SUPPORTING THE THERAPIST IN ONLINE THERAPY

In the last decade, eSupport (Internet-reliant therapy) has gained substantial attention, both in research and practice. Several studies in psychology show that structured eSupport (e.g. Computerized Cognitive Behavioural Therapy), is promising both with regard to therapeutic efficacy and cost-effectiveness. However, the transition from face-to-face therapy to eSupport creates new challenges for therapists, such as lack of (traditional) structure and access to secondary information (e.g. body language) about their patients. In this paper, a design science research approach has been employed in the context of eSupport. Drawing on the knowledge base of face-to-face conversations, face-to-face therapy, and pragmatic IS theory, a framework for patient indicators has been designed. The design has been justified through both (i) descriptive evaluations based on the selected knowledge base, and (ii) experiences collected in a stakeholder-centric design process, including experimental evaluation of an eSupport platform that implement the indicator framework. The framework was designed to allow new indicators to be ?plugged in? dynamically and inserted into tailorable lists. New indicators can be created either through specialization of an indicator base class, or by configuring metadata for generic indicators that tap into an action log. Indicator values are cached, both to boost performance and to support trend analysis of patient indicators. We conclude that the indicator framework serves to improve support for therapists: It offers structure and access to both primary and secondary information in new ways. In doing so, it meets some of the key challenges that therapists encounter in the transition to eSupport

Design Research Practice: A Product Semantics Interpretation

In this paper, we adopt a somewhat novel perspective on design research. The concept of product semantics and its focus on meaning is used to interpret design research as design. It is argued that we may conceive of design research as design in two realms: The practical and the academic. In doing design research, there is a reciprocal shaping of artifacts: Better artifacts (contributions to practice) through appropriation of knowledge and methods from the academic realm, and better knowledge artifacts (contributions to academia) by drawing relevance and experiences of appropriation from the practical realm. We adopt a product semantics view to discuss research as design. Product semantics highlights the meaning of artifacts with respect to their (i) stakeholders, (ii) artifacts-in-use, (iii), artifacts-in-language, (iv) artifact lifecycle, and (v) ecology. Based on this interpretation, we propose important activities that should characterize the practice of doing design research

Socio-instrumental Design Patterns

This paper draws on pragmatic philosophy and design theory to propose the concept of the socio-instrumental design pattern. These patterns are design theories that acknowledge that solutions are to be found in the source social setting (where design takes place) and the target social setting (where the IT artefact will be embedded and put into action). Solutions may be discussed in terms of what to do and what to focus in the design process, not merely in terms of properties of the IT artefact. Besides introducing the concept, the paper proposes a way to structure socio-instrumental design patterns, and an example pattern is included to illustrate the approach. The example is grounded in empirical data from an ongoing action research project with an emphasis on socio-instrumental qualities of IT artefacts in their social context

Five Principles for DSR Based Curriculum Development

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The Design of a System for Online Psychosocial Care: Balancing Privacy and Accountability in Sensitive Online Healthcare Environments

The design of sensitive online healthcare systems must balance the requirements of privacy and accountability for the good of individuals, organizations, and society. Via a design science research approach, we build and evaluate a sophisticated software system for the online provision of psychosocial healthcare to distributed and vulnerable populations. Multidisciplinary research capabilities are embedded within the system to investigate the effectiveness of online treatment protocols. Throughout the development cycles of the system, we build an emergent design theory of scrutiny that applies a multi-layer protocol to support governance of privacy and accountability in sensitive online applications. The design goal is to balance stakeholder privacy protections with the need to provide for accountable interventions in critical and well-defined care situations. The research implications for the development and governance of online applications in numerous privacy-sensitive application areas are explore

DESIGNING CHATBOTS FOR HIGHER EDUCATION PRACTICE

In this research–in–progress paper, we employ design science research to articulate design knowledge for chatbots in higher education practice. We conducted a literature review to factor previous research into the design process. In addition, we performed a content analysis of student e-mails and forum posts from four instances of a basic Java programming course. Drawing from literature and data, we present a conceptual architecture for chatbots in higher education, discuss its rationale, and provide a proof-of-concept implementation. We conclude with a discussion including tentative design recommendations and a plan for continued research

