Usability assessment of an interactive health technology for kidney living donors : protocol for a prospective cross-sectional survey

Introduction Several web portals for kidney patients are available, but assessments of their performance are scarce. A crucial aspect of living donation is to provide standardised information about the risks of the procedure. This is of particular interest among candidates for kidney living donation. In 2019, the Digital Care Path for Living Kidney Donor Candidates was launched in Finland as part of the Health Village portal, containing information about the donation process and facilitating communication between clinicians, transplant coordinators and patients. The performance of this eHealth service has not yet been studied. The present study will investigate living donor candidates' experience with the Health Village and Digital Care Path for Living Kidney Donor Candidates. Participants' general attitudes towards the use of eHealth services will also be explored as a secondary objective. Methods and analysis A prospective cross-sectional survey study will take place. Participants will be kidney donor candidates who have used the digital care path since its implementation in January 2019 up to 1 March 2021 (N=122). The surveys will include demographic data, electronic device ownership and digital health literacy. Platform's ease of use will be assessed with the System Usability Scale. Open-ended questions will be used to gather suggestions. Ethics and dissemination The research protocol has been approved by the Helsinki University Hospital ethical committee (HUS/501/2021) to ensure that the work is done in accordance with the declaration of Helsinki and Declaration of Istanbul. Recruitment will start during the first semester of 2021. Initial results are expected during the second semester of 2021.Peer reviewe

Analysing Sentiment and Topics Related to Multiple Sclerosis on Twitter

The MIE2020 conference planned end of April 2020 has been cancelled due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemyBackground and objective: Social media could be valuable tools to support people with multiple sclerosis (MS). There is little evidence on the MSrelated topics that are discussed on social media, and the sentiment linked to these topics. The objective of this work is to identify the MS-related main topics discussed on Twitter, and the sentiment linked to them. Methods: Tweets dealing with MS in the English language were extracted. Latent-Dirilecht Allocation (LDA) was used to identify the main topics discussed in these tweets. Iterative inductive process was used to group the tweets into recurrent topics. The sentiment analysis of these tweets was performed using SentiStrength. Results: LDA’ identified topics were grouped into 4 categories, tweets dealing with: related chronic conditions; condition burden; disease-modifying drugs; and awarenessraising. Tweets on condition burden and related chronic conditions were the most negative (p<0.001). A significant lower positive sentiment was found for both tweets dealing with disease-modifying drugs, condition burden, and related chronic conditions (p<0.001). Only tweets on awareness-raising were most positive than the average (p<0.001). Discussion: The use of both tools to identify the main discussed topics on social media and to analyse the sentiment of these topics, increases the knowledge of the themes that could represent the bigger burden for persons affected with MS. This knowledge can help to improve support and therapeutic approaches addressed to them.V Plan Propio de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla, Spai

The Extent and Coverage of Current Knowledge of Connected Health: Systematic Mapping Study

Background: This paper examines the development of the Connected Health research landscape with a view on providing a historical perspective on existing Connected Health research. Connected Health has become a rapidly growing research field as our healthcare system is facing pressured to become more proactive and patient centred. Objective: We aimed to identify the extent and coverage of the current body of knowledge in Connected Health. With this, we want to identify which topics have drawn the attention of Connected health researchers, and if there are gaps or interdisciplinary opportunities for further research. Methods: We used a systematic mapping study that combines scientific contributions from research on medicine, business, computer science and engineering. We analyse the papers with seven classification criteria, publication source, publication year, research types, empirical types, contribution types research topic and the condition studied in the paper. Results: Altogether, our search resulted in 208 papers which were analysed by a multidisciplinary group of researchers. Our results indicate a slow start for Connected Health research but a more recent steady upswing since 2013. The majority of papers proposed healthcare solutions (37%) or evaluated Connected Health approaches (23%). Case studies (28%) and experiments (26%) were the most popular forms of scientific validation employed. Diabetes, cancer, multiple sclerosis, and heart conditions are among the most prevalent conditions studied. Conclusions: We conclude that Connected Health research seems to be an established field of research, which has been growing strongly during the last five years. There seems to be more focus on technology driven research with a strong contribution from medicine, but business aspects of Connected health are not as much studied

The Microcephalin Ancestral Allele in a Neanderthal Individual

Background: The high frequency (around 0.70 worlwide) and the relatively young age (between 14,000 and 62,000 years) of a derived group of haplotypes, haplogroup D, at the microcephalin (MCPH1) locus led to the proposal that haplogroup D originated in a human lineage that separated from modern humans.1 million years ago, evolved under strong positive selection, and passed into the human gene pool by an episode of admixture circa 37,000 years ago. The geographic distribution of haplogroup D, with marked differences between Africa and Eurasia, suggested that the archaic human form admixing with anatomically modern humans might have been Neanderthal. Methodology/Principal Findings: Here we report the first PCR amplification and high- throughput sequencing of nuclear DNA at the microcephalin (MCPH1) locus from Neanderthal individual from Mezzena Rockshelter (Monti Lessini, Italy). We show that a well-preserved Neanderthal fossil dated at approximately 50,000 years B.P., was homozygous for the ancestral, non-D, allele. The high yield of Neanderthal mtDNA sequences of the studied specimen, the pattern of nucleotide misincorporation among sequences consistent with post-mortem DNA damage and an accurate control of the MCPH

