Considering the User in the Wireless World

The near future promises significant advances in communication capabilities, but one of the keys to success is the capability understanding of the people with regards to its value and usage. In considering the role of the user in the wireless world of the future, the Human Perspective Working Group (WG1) of the Wireless World Research Forum has gathered input and developed positions in four important areas: methods, processes, and best practices for user-centered research and design; reference frameworks for modeling user needs within the context of wireless systems; user scenario creation and analysis; and user interaction technologies. This article provides an overview of WG1's work in these areas that are critical to ensuring that the future wireless world meets and exceeds the expectations of people in the coming decades

Global patient outcomes after elective surgery: prospective cohort study in 27 low-, middle- and high-income countries.

BACKGROUND: As global initiatives increase patient access to surgical treatments, there remains a need to understand the adverse effects of surgery and define appropriate levels of perioperative care. METHODS: We designed a prospective international 7-day cohort study of outcomes following elective adult inpatient surgery in 27 countries. The primary outcome was in-hospital complications. Secondary outcomes were death following a complication (failure to rescue) and death in hospital. Process measures were admission to critical care immediately after surgery or to treat a complication and duration of hospital stay. A single definition of critical care was used for all countries. RESULTS: A total of 474 hospitals in 19 high-, 7 middle- and 1 low-income country were included in the primary analysis. Data included 44 814 patients with a median hospital stay of 4 (range 2-7) days. A total of 7508 patients (16.8%) developed one or more postoperative complication and 207 died (0.5%). The overall mortality among patients who developed complications was 2.8%. Mortality following complications ranged from 2.4% for pulmonary embolism to 43.9% for cardiac arrest. A total of 4360 (9.7%) patients were admitted to a critical care unit as routine immediately after surgery, of whom 2198 (50.4%) developed a complication, with 105 (2.4%) deaths. A total of 1233 patients (16.4%) were admitted to a critical care unit to treat complications, with 119 (9.7%) deaths. Despite lower baseline risk, outcomes were similar in low- and middle-income compared with high-income countries. CONCLUSIONS: Poor patient outcomes are common after inpatient surgery. Global initiatives to increase access to surgical treatments should also address the need for safe perioperative care. STUDY REGISTRATION: ISRCTN5181700

Cognitive accessibility to mobile ICT

Persons with cognitive impairments form a diverse group, with limitations in one or more types of mental tasks such as conceptualizing, planning, remembering and understanding numbers and symbols. It has been recognized that current accessibility guidelines provide limited support for these persons and that more work is needed. ETSI has established a team of experts, STF 488, which intends to produce (1) a set of usage needs of persons with cognitive impairments when using mobile devices and applications and (2) a set of guidelines to develop mobile ICT with cognitive accessibility. This paper describes the ongoing work of STF 488, its approach, current results and the future work of the team

Requirement and input collection: development of guidelines to allow people with cognitive disabilities to exploit the full potential of mobile ICT

There is an urgent, real need to better understand how mobile ICT products and services can be designed to better meet the needs of persons with cognitive disabilities (including older users), and to develop and update standards to ensure that they recommend solutions that are beneficial to this group of users to exploit the true potential of mobile information and communication technologies (ICT). An ETSI (European Telecommunication Standards Institute) expert team is currently developing such guidelines, in collaboration with other standardization bodies (including ISO and W3C), during an 18-month period. The work started in March 2015. At the Mobile HCI 2015 Workshop#3 focused on Mobile Cognition, we intend to present, share and discuss our topic, approach, classification, insight and early draft design recommendations that extend over all five workshop topics. Additionally, we plan to raise issues and topics of common interest with expert colleagues working in the field and invite those interested to collaborate with us during the later phases of the work, to exploit the true potential of mobile ICT, to support people with cognitive disabilities. Last but not least, we would also like to invite leading researchers to guide and assist our work, possibly through direct participation in a reference group

“Do as I Say!... But Who Says What I Should Say - or Do?” On the Definition of a Standard Spoken Command Vocabulary for ICT Devices and Services

This paper describes the development of a new ETSI Standard (ES): Generic spoken command vocabulary for ICT devices and services. It’s basic approach focuses on simplifying the learning procedure for end-users, there by allowing for reuse of basic knowledge between different terminal devices and services, leading to a faster and easier adoption of new technologies. The availability of common, basic interactive elements increases the transfer of learning between devices and services and improves the overall usability of the entire interactive mobile environment. Such a transfer becomes even more important in a world of ubiquitous devices and services. In particular, the paper discusses the importance of involving potential users of such products in this process, rather than relying on expert judgment alone to determine what the standard commands should be