What features and functions are desired in telemedical services targeted at polish older adults delivered by wearable medical devices? : pre-COVID-19 flashback

The emerging wearable medical devices open up new opportunities for the provision of health services and promise to accelerate the development of novel telemedical services. The main objective of this study was to investigate the desirable features and applications of telemedical services for the Polish older adults delivered by wearable medical devices. The questionnaire study was conducted among 146 adult volunteers in two cohorts (C.1: <65 years vs. C.2: ≥65 years). The analysis was based on qualitative research and descriptive statistics. Comparisons were performed by Pearson’s chi-squared test. The questionnaire, which was divided into three parts (1-socio-demographic data, needs, and behaviors; 2-health status; 3-telemedicine service awareness and device concept study), consisted of 37 open, semi-open, or closed questions. Two cohorts were analyzed (C.1: n = 77; mean age = 32 vs. C.2: n = 69; mean age = 74). The performed survey showed that the majority of respondents were unaware of the telemedical services (56.8%). A total of 62.3% of C.1 and 34.8% of C.2 declared their understanding of telemedical services. The 10.3% of correct explanations regarding telemedical service were found among all study participants. The most desirable feature was the detection of life-threatening and health-threatening situations (65.2% vs. 66.2%). The findings suggest a lack of awareness of telemedical services and the opportunities offered by wearable telemedical devices

Assumptions of the European FRAILTOOLS project and description of the recruitment process for this study in Poland

Aim: The main purpose of this article is to present the main assumptions of the FRAILTOOLS project and the characteristics of the recruitment process in the Polish part of the study. Material and Methods: The FRAILTOOLS project is a prospective observational study conducted in 5 European countries. The study included people aged 75 and older. Each participating center was required to recruit 388 patients, which corresponded to 97 subjects in each clinical setting by center. Recruitment took place in clinical settings (hospital geriatric acute care, geriatric outpatient clinic, primary health care) and in social conditions (nursing homes). The frailty syndrome was assessed among study participants using 7 different scales. The follow-up period was 18 months. Results: In Poland, 268 elderly subjects took part in the study, which constituted 69.1% of planned recruitment. The majority of participants were acute care patients (108 participants). A high percentage of people successfully recruited for the study was seen in nursing homes (83.5% of predicted number). The lowest recruitment came from primary healthcare (53 participants) and geriatric outpatient clinic (26). About a quarter of recruited participants were lost during follow-up period. The poorest results of control visits were observed among patients from geriatric wards and geriatric outpatient clinic. Conclusions: The recruitment process for older people in Poland was satisfactory, mainly in hospitalized and institutionalized patients. The worst enrollment result was observed among outpatients. A detailed analysis of enrollment problems among the older Polish population is necessary to determine the optimal recruitment strategy and retain eligible study participants

Cardiovascular and pre-frailty risk assessment during shelter-in-place measures based on multimodal biomarkers collected from smart telemedical wearables

Wearable devices play a growing role in healthcare applications and disease prevention. We conducted a retrospective study to assess cardiovascular and pre-frailty risk during the Covid-19 shelter-in-place measures on human activity patterns based on multimodal biomarkers collected from smartwatch sensors. For methodology validation we enrolled five adult participants (age range: 32 to 84 years; mean 57 ± 22.38; BMI: 27.80 ± 2.95 kg/m2) categorized by age who were smartwatch users and self-isolating at home during the Covid-19 pandemic. Resting heart rate, daily steps, and minutes asleep were recorded using smartwatch sensors. Overall, we created a dataset of 464 days of continuous measurement that included 50 days of self-isolation at home during the Covid-19 pandemic. Student’s t-test was used to determine significant differences between the pre-Covid-19 and Covid-19 periods. Our findings suggest that there was a significant decrease in the number of daily steps (−57.21%; −4321; 95% CI, 3722 to 4920) and resting heart rate (−4.81%; −3.04; 95% CI, 2.59 to 3.51) during the period of self−isolation compared to the time before lockdown. We found that there was a significant decrease in the number of minutes asleep (−13.48%; −57.91; 95% CI, 16.33 to 99.49) among older adults. Finally, cardiovascular and pre-frailty risk scores were calculated based on biomarkers and evaluated from the clinical perspective

Atonement (an Extract)

Atonement (an Extract

I Merely Write Stories. Anna Kańtoch in Conversation with Anna Marchewka

I Merely Write Stories. Anna Kańtoch in Conversation with Anna Marchewk