Social Media for the Promotion of Holistic Self-Participatory Care: An Evidence Based Approach

Objectives: As health information is becoming increasingly accessible, social media offers ample opportunities to track, be informed, share and promote health. These authors explore how social media and holistic care may work together; more specifically however, our objective is to document, from different perspectives, how social networks have impacted, supported and helped sustain holistic self-participatory care. Methods: A literature review was performed to investigate the use of social media for promoting health in general and complementary alternative care in particular. We also explore a case study of an intervention for improving the health of Greek senior citizens through digital and other means. Results: The Health Belief Model provides a framework for assessing the benefits of social media interventions in promoting comprehensive participatory self-care. Some interventions are particularly effective when integrating social media with real-world encounters. Yet not all social media tools are evidence-based and efficacious. Interestingly, social media is also used to elicit patient ratings of treatments (e.g., for depression), often demonstrating the effectiveness of complementary treatments, such as yoga and mindfulness meditation. Conclusions: To facilitate the use of social media for the promotion of complementary alternative medicine through self-quantification, social connectedness and sharing of experiences, exploration of concrete and abstract ideas are presented herewithin. The main mechanisms by which social support may help improve health - emotional support, an ability to share experiences, and non-hierarchal roles, emphasizing reciprocity in giving and receiving support – are integral to social media and provide great hope for its effective us

Augmented Minds: Technology’s role in supporting 21st Century Doctors

The issue of preparedness of medical students to work as junior doctors has come under increasing scrutiny. One of the key challenge for tomorrow’s doctors is the capacity and engagement for continuing professional learning and development, as well as, appropriate decision making. consequently, medical schools are exploring various ways in which technology can support this and this includes preparing students for work-based learning as well as enhancing the work-based learning placements. This includes the augmentation of the learning process with the development and consumption of digital content and electronic resources of interactive character to support issues around complex problem solving, decision-making and clinical management. Virtual patients and scenario based learning activities as well as the concept of Living Labs may be used in the preparation for the workplace activity, and thus to enhance the effectiveness of medical student work-placements. Mobile learning, reflective learning and coaching tools are being used to support students’ reflections and action planning whilst on work-based learning placements. The scope of this paper is to provide a vision as to how related technologies and associated pedagogical models may be engaged to augment workplace learning and professional development and to digitally empower the medical professional. Emphasis is placed on technology enhanced self-regulation and decision-making for tomorrow’s medical professionals through innovative use cases practiced at the Leeds Institute of Medical Education, in the UK and the Medical School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece. The expected institutional and societal impacts are considered in the relevant timescales of addressing the problem and in view of forthcoming technological innovations

Evaluating Co-Creative XR Resource Design and Development; Observations from the Field.

There has been an increased interest in medical education and, specifically, in identifying appropriate methods to ensure efficiency in medical students' learning process. The design and development of Immersive experiential technologies, including Virtual patients, chatbots, and Virtual, Augmented, or Mixed Reality (VR/AR/MR), through co-creative methods, find fertile ground to support medical educational material. The aim of the current paper was to evaluate the perceptions and gain insights on healthcare technologists' and educators' experience regarding a series of co-creation sessions conducted during the design and development of XR educational resources. Results of the qualitative research showed that co-creation can be an interactive and engaging method that involves individuals from multidisciplinary backgrounds for effectively designing XR educational resources. However, strict adherence to best practices, as described in this work, is required to avoid hindering the effectiveness of the process and the quality of the final resources

Assessing the Difference in Learning Gain between a Mixed Reality Application and Drawing Screencasts in Neuroanatomy