Models of Neutrino Masses and Mixings

We review theoretical ideas, problems and implications of neutrino masses and mixing angles. We give a general discussion of schemes with three light neutrinos. Several specific examples are analyzed in some detail, particularly those that can be embedded into grand unified theories.Comment: 44 pages, 2 figures, version accepted for publication on the Focus Issue on 'Neutrino Physics' edited by F.Halzen, M.Lindner and A. Suzuki, to be published in New Journal of Physics

Using gamification to drive patient’s personal data validation in a Personal Health Record

Gamification is a term used to describe using game elements in non-game environments to enhance user experience. It has been incorporated with commercial success into several platforms (Linkedin, Badgeville, Facebook) this has made some researchers theorize that it could also be used in education as a tool to increase student engagement and to drive desirable learning behaviors on them. While in the past years some game elements have been incorporated to healthcare there is still little evidence on how effective they are. Game elements provide engagement consistent with various theories of motivation, positive psychology (e.g., flow), and also provide instant feedback. Feedback is more effective when it provides sufficient and specific information for goal achievement and is presented relatively close in time to the event being evaluated. Feedback can reference individual progress, can make social comparisons, or can refer to task criteria. Electronic personal health record systems (PHRs) support patient centered healthcare by making medical records and other relevant information accessible to patients, thus assisting patients in health self-management. A particularly difficult data set that is often difficult to capture are those regarding social and cultural background information. This data set is not only useful to help better healthcare system management, it is also relevant as it is used for epidemiological and preventive purposes. We used gamified mechanics that involve instant feedback to test if they would increase patient’s personal data validation and completion in our PHR as well as overall PHR use. On our presentation we will describe our results and the story behind them

Gamified design for health workshop

Abstract Increasing lifespans for chronic disease sufferers means a population of young patients who require lifestyle intervention from an early age. For multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, social problems begin with the decline of cognitive skills and their quality of life is affected. In this workshop, organizers will propose participants to work on different gamification design approachs to solve MS patients’ engagement problem. Participants will obtain skills that can be extrapolated to other conditions that require patients change to adopt a different behavior. At the end, participants will present their proposed gamification design and discuss and comment each solution, assessing potential unintended outcomes and advantages

