scholarly journals Creating boundaries to empower digital health technology

BJPsych Open ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 235-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Honor Hsin ◽  
John Torous

SummaryThe potential of digital health tools such as smartphones and sensors to increase access to and enhance delivery of healthcare is well known. However, a lack of regulation and delineation between those technologies seeking to offer direct clinical diagnostics and treatments and those involving clinical care enhancements or direct-to-consumer resources has led to patient and clinician confusion about the appropriate use and role of digital health. Here, we propose that creating boundaries and better defining the scope of digital health technology will advance the field through matching the right use cases with the right tools. We further propose that ethical clinicians, as stewards of standard of care, are well suited to uphold these boundaries and to safeguard best practices in digital health.Declaration of interestH.H. is an employee of Verily Life Sciences and owns equity in this company. The views expressed here are those of the authors and are not official views of Verily Life Sciences.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas L Jones ◽  
Emily Heiden ◽  
Felicity Mitchell ◽  
Carole Fogg ◽  
Sharon McCready ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Vital sign measurements are an integral component of clinical care, but current challenges with the accuracy and timeliness of patient observations can impact appropriate clinical decision making. Advanced technologies using techniques such as photoplethysmography have the potential to automate non-contact physiological monitoring and recording, improving the quality and accessibility of this essential clinical information. OBJECTIVE To develop the algorithm used in the LifelightTM software application and improve the accuracy of its estimated heart rate, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation and blood pressure measurements METHODS This preliminary study will compare measurements predicted by the LifelightTM software with standard of care measurements for an estimated population sample of 2000 inpatients, outpatients and healthy people attending a large acute hospital. Both training datasets and validation datasets will be analysed to assess the degree of correspondence between the vital sign measurements predicted by the LifelightTM software and the direct physiological measurements taken using standard of care methods. Sub group analyses will explore how the performance of the algorithm varies with particular patient characteristics, including age, sex, health condition and medication. RESULTS Recruitment of participants to this study began in July 2018 and data collection will continue for a planned study period of 12 months. CONCLUSIONS Digital health technology is a rapidly evolving area for health and social care. Following this initial exploratory study to develop and refine the LifelightTM software application, subsequent work will evaluate its performance across a range of health characteristics and extended validation trials will support its pathway to registration as a medical device. Innovations in health technology such as this may provide valuable opportunities for increasing the efficiency and accessibility of vital sign measurements and improve healthcare services on a large scale across multiple health and care settings. CLINICALTRIAL


Genes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 1465
Author(s):  
Kamila Majidova ◽  
Julia Handfield ◽  
Kamran Kafi ◽  
Ryan D. Martin ◽  
Ryszard Kubinski

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), subdivided into Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), are chronic diseases that are characterized by relapsing and remitting periods of inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract. In recent years, the amount of research surrounding digital health (DH) and artificial intelligence (AI) has increased. The purpose of this scoping review is to explore this growing field of research to summarize the role of DH and AI in the diagnosis, treatment, monitoring and prognosis of IBD. A review of 21 articles revealed the impact of both AI algorithms and DH technologies; AI algorithms can improve diagnostic accuracy, assess disease activity, and predict treatment response based on data modalities such as endoscopic imaging and genetic data. In terms of DH, patients utilizing DH platforms experienced improvements in quality of life, disease literacy, treatment adherence, and medication management. In addition, DH methods can reduce the need for in-person appointments, decreasing the use of healthcare resources without compromising the standard of care. These articles demonstrate preliminary evidence of the potential of DH and AI for improving the management of IBD. However, the majority of these studies were performed in a regulated clinical environment. Therefore, further validation of these results in a real-world environment is required to assess the efficacy of these methods in the general IBD population.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deirdre Elizabeth Logan ◽  
Laura Edith Simons ◽  
Thomas Caruso ◽  
Jeffry I Gold ◽  
Anya Griffin ◽  
...  

