The proposed work discusses the results of a research project based on the recognition of correctly pronounced words and phrases by implementing a web platform implementing an acoustic training model. The acoustic training model is performed by a long short-term memory - LSTM - algorithm, able to recognise the speech disorder by assigning a score for each test type. The paper discusses the platform design and implementation. The tests are performed for different kind of exercises in rehabilitation patterns. The adopted approach is based on the formulation of acoustic model integrating a training dictionary of correct phonemes to pronounce. The platform enables a real time automatic score of the performed exercises and the test planning. The LSTM training dataset can be enriched by adding new exercise to learn. The output graphical dashboards enforce clinical evaluations and reporting.
: This study investigated the effectiveness of WhatsApp-based reminders on home exercise program (HEP) adherence. Forty consenting patients [experimental group (EG) (n = 20); control group (CG) (n = 20)] participated in this study. EG received WhatsApp-based reminder messages on HEP thrice weekly for six weeks while CG received no reminders other than therapists’ instructions to carry out HEP. Participants recorded their HEP activities on a provided diary, which was monitored weekly. The number of days of adherence was assessed at weeks 3 and 6. There was significant difference in adherence to HEP in EG (6.85 ± 0.37 vs. 19.95 ± 0.89 vs. 20.43 ± 0.69; p = 0.001) and CG (4.50 ± 0.61 vs. 13.50 ± 1.24 vs. 13.95 ± 1.61; p = 0.001) at baseline, 3rd and 6th week, and between EG and CG at weeks 3 and 6 (t = 12.669; p = 0.001). WhatsApp-based reminders significantly improved adherence to HEP among patients receiving physiotherapy.
This study aims to unravel the user satisfaction in smoking-cessation online health communities (OHCs). In the proposed research model, users’ knowledge sharing and recommendation behaviour are motivated by user satisfaction. User satisfaction, in turn, is determined by users’ confirmation of their expectations and perceived usefulness (PU) of smoking-cessation OHCs. In addition, informational support, emotional support, and esteem support are conceptualized as the determinants of PU from a social support perspective. The research model is tested by analysing online survey data (N = 173) among users of two smoking-cessation OHCs. The empirical results indicate that satisfaction affects users’ knowledge sharing and recommendation behaviour positively, and both PU and confirmation determine satisfaction. PU of smoking-cessation OHCs is motivated by emotional support and esteem support. The findings extend the understanding of user satisfaction in the particular context of smoking-cessation OHCs and provide administration of smoking-cessation OHCs with practical implications.
The paper presents results from a survey of users of an online diabetes risk test. We studied relationships between information-seeking styles and everyday health information literacy, as well as anticipated behaviours in case of risk for type 2 diabetes for 184 respondents who had taken the risk test prior to responding to the survey. We assessed active, moderate and passive health information-seeking styles, as well as low, basic and high everyday health information literacy and tested them against health-promoting information-related activities and health behaviour. Significant relationships occurred between information-seeking styles and four activities: 'check further information', 'make an appointment', 'increase the amount of physical activities' and 'do nothing'. Education level was significantly related to two health-promoting behaviours, whereas level of everyday health information literacy was related to only one. Despite limitations, the results of this exploratory study open up for further research about the role of information-seeking styles and health-promoting behaviour.
Development and feasibility testing of a Kinect Xbox operated non-immersive back extension-glide virtual reality game (BE-G VRG) was carried out among 42 patients with chronic low-back pain. Feasibility of the BE-G VRG was explored using system usability scale and gaming experience questionnaire and game user experience satisfaction scale (GUESS). The visual analogue scale (VAS) was used to assess pain intensity. Participants' VAS score was 5.02 ± 1.94. The GUESS' game user experience of the BE-G VRG on a scale of 0 to 7, was 5.66 ± 0.86, 5.41 ± 1.03, 5.40 ± 0.957 and 5.37 ± 0.970 for game audio aesthetics, engrossment, game usability, personal gratification and visual aesthetics respectively. Audio level (77.5%) and visual aesthetics (62.5%) were the top rated game usability experience; and system usability and enjoyment scores were 54.9 ± 7.76 (out of 100) and 4.23 ± 0.53 (out of 5). The BE-G VRG has moderate to high usability, satisfaction and game experience among patients with moderate intensity chronic low-back pain.