3MD for chronic conditions:a model for motivational mHealth design

Abstract Chronic conditions are the leading cause of death in the world. Major improvements in acute care and diagnostics have created a tendency towards the chronification of formerly terminal conditions, requiring people with these conditions to learn how to self-manage. Mobile technologies hold promise as self-management tools due to their ubiquity and cost-effectiveness. The delivery of health-related services through the use of mobile technologies (mHealth) has grown exponentially in recent years. However, only a fraction of these solutions takes into consideration the views of relevant stakeholders like healthcare professionals or even patients. The use of behavioral change models (BCM) has proven important in developing successful health solutions, yet engaging patients remains a challenge. There is a trend in mHealth solutions called gamification that attempts to use game elements to drive user behavior and increase engagement. As it stands, designers of mHealth solutions for behavioral change in chronic conditions have no clear way of deciding what factors are relevant to consider. This doctoral thesis is framed in Consumer Health Informatics within the field of Medical Informatics and Information Systems. The focus of this work was to discover factors for the design of mHealth solutions for chronic patients; to do so, negotiations between medical knowledge, BCM and gamification were explored through an embedded case study research methodology. The data obtained was thematically analyzed to create the Model for Motivational Mobile-health Design for Chronic conditions (3MD). The 3MD model guides the design of condition-oriented gamified behavioral change mHealth solutions. The main components are: 1) Condition specific, which describe factors that need to be adjusted and adapted for each particular chronic condition; 2) Motivation related, which are factors that address how to influence behaviors in an engaging manner; and 3) Technology based, which are factors that are directly connected to the technical capabilities of mobile technologies. 3MD also provides a series of high level illustrative design questions for designers to use and consider during the design process. The work on this thesis addresses a recognized gap in research and practice, and proposes a unique model that could be of use in the generation of new solutions to help chronic patients.Tiivistelmä Krooniset sairaudet ovat maailman yleisin kuolinsyy. Akuutissa hoidossa ja diagnostiikassa on tapahtunut merkittäviä parannuksia, ja aikaisemmin kuolemaan johtaneista sairauksista on tullut kroonisia ja ihmisten on opittava hallitsemaan niitä itse. Mobiiliteknologiat tarjoavat mahdollisuuksia sairauksien itsehallintaan, koska teknologiaa on yleisesti saatavilla ja se on kustannustehokasta. Terveyspalvelujen tarjoaminen mobiiliteknologian avulla on lisääntynyt huomattavasti viime vuosina. Kuitenkin vain murto-osa näistä ratkaisuista ottaa huomioon sidosryhmien, kuten terveydenhuollon ammattilaisten ja jopa potilaiden, näkemykset. Käyttäytymismuutosmallit ovat osoittautuneet tärkeiksi kehitettäessä onnistuneita terveysratkaisuja, mutta potilaiden osallistaminen kehittämiseen on yhä vaikeaa. Pelillistäminen on mobiilien terveysratkaisujen suunnittelutrendi, ja pelielementeillä pyritään vaikuttamaan ihmisten käyttäytymiseen ja sitoutumiseen. Mobiilien terveyssovellusten suunnittelijoilla ei ole selkeää näkemystä siitä, mitkä sovellustekijät vaikuttavat merkittävimmin kroonisissa sairauksissa sairastavien potilaiden käyttäytymisen muutokseen. Tämä väitöskirja tarkastelee kuluttajille suunnattua terveysteknologiaa, joka hyödyntää lääketieteellistä informatiikkaa ja tietojärjestelmätieteitä. Työn tavoitteena oli selvittää kroonisia sairauksia sairastaville potilaille tarkoitettujen mobiilien terveyssovellusten suunnitteluun liittyviä tekijöitä. Tämän vuoksi lääketieteen tietämyksen, käyttäytymismuutoksien mallien ja pelillistämisen yhdistämistä tutkittiin sulautetun tapaustutkimuksen avulla. Saatuja tietoja temaattisesti analysoimalla luotiin kroonisia sairauksia varten motivoivan mobiilin terveyssovelluksen suunnittelumalli (3MD = Model for Motivational Mobile-health Design). 3MD-malli ohjaa sairauksien hallintaan tarkoitettujen pelillistettyjen ja käyttäytymismuutoksiin tähtäävien mobiilien terveyssovellusten suunnittelua. Mallin pääkomponentit ovat: 1) Sairautta kuvaavat tekijät, jotka kuvaavat tekijöitä, jotka on mukautettava ja sovitettava kullekin krooniselle sairaudelle. 2) Motivaatioon liittyvät tekijät, jotka vaikuttavat innostavasti käyttäytymiseen. 3) Teknologiaan perustuvat tekijät, jotka liittyvät suoraan mobiiliteknologian teknisiin ominaisuuksiin. 3MD tarjoaa myös havainnollisia suunnittelukysymyksiä, joita suunnittelijat voivat käyttää ja pohtia suunnitteluprosessin aikana. Tämä väitöskirja käsittelee yleisesti tunnistettua puutetta tutkimuksessa ja suunnittelukäytännössä ja esittelee ainutlaatuisen mallin, josta voi olla hyötyä uusien ratkaisujen luomisessa ja kroonisia sairauksia sairastavien potilaiden auttamisessa

3MD for chronic conditions, a model for motivational mHealth design:embedded case study

Abstract Background: Chronic conditions are the leading cause of death in the world. Major improvements in acute care and diagnostics have created a tendency toward the chronification of formerly terminal conditions, requiring people with these conditions to learn how to self-manage. Mobile technologies hold promise as self-management tools due to their ubiquity and cost-effectiveness. The delivery of health-related services through mobile technologies (mobile health, mHealth) has grown exponentially in recent years. However, only a fraction of these solutions take into consideration the views of relevant stakeholders such as health care professionals or even patients. The use of behavioral change models (BCMs) has proven important in developing successful health solutions, yet engaging patients remains a challenge. There is a trend in mHealth solutions called gamification that attempts to use game elements to drive user behavior and increase engagement. As it stands, designers of mHealth solutions for behavioral change in chronic conditions have no clear way of deciding what factors are relevant to consider. Objective: The goal of this work is to discover factors for the design of mHealth solutions for chronic patients using negotiations between medical knowledge, BCMs, and gamification. Methods: This study uses an embedded case study research methodology consisting of 4 embedded units: 1) cross-sectional studies of mHealth applications; 2) statistical analysis of gamification presence; 3) focus groups and interviews to relevant stakeholders; and 4) research through design of an mHealth solution. The data obtained was thematically analyzed to create a conceptual model for the design of mHealth solutions. Results: The Model for Motivational Mobile-health Design (3MD) for chronic conditions guides the design of condition-oriented gamified behavioral change mHealth solutions. The main components are (1) condition specific, which describe factors that need to be adjusted and adapted for each particular chronic condition; (2) motivation related, which are factors that address how to influence behaviors in an engaging manner; and (3) technology based, which are factors that are directly connected to the technical capabilities of mobile technologies. The 3MD also provides a series of high-level illustrative design questions for designers to use and consider during the design process. Conclusions: This work addresses a recognized gap in research and practice, and proposes a unique model that could be of use in the generation of new solutions to help chronic patients