UNSTRUCTURED Background: Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) interventions are emerging as promising tools in the treatment of pediatric chronic pain conditions, but in this young field there is little consensus to guide the process of engaging in the development and evaluation of targeted VR-based interventions. Methods: The INOVATE-Pain consortium aims to advance the field of VR for pediatric chronic pain rehabilitation by providing guidance for best practices in the design, evaluation, and dissemination of VR-based interventions targeting this population. Results and Conclusions: Reviewing the state of the field, the consortium identified important directions for research-driven innovation in VR/AR clinical care, highlighted key opportunities and challenges facing the field, and established a consensus on best methodological practices to adopt in future efforts to advance the research and practice of VR/AR in pediatric pain. The consortium also identified important next steps to undertake to continue to advance the work in this promising new area of digital health pain interventions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 116
Author(s):  
Jessica Lee ◽  
Arun Singh ◽  
Siraj M. Ali ◽  
Douglas I. Lin ◽  
Samuel J. Klempner

<p><strong>Objective.</strong> We report a female patient diagnosed with a leiomyosarcoma and who harbored a druggable target as identified by comprehensive genomic profiling in the course of clinical care.</p><p><strong>Case Report.</strong> The patient progressed five years after curative intent surgery and adjuvant treatment. After failure of multiple lines of chemotherapy,she was enrolled in a trial of an ALK inhibitor based on comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) identifying an TNS1-ALK fusion.</p><p><strong>Conclusion. </strong>In this case, identification of the ALK kinase fusion permitted enrollment in a matched mechanism driven clinical trial after exhausting standard of care treatment options. CGP raises the possibility of uterine inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor as an alternative diagnosisto leiomyosarcoma, highlighting the complementary role of CGP beyond immunohistochemical analyses.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Waqas Ullah Khan ◽  
Aviv Shachak ◽  
Emily Seto

UNSTRUCTURED The decision to accept or reject new digital health technologies remains an ongoing discussion. Over the past few decades, interest in understanding the choice to adopt technology has led to the development of numerous theories and models. In 1979, however, psychologists Kahneman and Tversky published their seminal research article that has pioneered the field of behavioural economics. They named their model the “prospect theory” and used it to explain decision making behaviours under conditions of risk and uncertainty as well as to provide an understanding of why individuals may make irrational or inconsistent decisions. Although the prospect theory has been used to explain decision making in economics, law, political science, and clinically at the individual level, its application to understanding choice in the adoption of digital health technology has not been explored.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 24-32
Author(s):  
Oscar Bonastre ◽  
Alejandro Bia

The role of technical standards (TS) has become increasingly important for engineering over the past years. Nowadays, undergraduates are not only our future colleagues in industry and academia, but they also constitute the future workforce of a very significant part of the industry. The accomplishments of professional activities require a correct understanding of the role of technical standards applied to the industry, especially within the computing and the telecommunications fields. One of the challenges is to find the right way to introduce technical standards to enhance the learning experience by pointing students to the best practices of the industry. We found a stimulating alternative to overcome this challenge through the IEEE Student Branch Program. This paper presents one case of success, the IEEE's Student Branch in Spain during 2014, 2015 and 2017 and the Exemplary Student Branch Award (2017 to 2019) of Region 8 (Europe, Middle East and Africa).


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 303-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chinwe Obuaku-Igwe

The digitization of health promotion and communication has become a major discourse in healthcare. This paper synthesizes my understanding of the role of health literacy, promotion, education and communication in ensuring effective digitization of healthcare and presents four key findings from a mental health promotion project. First, the pandemic has shown us more than ever how fragile we all are – health-seeking behaviour will increasingly take centre stage over the next decade. Second, why do people refuse to wear masks even though it increases the risk of mortality? Why are individuals not motivated to exercise despite downloading free health apps? Why do people keep eating unhealthy food even when they can afford healthier options? Why? The numbers cannot tell the whole story. Similarly, the proliferation of digital health technology cannot convince people to modify their behaviours nor promote meaningful use of e/m-health apps. Third, deliberate digital health promotion and communication is needed to leverage opportunities in health technology. Fourth, the world needs researchers and experts who understand the broader determinants of health attitudes and are knowledgeable in synthesizing valid health information across various technological platforms, in support of health system needs. I address the implications of my findings and discuss future directions for policy and practitioners.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Waqas Ullah Khan ◽  
Aviv Shachak ◽  
Emily Seto

UNSTRUCTURED The decision to accept or reject new digital health technologies remains an ongoing discussion. Over the past few decades, interest in understanding the choice to adopt technology has led to the development of numerous theories and models. In 1979, however, psychologists Kahneman and Tversky published their seminal research article that has pioneered the field of behavioural economics. They named their model the “prospect theory” and used it to explain decision making behaviours under conditions of risk and uncertainty as well as to provide an understanding of why individuals may make irrational or inconsistent decisions. Although the prospect theory has been used to explain decision making in economics, law, political science, and clinically at the individual level, its application to understanding choice in the adoption of digital health technology has not been explored. Herein, we discuss how the prospect theory can provide valuable insight on why healthcare patients/clients, technology companies, and policymakers may decide to accept or reject digital health technologies.


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