M-health review: joining up healthcare in a wireless world

In recent years, there has been a huge increase in the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to deliver health and social care. This trend is bound to continue as providers (whether public or private) strive to deliver better care to more people under conditions of severe budgetary constraint

Personal health channel

Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Informática e Computação. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 201

Sustainable Technology and Elderly Life

The coming years will see an exponential increase in the proportion of elderly people in our society. This accelerated growth brings with it major challenges in relation to the sustainability of the system. There are different aspects where these changes will have a special incidence: health systems and their monitoring; the development of a framework in which the elderly can develop their daily lives satisfactorily; and in the design of intelligent cities adapted to the future sociodemographic profile. The discussion of the challenges faced, together with the current technological evolution, can show possible ways of meeting the challenges. There are different aspects where these changes will have a special incidence: health systems and their monitoring; the development of a framework in which the elderly can develop their daily lives satisfactorily; and in the design of intelligent cities adapted to the future sociodemographic profile. This special issue discusses various ways in which sustainable technologies can be applied to improve the lives of the elderly. Six articles on the subject are featured in this volume. From a systematic review of the literature to the development of gamification and health improvement projects. The articles present suggestive proposals for the improvement of the lives of the elderly. The volume is a resource of interest for the scientific community, since it shows different research gaps in the current state of the art. But it is also a document that can help social policy makers and people working in this domain to planning successful projects

Comfort TV: considering everyday television use as a mode of self-care

This thesis argues that television is an overlooked, yet often highly significant source of comfort in everyday life. It examines television’s contribution to the resilience and wellbeing of three distinct audience groups: family units, first-year undergraduate students and hospital patients. An important resource for comfort and support in many of their lives – a way by which to feel better – study data indicates that watching television can be an instrumental activity. More accurately, specific television texts and viewing routines become salient in light of the viewer’s shifting subjectivity, relied upon to regulate their feelings (consciously or unconsciously) and respond to external influences. Presenting two in-depth, qualitative case studies involving family units and first-year undergraduate students, and a third utilising survey data from hospital patients, I consider what comfort TV is and evaluate the effectiveness of this mode of self-care for my audiences in context. Beginning with the impact of setting, I demonstrate how viewers are positioned by their environment and how their relation to a specific space or place influences their need for and reception of TV. Through doing this, I make an argument for television viewing as a form of emotional digression, a way to manage emotion and compensate for threats to personal continuity. Illustrating how comfort viewing facilitates important moments of transition for various members of my study sample, I then analyse the characteristics of the comfort text. Focusing on the traditional television sitcom – which presents as the archetypal comfort genre – I consider how the comfort television text is realised through a combination of formal characteristics and experiential qualities. Given the findings and particular context of this research, I conclude by looking at television’s current use in hospital care and suggest how the medium might fulfil a more therapeutic purpose

User-centered design of an interactive social service concept for elderly people

The population is greying rapidly. Technologies are booming to maintain independence and wellbeing of the elderly people. Many designs and researches are particularly focused on physiological and safety needs of the elderly people. Though technologies have capabilities to affect the social aspects of the elderly people in a positive way, there are fewer researches commenced to date. The main purpose of this thesis work is to find out the needs of the elderly people and design appropriate technological solution for the elderly people addressing those needs using User Centered Design Approach. Various data collection methods such as semi-structured thematic interviews, observation and diary method were utilized to collect user needs. Then user data were consolidated using affinity diagram and the needs were classified using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Based on the user studies and the literature review of existing technologies, the need for social technology was figured out and the design phase involved the development of Social TV prototype. The design process was iterative in terms of creating scenarios and storyboards as well as User Environment Design to attain simplicity in design. Then the mid-fidelity prototype of social TV named ElderTV was developed to demonstrate the concept. The evaluation of the prototype was conducted utilizing sociability heuristics for social TV where the designed prototype was compared against each heuristics rules and these rules served as design guidelines during the design phase of the prototype. The resulted social TV concept for elderly people is designed to address elderly peoples’ needs to strengthen the existing social ties. The concept is expected to extend TV viewing activity of the elderly people into shared experience by allowing them to communicate with a circle of friends and families. The prototype is intended to illustrate how elderly people can share feeling of togetherness while watching television and alleviate the loneliness and isolation of the elderly

User-centered design of an interactive social service concept for elderly people

The population is greying rapidly. Technologies are booming to maintain independence and wellbeing of the elderly people. Many designs and researches are particularly focused on physiological and safety needs of the elderly people. Though technologies have capabilities to affect the social aspects of the elderly people in a positive way, there are fewer researches commenced to date. The main purpose of this thesis work is to find out the needs of the elderly people and design appropriate technological solution for the elderly people addressing those needs using User Centered Design Approach. Various data collection methods such as semi-structured thematic interviews, observation and diary method were utilized to collect user needs. Then user data were consolidated using affinity diagram and the needs were classified using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Based on the user studies and the literature review of existing technologies, the need for social technology was figured out and the design phase involved the development of Social TV prototype. The design process was iterative in terms of creating scenarios and storyboards as well as User Environment Design to attain simplicity in design. Then the mid-fidelity prototype of social TV named ElderTV was developed to demonstrate the concept. The evaluation of the prototype was conducted utilizing sociability heuristics for social TV where the designed prototype was compared against each heuristics rules and these rules served as design guidelines during the design phase of the prototype. The resulted social TV concept for elderly people is designed to address elderly peoples’ needs to strengthen the existing social ties. The concept is expected to extend TV viewing activity of the elderly people into shared experience by allowing them to communicate with a circle of friends and families. The prototype is intended to illustrate how elderly people can share feeling of togetherness while watching television and alleviate the loneliness and isolation of the elderly

Evaluating Digital Health Technologies to Advance Parkinson's Disease Care

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a common progressive neurological disorder characterised by a complex range of motor and non-motor symptoms (NMS). Current PD service provision does not meet the needs of patients, and puts pressure on services with limited capacity. Digital Health Technologies (DHTs), including body-worn sensors and portable devices, may provide advantages, by enabling continual and objective monitoring of symptoms, and facilitating patient self-management. I carried out a series of studies and evaluations of DHTs for use in PD, to evaluate their ability to identify and monitor symptoms in both a clinical and research context. These included: 1. The evaluation of a computerised paced finger tapping task (PFT) that was found to correlate with a measure of verbal fluency, suggesting there may be potential to implement the PFT as part of a wider finger tapping battery to be used as a screening tool for PD executive dysfunction. 2. The iterative, user-centred design and formative evaluation of NMS Assist, a smartphone-based app to enable regular assessment of NMS as well as provide education for patients. The app was found to be highly usable, and key areas of amendment were identified. 3. A clinical service evaluation of the PKGTM, a PD remote monitoring device. The findings revealed the PKGTM is useful for identifying patients with unmet treatment need, even in newly diagnosed people with Parkinson’s (PwP) who experience more frequent clinic review. 4. A systematic review of neuroprotective trial design in PD. The results demonstrated a wide range of primary outcome measures is used across trials, and there is little evidence of patient stratification. The findings highlighted the potential for DHTs to improve various aspects of clinical trial design. I discuss the potential value of DHTs, as well as challenges associated with their use, identified as a result of this research

The potential of multimedia art to stimulate personal expression of, and reflection on childhood experience

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