Integrating sensor streams in pHealth networks

Personal Health (pHealth) sensor networks are generally used to monitor the wellbeing of both athletes and the general public to inform health specialists of future and often serious ailments. The problem facing these domain experts is the scale and quality of data they must search in order to extract meaningful results. By using peer-to-peer sensor architectures and a mechanism for reducing the search space, we can, to some extent, address the scalability issue. However, synchronisation and normalisation of distributed sensor streams remains a problem in many networks. In the case of pHealth sensor networks, it is crucial for experts to align multiple sensor readings before query or data mining activities can take place. This paper presents a system for clustering and synchronising sensor streams in preparation for user queries

Privacy and Trust in pHealth - Past, Present and Future

From beginning to today, pHealth has been a data driven service that collects and uses personal health information (PHI) for personal health services and personalized healthcare. As a result, pHealth services use intensively ICT technology, sensors, computers and mathematical algorithms. In past, pHealth applications were focused to certain health or sickness related problem, but in today they use mobile devices, wireless networks, Web-technology and Cloud platforms. In future, pHealth uses information systems that are highly distributed, dynamic, increasingly autonomous, multi-stakeholder data driven eco-system having ability to monitor anywhere person's regular life, movements and health related behaviours. Because privacy and trust are pre-requirements for successful pHealth, this development raises huge privacy and trust challenges to be solved. Researchers have shown that current privacy approaches and solutions used in pHealth do not offer acceptable level of privacy, and trust is only an illusion. This indicates, that today's privacy models and technology shall not be moved to the future pHealth. The authors have analysed interesting new privacy and trust ideas published in journals, and found that they seem to be effective but offer only a partial solution. To solve this weakness, the authors used a holistic system view to aspects impacting privacy and trust in pHealth, and created a template that can be used in planning and development future pHealth services. The authors also propose a tentative solution for future trustworthy pHealth. It combines privacy as personal property and trust as legal binding fiducial duty approaches, and uses a Blockchain-based smart contract solution to store person's privacy and trust requirements and service providers' promises.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Selected Papers from the pHealth 2021 Conference, Genoa, Italy, 8-10 November 2021

This Special Issue of the Journal of Personalized Medicine presents extended versions of selected contributions to pHealth 2021, the 18th International Conference on Wearable Micro and Nano Technologies for Personalized Health, held on 8-10 November 2021 in Genoa, Italy [...]

Selected Papers from the pHealth 2021 Conference, Genoa, Italy, 8–10 November 2021

This Special Issue of the Journal of Personalized Medicine presents extended versions of selected contributions to pHealth 2021, the 18th International Conference on Wearable Micro and Nano Technologies for Personalized Health, held on 8–10 November 2021 in Genoa, Italy. The original papers have been published in the IOS Press Studies in Health Technology and Informatics 2021, volume 285 (https://ebooks.iospress.nl/volume/phealth-2021-proceedings-of-the-18th-international-conference-on-wearable-micro-and-nano-technologies-for-personalized-health-810-november-2021-genoa-italy) (URL accessed on 15 June 2023). The 2021 edition of pHealth emphasized the interrelated aspects of advanced pHealth, i.e., personalized, participative, preventive, predictive, precision medicine (5P medicine) in health and social services. In that context, mobile technologies, micro–nano–bio smart systems, artificial intelligence and robotics, data management and analytics, machine learning and deep learning for personalized health, the Health Internet of Things (HIoT), systems medicine, public health, and virtual care are of interest. Those new technologies create new potential risks for security, privacy, and safety, resulting in new challenges for meeting ethical and trustworthiness requirements of systems, partners, and processes. Bernd Blobel as the long-term Chair of the pHealth conferences’ Scientific Program Committee as well as of the pHealth Steering Committee has checked and edited every paper invited for publication in the MDPI JPM pHealth 2021 Special Issue before giving the green flag for formal submission. Mauro Giacomini, as Chair of the pHealth 2021 Local Organizing Committee, has managed the review process, performed by at least two independent international experts

Responsiveness of emergency obstetric care systems in low- and middle-income countries: a critical review of the "third delay".

We reviewed the evidence on the duration, causes and effects of delays in providing emergency obstetric care to women attending health facilities (the third delay) in low- and middle-income countries. We performed a critical literature review using terms related to obstetric care, birth outcome, delays and developing countries. A manual search of reference lists of key articles was also performed. 69 studies met the inclusion criteria. Most studies reported long delays in providing care, and the mean waiting time for women admitted with complications was as much as 24 h before treatment. The three most cited barriers to providing timely care were shortage of treatment materials, surgery facilities and qualified staff. Existing evidence is insufficient to estimate the effect of delays on birth outcomes. Delays in providing emergency obstetric care seem common in resource-constrained settings but further research is necessary to determine the effect of the third delay on birth outcomes

Culturally-based beliefs and labour market institutions

This paper has two main goals. The first is to provide empirical evidence that differences in labour market institutions across countries and, specifically, in how they provide protection to workers, can be attributed to underlying differences in culturally-based prior beliefs: in particular, people’s fatalism and trust in others. The second goal is to single out the socio-economic factors associated with these beliefs and the role of education in this regard.Culture, Fatalism, Trust in Others, Labour Market Institutions, Employment Protection Legislation

Professionals and interfamily violence against children and adolescents: in between legal and conceptual precepts