The ageing of society is a worldwide phenomenon, particularly in industrialised countries, like Finland. To tackle the challenges of swiftly rising healthcare and social welfare costs and a new type of demand for related services, digital assistive technology solutions have emerged in recent years. Through qualitative semi-structured interviews conducted in South Finland, this empirically driven study contributes to the understanding of the attitudes of ageing people toward digital assistive technology that maintains their activities of daily living. Empirical investigations demonstrated that ageing people cannot be treated as one homogeneous group when developing technology for them. The findings have revealed that the major moderating factors that may significantly influence older adults' acceptance and willingness to use the digital assistive technology include functional capacity, socio-demographic characteristics, digital literacy and educational background as well as the social environment supporting their ability to maintain an independent life in their own homes.
Safety and security is a multi-faced phenomenon that is an essential part of students' and staff's well-being at school, which is well documented as the main issue in a good learning environment. However, very little is known about incidents that happen at schools, but a catalogue of these incidents could serve as a learning tool for proactive management of the safety culture. Incidents occur in relation to physical, social, psychological and pedagogical factors. To develop a safety culture, there is need to record, monitor and analyse incidents (near-misses, accidents and injuries). There are no systematic procedures in regular use that would allow schools as organisations to learn from incidents and implement alterations to develop their safety culture. In the study of 168 incidents from three comprehensive schools in Finland, data were collected and monitored in a digital system. The incidents were categorised into physical, social, psychological and pedagogical categories. This paper gives prior knowledge of incidents in pedagogical category regarding what happened, where and to whom.
Lower socio-economic groups of populations are sadly over represented with respect to diabetes and obesity. Moreover, current attempts to stem such increases have not proved to be successful which leads to the onset of a further set of co-morbidities, poor health and often early death. This paper proffers the potential of serious games that invoke social influence dynamics and are developed around culturally and socially relevant contexts as a way to address this growing problem. This paper begins with a brief review of how serious games can be used as an effective learning and communication medium as well as outlining the benefits of social influence before applying the constructs to an urban health (Chicago) context. The paper demonstrates how, in this context, games can be used as a pedagogical tool to foster superior learning and understanding. Playing games or using other simulation-oriented applications can offer a visual portrayal of situations, from which this population can garner understanding and applicability to clinical constructs and knowledge.
Autism is the most commonly occurring form of autism spectrum disorder. Analysis of gene expression data is important in autism in order to retrieve the required information. Gene expression data generally contain a large number of genes but a small number of samples. The complicated relations among the different genes make analysis more difficult, and removing the irrelevant genes will improve the quality of the results. This paper presents a feature selection method based on minimum redundancy maximum relevance with mean-based ranking (mRMR-µR) to identify the genes associated with autism or potential susceptibility regions in the genome. To assess the performance of the proposed method, it is applied on autism gene expression data. The classifiers support vector machine (SVM), k-nearest-neighbour (kNN) and artificial neural network (ANN) are used to identify the accuracy of selected features. The experimental results show that the proposed feature selection method gives 100% average classification accuracy for the top twenty-five selected genes.
This paper focuses on accessibility of healthcare through telemedicine ICT software implementation and bring process and performance improvements. For achieving efficacy of the hypothesis, this paper studies the key determining factors such as challenges, adoption of technologies and standards, process refinement, reliability, safety and security of the patient records and performance improvements. This pilot study ensures the success of quality healthcare delivery outreach to remote/rural patients through telemedicine in a clinic to hospital (C2H) environment between NLC remote clinic to SRMC super specialty hospital for ensuring the efficacy of the telemedicine system software through ICT. During implementation, delays due to generation and resolution side of the healthcare delivery were identified and suitable policy measures, technology adoption at all levels of healthcare delivery system from both the ends of C2H was advocated.
Coronary stent is one of the most critical medical implants needed for heart treatment. While it is a life saving product, its pricing in Indian market had been erratic, inflated and unaffordable to common people. Till February-2017, these stents were being sold with a profit margin of more than 600%. This astronomical trade margin was being shared by the manufacturers, intermediaries and hospitals. Based on a PIL and the direction of Hon'ble Delhi High Court, the government has now capped the prices of all variants of stents making them cheaper by nearly 80%. But healthcare industry has not passed the full benefit to the customers. To offset the loss of profit from coronary stents, they have increased the price of coronary procedures and other provisions. On an overall basis, the reduction of the package cost is 18%, even when stents constitute a major portion of the cost. Such unfair practices are prevalent in many other medical implants as well and therefore it is a matter of concern. This article delves into this issue and suggests measures to counter the menace.
