Challenges in medical visualization: An interactive approach to explore the effect of 3-D technology on the visualization of pain

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Pain experienced as a result of a disabling medical condition is a frequent problem in the clinical community and can often be present in any individual with this kind of health concern. Such pain is typically characterized by severe implications reflected on both a person‘s personal life, as well as on a country‘s health and economic systems. Research on pain has revealed that patients not only experience several types of pain that could prove to be challenging to address, but also that each individual can interpret the same type, location and severity of this pain in different subjective ways, making the need for more effective pain measurement methods an imperative and troublesome effort. In retrospect, the healthcare field is currently trying to enhance the available medical methods with alternatives that would be more efficient in providing accurate pain assessment. Most efforts revolve around traditional methods of measuring pain characteristics, which typically involve the 2-Dimensional (2-D) representation of the human body, often used to collect information regarding the type and location of pain. However, these 2-D pain drawings can be limited in their ability to efficiently visualize pain characteristics for diagnosis purposes. Nonetheless, patients have been shown to prefer such drawings. This research develops an alternative interactive software solution to help in addressing the aforementioned situation, by employing the capabilities that advancements in 3-Dimension (3-D) technology offer. Subsequently, in the anticipation that limitations of current 2-D pain visualization will be solved, the developed approach facilitates the measurement of pain experiences via a 3-D visualization model of the patient. To ensure that it can effectively perform in real-world medical practice, the 3-D pain drawing is evaluated in this research through real-life case studies that are carried out in designated settings. The research findings have shown that the developed approach can potentially make significant contributions to society, science/technology and healthcare provision, with patients and clinicians suggesting that 3-D technology can be a promising means in the pursuit for more effective pain measurement solutions.Brunel University, Department of Information Systems and Computing (DISC

Challenges in medical visualization : an interactive approach to explore the effect of 3-D technology on the visualization of pain

Pain experienced as a result of a disabling medical condition is a frequent problem in the clinical community and can often be present in any individual with this kind of health concern. Such pain is typically characterized by severe implications reflected on both a person‘s personal life, as well as on a country‘s health and economic systems. Research on pain has revealed that patients not only experience several types of pain that could prove to be challenging to address, but also that each individual can interpret the same type, location and severity of this pain in different subjective ways, making the need for more effective pain measurement methods an imperative and troublesome effort. In retrospect, the healthcare field is currently trying to enhance the available medical methods with alternatives that would be more efficient in providing accurate pain assessment. Most efforts revolve around traditional methods of measuring pain characteristics, which typically involve the 2-Dimensional (2-D) representation of the human body, often used to collect information regarding the type and location of pain. However, these 2-D pain drawings can be limited in their ability to efficiently visualize pain characteristics for diagnosis purposes. Nonetheless, patients have been shown to prefer such drawings. This research develops an alternative interactive software solution to help in addressing the aforementioned situation, by employing the capabilities that advancements in 3-Dimension (3-D) technology offer. Subsequently, in the anticipation that limitations of current 2-D pain visualization will be solved, the developed approach facilitates the measurement of pain experiences via a 3-D visualization model of the patient. To ensure that it can effectively perform in real-world medical practice, the 3-D pain drawing is evaluated in this research through real-life case studies that are carried out in designated settings. The research findings have shown that the developed approach can potentially make significant contributions to society, science/technology and healthcare provision, with patients and clinicians suggesting that 3-D technology can be a promising means in the pursuit for more effective pain measurement solutions.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

The gamification of accessibility design: A proposed framework

The use of Gamification for the purpose of training and raising awareness has attracted considerable interest over the last years. However, the development of such solutions to use within the area of accessibility design has not been yet explored. In this paper, we present a proposed framework using Gamification as a method for engaging and motivating web designers to increase the adoption of the W3C WCAG 2.0 guidelines. It is anticipated that our framework will provide a more interactive and intuitive learning experience

A Serious Game for Raising Designer Awareness of Web Accessibility Guidelines

Accessibility of products and services is key for people living with a disability to ensure that they are easier to use. However, web accessibility guidelines have been shown to be cumbersome to understand, which impacts on designers’ intention to use them. Several tools have been proposed in the literature, but they mostly focus on automatic accessibility testing, a process that is performed after a product has been developed. Little attention has been paid to using web accessibility guidelines during the design phase. In this paper, we present GATE, a serious game to help raise designer awareness of web accessibility guidelines, which is part of our work in progress on gamified technologies for this purpose. Its usability and perceived effectiveness were evaluated through an empirical study using a mixed methods approach. Our initial findings show that GATE is a promising solution that scored high in its playability and potential for use. This work has important potential contributions for the wider adoption of web accessibility guidelines

