European health management systems, from 5 European countries.Postprint (author's final draft

TCT-381 Optical coherence tomography for the early detection of cardiac allograft vasculopathy after heart trasplant

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