Development and use of a computerized system to track the competency development of family medicine residents: analysis of the convergence between system proposals and assessor decisions

In recent decades, a number of training environments have moved toward program approaches targeting the development of competencies. Because of their complexity, monitoring the development of those competencies is a considerable challenge. Our hypothesis is that a computerized system could help overcome this challenge if it is well accepted by its users. We first summarize the context surrounding the implementation of such approaches. Next, we present a computerized assessment system established in the Family Medicine Residency Program of Laval University (Québec, Canada) that we have developed for tracking the development of residents’ competencies. We then present the analysis of interactions between the system and users and the various proposals that were made to improve the system and longitudinal tracking of the development of the targeted competencies. We consider that this research provides useful guidelines for the computerized monitoring of learners' competencies development and for the design of such systems.

Increasing quality of the wireless module for monitoring and supervision of sound series of the expanded purpose

The sound series are considered as an addition to visual and thermal imaging information flows when using computerized monitoring systems (CS). A minimum complete structure of spaced microphones for collecting data on sound rows, which is suitable for calibrating, isolating and transmitting data on sound anomalies (SA), is proposed. Duplication of the data transmission channel by wire and Wi-Fi module for recording and determining the type and coordinates of the SA is provided. An experimental receiving module has been assembled, which includes microphones, amplifiers and signals matching boards for digital and analog forms, an ARDUINO UNO WIFI REV2 controller with an integrated Wi-Fi module. It is presented that its addition with a personal computer and a smartphone with the Android operating system forms a CS for remote wireless control of the course of the experimental analysis of sound series. It has been confirmed experimentally that its structure is minimally complete. An algorithm was developed and a software package was written in C/C++ languages. It is shown that the number of microphones is selected from the conditions of the problem from 1 to 5, but their number is limited to five digital inputs of the ARDUINO UNO WIFI REV2 board. A wave representation of the law of temporal changes in intensity and the integral norm of SA is applied. The possibilities of calibrating all data of sound series in analog and digital form are demonstrated. The article presents the suitability of testing the algorithms for determining the phases of echograms from time series data, containing SAs of different origins and recorded by three different microphones. The effect of connecting a Wi-Fi module on reducing the voltage drop by 0.5–1 V is shown. The necessity of an additional registration condition for all microphones is demonstrated. The software interfaces for the calibration of the receiving module and the operation of the mobile application have been developed.

Computerized monitoring of COVID-19 trials, studies and registries in ClinicalTrials.gov registry

Clinical trial registries can provide important information about relevant studies for a given condition to other researchers and the public. We developed a computerized informatics based approach to provide an overview and analysis of COVID-19 studies registered on ClinicalTrials.gov registry. Using the perspective of analyzing active or completed COVID-19 studies, we identified 401 interventional clinical trials, 287 observational studies and 64 registries. We analyzed features of each study type separately such as location, design, interventions and update history. Our results show that the United States had the most COVID-19 interventional trials, France had the most COVID-19 observational studies and France and the United States tied for the most COVID-19 registries on ClinicalTrials.gov. The majority of studies in all three study types had a single study site. For update history “Study Status” is the most updated information and we found that studies located in Canada (2.70 updates per study) and the United States (1.76 updates per study) update their studies more often than studies in any other country. Using normalization and mapping techniques, we identified Hydroxychloroquine (92 studies) as the most common drug intervention, while convalescent plasma (20 studies) is the most common biological intervention. The primary purpose of most interventional trials is for treatment with 298 studies (74.3%). For COVID-19 registries we found the most common proposed follow-up time is 1 year (15 studies). Of specific importance and interest is COVID-19 vaccine trials, of which 12 were identified. Our informatics based approach allows for constant monitoring and updating as well as multiple applications to other conditions and interests.

Computer-Integrated Device for Acidity Measurement Monitoring in Greenhouse Conditions with Compensation of Destabilizing Factors

The purpose of the article is to improve procedures of computerized monitoring and control of technological processes of growing greenhouse crops by substantiating methods of improving the accuracy of computer-integrated devices for measuring irrigation solution acidity. The article solves the topical scientific and applied problem of determining the conversion characteristics of computerized acidity monitoring systems with integral and differential assessment of their metrological parameters. Theoretical and experimental studies were obtained based on structural-algorithmic synthesis methods for information-measuring systems; methods of mathematical planning of experiments; regression analysis of experimental data and the concept of uncertainty. The computerized acidity meter was implemented on the basis of an ion-selective pH electrode, Arduino microprocessor platform, and ThingSpeak cloud computing service. The relative total boundary uncertainty of acidity measurement is not more than ±1.1 %. Methods of compensating of the random component of uncertainty based on the median filtering algorithm and additional uncertainty from the destabilizing effect of temperature were introduced when implementing the measuring device. Promising areas of priority research to improve the efficiency of the developed computerized acidity meter were justified. The developed device can be used in the complex automation of greenhouse cultivation processes. The developed and implemented measuring tool can be used when planning agricultural operations in greenhouse conditions.

A Web-based Monitoring and Evaluation System for Government Projects in Tanzania: The Case of Ministry of Health

Monitoring and evaluation systems are used by organizations or governments to measure, track progress, and evaluate the outcomes of projects. Organizations can improve their performance, effectiveness, and achieved results in project success by strengthening their monitoring and evaluation systems. Moreover, various studies reveal the need for information and communication technology systems in monitoring and evaluation activities. Despite the advantage of the tools, most organizations do not employ computerized monitoring and evaluation systems due to their cost and limited expertise whereas those having these systems lack a systematic alert mechanism of the projects' progress. Currently, the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly, and Children of Tanzania monitors and evaluates its projects manually facing the risks and consequences of delayed project completeness. In this study, the evolutionary prototyping approach was used to develop the proposed system. This study describes the development of a web-based monitoring and evaluation system that aims to solve the monitoring and evaluation challenges, simplify works, generate quality data, and provide timely successful project implementation. The developed system was tested and evaluated against the user’s requirements and was positively accepted to be deployed at the Ministry of Health.