Metabolite Signature during Short-Day Induced Growth Cessation in Populus

The photoperiod is an important environmental signal for plants, and influences a wide range of physiological processes. For woody species in northern latitudes, cessation of growth is induced by short photoperiods. In many plant species, short photoperiods stop elongational growth after a few weeks. It is known that plant daylength detection is mediated by Phytochrome A (PHYA) in the woody hybrid aspen species. However, the mechanism of dormancy involving primary metabolism remains unclear. We studied changes in metabolite profiles in hybrid aspen leaves (young, middle, and mature leaves) during short-day-induced growth cessation, using a combination of gas chromatography–time-of-flight mass spectrometry, and multivariate projection methods. Our results indicate that the metabolite profiles in mature source leaves rapidly change when the photoperiod changes. In contrast, the differences in young sink leaves grown under long and short-day conditions are less distinct. We found short daylength induced growth cessation in aspen was associated with rapid changes in the distribution and levels of diverse primary metabolites. In addition, we conducted metabolite profiling of leaves of PHYA overexpressor (PHYAOX) and those of the control to find the discriminative metabolites between PHYAOX and the control under the short-day conditions. The metabolite changes observed in PHYAOX leaves, together with those in the source leaves, identified possible candidates for the metabolite signature (e.g., 2-oxo-glutarate, spermidine, putrescine, 4-amino-butyrate, and tryptophan) during short-day-induced growth cessation in aspen leaves

Tool Support for Design Science Research—Towards a Software Ecosystem: A Report from a DESRIST 2017 Workshop

The information systems (IS) field contains a rich body of knowledge on approaches, methods, and frameworks that supports researchers in conducting design science research (DSR). It also contains some consensus about the key elements of DSR projects—such as problem identification, design, implementation, evaluation, and abstraction of design knowledge. Still, we lack any commonly accepted tools that address the needs of DSR scholars who seek to structure, manage, and present their projects. Indeed, DSR endeavors, which are often complex and multi-faceted in nature and involve various stakeholders (e.g., researchers, developers, practitioners, and others), require the support that such tools provide. Thus, to investigate the tools that DSR scholars actually need to effectively and efficiently perform their work, we conducted an open workshop with DSR scholars at the 2017 DESRIST conference in Karlsruhe, Germany, to debate 1) the general requirement categories of DSR tool support and 2) the more specific requirements. This paper reports on the results from this workshop. Specifically, we identify nine categories of requirements that fall into the three broad phases (pre-design, design, and post design) and that contribute to a software ecosystem for supporting DSR endeavors

The complexity of kidney disease and diagnosing it – cystatin C, selective glomerular hypofiltration syndromes and proteome regulation

Estimation of kidney function is often part of daily clinical practice, mostly done by using the endogenous glomerular filtration rate (GFR)-markers creatinine or cystatin C. A recommendation to use both markers in parallel in 2010 has resulted in new knowledge concerning the pathophysiology of kidney disorders by the identification of a new set of kidney disorders, selective glomerular hypofiltration syndromes. These syndromes, connected to strong increases in mortality and morbidity, are characterized by a selective reduction in the glomerular filtration of 5–30 kDa molecules, such as cystatin C, compared to the filtration of small molecules <1 kDa dominating the glomerular filtrate, for example water, urea and creatinine. At least two types of such disorders, shrunken or elongated pore syndrome, are possible according to the pore model for glomerular filtration. Selective glomerular hypofiltration syndromes are prevalent in investigated populations, and patients with these syndromes often display normal measured GFR or creatinine-based GFR-estimates. The syndromes are characterized by proteomic changes promoting the development of atherosclerosis, indicating antibodies and specific receptor-blocking substances as possible new treatment modalities. Presently, the KDIGO guidelines for diagnosing kidney disorders do not recommend cystatin C as a general marker of kidney function and will therefore not allow the identification of a considerable number of patients with selective glomerular hypofiltration syndromes. Furthermore, as cystatin C is uninfluenced by muscle mass, diet or variations in tubular secretion and cystatin C-based GFR-estimation equations do not require controversial race or sex terms, it is obvious that cystatin C should be a part of future KDIGO guidelines.publishedVersio