Smartphone applications designed to improve older people’s chronic pain management:an integrated systematic review

(1) Background: Older people’s chronic pain is often not well managed because of fears of side-effects and under-reporting. Telehealth interventions, in the form of smartphone applications, are attracting much interest in the management of chronic diseases, with new and evolving approaches in response to current population demographics. However, the extent to which telehealth interventions may be used to promote and effect the self-management of chronic pain is not established. (2) Aim: To provide an objective review of the existing quantitative and qualitative evidence pertaining to the benefits of smartphone applications for the management of chronic pain in older people. (3) Methods: A literature search was undertaken using PubMed, Medline, CINAHL, Embase, PsychINFO, the Cochrane database, Science Direct and references of retrieved articles. The data were independently extracted by two reviewers from the original reports. (4) Results: This integrative systematic review identified 10 articles considering smartphone applications related to self-management of chronic pain among older adults. (5) Conclusions: It is important for future research to not only examine the effects of smartphone initiatives, but also to compare their safety, acceptability, efficacy and cost–benefit ratio in relation to existing treatment modalities.</p

Efficient in-game communication in collaborative online multiplayer Games

The ability to communicate during online gaming is one that has become fundamental. Players could use voice, textual chat, pre-determined commands or a combination of these methods in order to command a team, follow an appointed leader or simply to socialise with friends. There is an abundance of reasons why a person will choose to utilise the conversational frameworks available, however, when considering a game where players must work together in order to reach a common goal, it is up for interpretation to determine which method works most efficiently. The aim of this work is to address this need through a game that utilises these three methods of communication in order to determine their efficiency. A combination of qualitative and quantitative methods was employed to formulate a well-rounded conclusion. Results indicated that a combination of voice and predetermined commands is the most efficient method of in-game communication in online, task-oriented games

Designing for designers: Towards the development of accessible ICT products and services using the VERITAS framework

Among key design practices which contribute to the development of inclusive ICT products and services is user testing with people with disabilities. Traditionally, this involves partial or minimal user testing through the usage of standard heuristics, employing external assisting devices, and the direct feedback of impaired users. However, efficiency could be improved if designers could readily analyse the needs of their target audience. The VERITAS framework simulates and systematically analyses how users with various impairments interact with the use of ICT products and services. Findings show that the VERITAS framework is useful to designers, offering an intuitive approach to inclusive design.The work presented in this article forms part of VERITAS, which is funded by the European Commission's 7th Framework Programme (FP7) (grant agreement # 247765 FP7-ICT-2009.7.2)

An interactive 3-D application for pain management: Results from a pilot study in spinal cord injury rehabilitation

This is the post-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2012 ElevierResearch on pain following spinal cord injury (SCI) has revealed that patients not only experience several types of pain that could prove to be challenging to address, but also that each individual can interpret such pain in different subjective ways. In this paper we introduce a 3-D system for facilitating the efficient management of pain, and thus, supporting clinicians in overcoming the aforementioned challenges. This system was evaluated by a cohort of 15 SCI patients in a pilot study that took place between July and October 2010. Participants reported their experiences of using the 3-D system in an adapted version of the System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire. Statistically significant results were obtained with regards to the usability and efficiency of the 3-D system, with the majority of the patients finding it particularly useful to report their pain. Our findings suggest that the 3-D system can be an efficient tool in the efforts to better manage the pain experience of SCI patients

PainDroid: An android-based virtual reality application for pain assessment

Earlier studies in the field of pain research suggest that little efficient intervention currently exists in response to the exponential increase in the prevalence of pain. In this paper, we present an Android application (PainDroid) with multimodal functionality that could be enhanced with Virtual Reality (VR) technology, which has been designed for the purpose of improving the assessment of this notoriously difficult medical concern. Pain- Droid has been evaluated for its usability and acceptability with a pilot group of potential users and clinicians, with initial results suggesting that it can be an effective and usable tool for improving the assessment of pain. Participant experiences indicated that the application was easy to use and the potential of the application was similarly appreciated by the clinicians involved in the evaluation. Our findings may be of considerable interest to healthcare providers, policy makers, and other parties that might be actively involved in the area of pain and VR research