OBJECTIVE To identify the conceptions of professionals regarding interfamily violence against children and adolescents. METHOD A qualitative study conducted with 15 professionals who had taken children and adolescents under their care as a result of interfamily violence. Data were collected between November, 2013, and March, 2015, through semi-structured interviews. Data were organized and analyzed using the Textual Discourse Analysis technique. RESULTS The professional discourse highlighted that some legal aspects regarding the handling of interfamily violence against children and adolescents are neglected; an omission supported by the justification of professionals to preserve the family. We highlight the confrontation between the concept of family as a caregiver and the family that commits violence against children, in addition to the positioning of professionals, which does not include the family or the aggressor in the intervention process in facing situations of interfamily violence attended to by the services. CONCLUSION Acting against interfamily violence requires professionals to do away with some pre-established concepts in ordee to put the actual needs of victims and families into evidence.OBJETIVO Identificar, con base en el discurso de los profesionales, sus concepciones con respecto a la violencia intrafamiliar contra niños y adolescentes. MÉTODO Estudio cualitativo, realizado con 15 profesionales que tuvieron bajo sus cuidados a niños y adolescentes atendidos en consecuencia de la violencia intrafamiliar. Se recogieron los datos entre noviembre de 2013 y marzo de 2015, mediante entrevistas semiestructuradas. Los datos fueron organizados y analizados empleando la técnica de Análisis Textual Discursivo. RESULTADOS El discurso de los profesionales puso en evidencia que se descuidan algunos aspectos legales con respecto al manejo de la violencia intrafamiliar contra niños y adolescentes, omisión esa respaldada por la justificación de los profesionales de preservar a la familia. Se destaca el confronto entre la concepción de familia como cuidadora y la familia que violenta a los hijos, además de la postura de los profesionales, quienes no incluyen a la familia y al agresor en los procesos de intervención frente a las situaciones de violencia intrafamiliar atendidas en los servicios. CONCLUSIÓN Actuar ante la violencia intrafamiliar requiere que el profesional rompa algunas concepciones prestablecidas para poner en evidencia las reales necesidades de víctimas y familias.OBJETIVO Identificar, com base no discurso dos profissionais, suas concepções a respeito da violência intrafamiliar contra crianças e adolescentes. MÉTODO Estudo qualitativo, realizado com 15 profissionais, que tiveram sob seus cuidados crianças e adolescentes atendidas em decorrência da violência intrafamiliar. Os dados foram coletados entre novembro de 2013 e março de 2015, por meio de entrevistas semiestruturadas. Os dados foram organizados e analisados utilizando a técnica de Análise Textual Discursiva. RESULTADOS O discurso dos profissionais colocou em evidência que alguns aspectos legais em relação ao manejo da violência intrafamiliar contra crianças e adolescentes são negligenciados, omissão respaldada pela justificativa dos profissionais de preservar a família. Destaca-se o confronto entre a concepção de família como cuidadora e a família que violenta os filhos, além do posicionamento dos profissionais, os quais não incluem a família e o agressor nos processos de intervenção frente às situações de violência intrafamiliar atendidas nos serviços. CONCLUSÃO Atuar frente à violência intrafamiliar requer do profissional romper com algumas concepções preestabelecidas para colocar em evidência as reais necessidades de vítimas e famílias

An Intertemporal Comparison of Income and Welfare for Two Mexican Regions

This paper compares the evolution of income (GDP per capita) with utility derived welfare indices for two Mexican regions from 1992-2000. A methodology is proposed based on implicit true standard of living indices. Results show that welfare dynamics differed between regions and varied considerably compared to GDP per capita measures for the same period, thereby posing three questions: how well aggregate income measures reflect welfare, the role of CPI as a cost of living index, and the existence of different thresholds for wealth and welfare conditioned on development levels. This research reaffirms the importance of household preferences in evaluating welfare.Mexico, welfare, intertemporal comparison, income, CPI

Health Information Systems in the Digital Health Ecosystem—Problems and Solutions for Ethics, Trust and Privacy

Digital health information systems (DHIS) are increasingly members of ecosystems, collecting, using and sharing a huge amount of personal health information (PHI), frequently without control and authorization through the data subject. From the data subject's perspective, there is frequently no guarantee and therefore no trust that PHI is processed ethically in Digital Health Ecosystems. This results in new ethical, privacy and trust challenges to be solved. The authors' objective is to find a combination of ethical principles, privacy and trust models, together enabling design, implementation of DHIS acting ethically, being trustworthy, and supporting the user's privacy needs. Research published in journals, conference proceedings, and standards documents is analyzed from the viewpoint of ethics, privacy and trust. In that context, systems theory and systems engineering approaches together with heuristic analysis are deployed. The ethical model proposed is a combination of consequentialism, professional medical ethics and utilitarianism. Privacy enforcement can be facilitated by defining it as health information specific contextual intellectual property right, where a service user can express their own privacy needs using computer-understandable policies. Thereby, privacy as a dynamic, indeterminate concept, and computational trust, deploys linguistic values and fuzzy mathematics. The proposed solution, combining ethical principles, privacy as intellectual property and computational trust models, shows a new way to achieve ethically acceptable, trustworthy and privacy-enabling DHIS and Digital Health Ecosystems

The Good Life: Who\u27s Practicing Healthy Life-styles?

With the birth of scientific medicine in the late 1800s, the responsibility for \u27health\u27 was increasingly removed from the individual and replaced by a dependence upon medical intervention and required public health measures. Individual responsibility was viewed largely in terms of assuring accessibility for the individual (and his/her family) to the professional health delivery system. The need for health care, therefore, was seen as episodic necessity -- not as a continuing individual responsibility