Augmented, mixed and virtual reality applications and content have surged into the higher education arena, thereby allowing institutions to engage in research and development projects to better understand their efficacy within curricula. However, despite the increasing interest, there remains a lack of robust empirical evidence to justify the mainstream acceptance of this approach as an effective and efficient learning tool. In this study, the impact of a mixed reality application focused on long spinal cord sensory and motor pathways is explored in comparison to an existing resource already embedded within an active curriculum (e.g., anatomy drawing screencasts). To assess the changes in learner gain, a quasi-randomized control trial with a pre- and post-test methodology was used on a cohort of Year 2 medical students, with both the absolute and normalized gain calculated. Similar patterns of learner gain were observed between the two groups; only the multiple-choice questionnaires (MCQs) were shown to be answered significantly higher with the screencast group. This study adds important empirical data to the emerging field of immersive technologies and the specific impact on short-term knowledge gain for neuroanatomy teaching, specifically that of long sensory and motor pathways. Despite the limitations of the study, it provides important additional data to the field and intends to support colleagues across the education landscape in making evidence-informed decisions about the value of including such resources into their curricula

Social Media for the Promotion of Holistic Self-Participatory Care: An Evidence Based Approach

Objectives: As health information is becoming increasingly accessible, social media offers ample opportunities to track, be informed, share and promote health. These authors explore how social media and holistic care may work together; more specifically however, our objective is to document, from different perspectives, how social networks have impacted, supported and helped sustain holistic self-participatory care. Methods: A literature review was performed to investigate the use of social media for promoting health in general and complementary alternative care in particular. We also explore a case study of an intervention for improving the health of Greek senior citizens through digital and other means. Results: The Health Belief Model provides a framework for assessing the benefits of social media interventions in promoting comprehensive participatory self-care. Some interventions are particularly effective when integrating social media with real-world encounters. Yet not all social media tools are evidence-based and efficacious. Interestingly, social media is also used to elicit patient ratings of treatments (e.g., for depression), often demonstrating the effectiveness of complementary treatments, such as yoga and mindfulness meditation. Conclusions: To facilitate the use of social media for the promotion of complementary alternative medicine through self-quantification, social connectedness and sharing of experiences, exploration of concrete and abstract ideas are presented herewithin. The main mechanisms by which social support may help improve health - emotional support, an ability to share experiences, and non-hierarchal roles, emphasizing reciprocity in giving and receiving support – are integral to social media and provide great hope for its effective us

ViewpointS: towards a Collective Brain

International audienceTracing knowledge acquisition and linking learning events to interaction between peers is a major challenge of our times. We have conceived, designed and evaluated a new paradigm for constructing and using collective knowledge by Web interactions that we called ViewpointS. By exploiting the similarity with Edelman's Theory of Neuronal Group Selection (TNGS), we conjecture that it may be metaphorically considered a Collective Brain, especially effective in the case of trans-disciplinary representations. Far from being without doubts, in the paper we present the reasons (and the limits) of our proposal that aims to become a useful integrating tool for future quantitative explorations of individual as well as collective learning at different degrees of granu-larity. We are therefore challenging each of the current approaches: the logical one in the semantic Web, the statistical one in mining and deep learning, the social one in recommender systems based on authority and trust; not in each of their own preferred field of operation, rather in their integration weaknesses far from the holistic and dynamic behavior of the human brain

ViewpointS: A Collective Brain

International audienceUnderstanding and forecasting brain functions is the major challenge of our times. The focus of this endeavor is understanding and forecasting learning events, such as the dynamic adaptation of beams connecting neuronal cards in Edelman's Theory of Neuronal Group Selection (TNGS). We have conceived, designed and evaluated a new paradigm for constructing and using collective knowledge by Web interactions that we called ViewpointS. By exploiting the similarity with the TNGS we conjecture that it may be metaphorically considered a Collective Brain, especially effective in the case of trans-disciplinary representations. Far from being without doubts, in the paper we present the reasons (and the limits) of our proposal that aims to become a useful integrating tool for future quantitative explorations of individual brain functions as well as of collective wisdom at different degrees of granularity. We are therefore challenging each of the current approaches: the logical one in the semantic Web, the statistical one in mining and deep learning, the social one in recommender systems based on authority and trust; not in each of their own preferred field of operation, rather in their integration weaknesses far from the holistic and dynamic behavior of the human brain