Key Intervention Characteristics in e-Health: Steps Towards Standardized Communication

PURPOSE: This paper reports expert opinion on e-health intervention characteristics that enable effective communication of characteristics across the diverse field of e-health interventions. The paper presents a visualization tool to support communication of the defining characteristics. METHODS: An initial list of e-health intervention characteristics was developed through an iterative process of item generation and discussion among the 12 authors. The list was distributed to 123 experts in the field, who were emailed an invitation to assess and rank the items. Participants were asked to evaluate these characteristics in three separate ways. RESULTS: A total of 50 responses were received for a response rate of 40.7%. Six respondents who reported having little or no expertise in e-health research were removed from the dataset. Our results suggest that 10 specific intervention characteristics were consistently supported as of central importance by the panel of 44 e-intervention experts. The weight and perceived relevance of individual items differed between experts; oftentimes, this difference is a result of the individual theoretical perspective and/or behavioral target of interest. CONCLUSIONS: The first iteration of the visualization of salient characteristics represents an ambitious effort to develop a tool that will support communication of the defining characteristics for e-health interventions aimed to assist e-health developers and researchers to communicate the key characteristics of their interventions in a standardized manner that facilitates dialog

And Now for Something Completely Different (And Still the Same) - Er Mentalisering en Fundamental Faktor i Psykoterapi?

The present paper attempts to provide a better understanding of the concept of mentalizing, and its usefulness in psychotherapy. Allen, Fonagy and Bateman (2008) claim that mentalizing is the most fundamental common factor in all psychotherapeutic treatments. To explore whether this is true, we discusses how to differentiate between malfunctioning and normal mentalizing and further how all psychotherapeutic approaches might depend on this capacity to mentalize. It is concluded that mentalizing can be in understanding the therapist as a factor in all psychotherapeutic treatments and in recognizing the value of structure in the elaboration of psychotherapy. However, mentalizing should be defined more narrowly to help clinicians to differentiate it from other important factors in psychotherapy

The Iterative Development Method : Its aspects and effect on innovation within new product development

An industrial product development project can be extensive and put a significant financial strain on the company that executes it, especially if the developed product underperforms. For startup companies this becomes considerably noticeable since they often have limited resources with respect to capital and personnel. Additionally, startups seldom have an established customer base and thus do not have established customer needs to go after during a development project. The iterative development method often used in software was hypothesised to be beneficial to use on hardware as well to circumvent these issues, encourage innovation, accelerate progress, and be cost-effective with its cyclic characteristics.  This thesis was carried out in partnership with the external partner AirForestry, an innovative startup company developing a tree harvesting drone that will have its primary usage in forestry thinning operations. Through action research, the iterative development method was researched by applying it to the development of a large system aimed to aerially receive full-length trees, cut into appropriate logs, and stack these to be collected by a logging truck. A proposal for how a system of this nature could be designed which the external partner was satisfied with.  The iterative development method proved to be efficient in forcing innovative advancements and a way to quickly move forward in a project. Limitations to the method’s compatibility with larger projects and unclear framework for its usage were however identified. This meant that future research on its capability with projects of different natures is required

The Iterative Development Method : Its aspects and effect on innovation within new product development

An industrial product development project can be extensive and put a significant financial strain on the company that executes it, especially if the developed product underperforms. For startup companies this becomes considerably noticeable since they often have limited resources with respect to capital and personnel. Additionally, startups seldom have an established customer base and thus do not have established customer needs to go after during a development project. The iterative development method often used in software was hypothesised to be beneficial to use on hardware as well to circumvent these issues, encourage innovation, accelerate progress, and be cost-effective with its cyclic characteristics.  This thesis was carried out in partnership with the external partner AirForestry, an innovative startup company developing a tree harvesting drone that will have its primary usage in forestry thinning operations. Through action research, the iterative development method was researched by applying it to the development of a large system aimed to aerially receive full-length trees, cut into appropriate logs, and stack these to be collected by a logging truck. A proposal for how a system of this nature could be designed which the external partner was satisfied with.  The iterative development method proved to be efficient in forcing innovative advancements and a way to quickly move forward in a project. Limitations to the method’s compatibility with larger projects and unclear framework for its usage were however identified. This meant that future research on its capability with projects of different natures is required