Background and Objective: To develop a health care value framework for physical therapy primary health care organizations including a definition. Method: A scoping review was performed. First, relevant studies were identified in 4 databases (n = 74). Independent reviewers selected eligible studies. Numerical and thematic analyses were performed to draft a preliminary framework including a definition. Next, the feasibility of the framework and definition was explored by physical therapy primary health care organization experts. Results: Numerical and thematic data on health care quality and context-specific performance resulted in a health care value framework for physical therapy primary health care organizations—including a definition of health care value, namely “to continuously attain physical therapy primary health care organization-centered outcomes in coherence with patient- and stakeholder-centered outcomes, leveraged by an organization’s capacity for change.” Conclusion: Prior literature mainly discussed health care quality and context-specific performance for primary health care organizations separately. The current study met the need for a value-based framework, feasible for physical therapy primary health care organizations, which are for a large part micro or small. It also solves the omissions of incoherent literature and existing frameworks on continuous health care quality and context-specific performance. Future research is recommended on longitudinal exploration of the HV (health care value) framework.
For people with early-dementia (PwD), it can be challenging to remember to eat and drink regularly and maintain a healthy independent living. Existing intelligent home technologies primarily focus on activity recognition but lack adaptive support. This research addresses this gap by developing an AI system inspired by the Just-in-Time Adaptive Intervention (JITAI) concept. It adapts to individual behaviors and provides personalized interventions within the home environment, reminding and encouraging PwD to manage their eating and drinking routines. Considering the cognitive impairment of PwD, we design a human-centered AI system based on healthcare theories and caregivers’ insights. It employs reinforcement learning (RL) techniques to deliver personalized interventions. To avoid overwhelming interaction with PwD, we develop an RL-based simulation protocol. This allows us to evaluate different RL algorithms in various simulation scenarios, not only finding the most effective and efficient approach but also validating the robustness of our system before implementation in real-world human experiments. The simulation experimental results demonstrate the promising potential of the adaptive RL for building a human-centered AI system with perceived expressions of empathy to improve dementia care. To further evaluate the system, we plan to conduct real-world user studies.
Background: Phantom limb pain is a frequent and persistent problem following amputation. Achieving sustainable favorable effects on phantom limb pain requires therapeutic interventions such as mirror therapy that target maladaptive neuroplastic changes in the central nervous system. Unfortunately, patients’ adherence to unsupervised exercises is generally poor and there is a need for effective strategies such as telerehabilitation to support long-term self-management of patients with phantom limb pain. Objective: The main aim of this study was to describe the user-centered approach that guided the design and development of a telerehabilitation platform for patients with phantom limb pain. We addressed 3 research questions: (1) Which requirements are defined by patients and therapists for the content and functions of a telerehabilitation platform and how can these requirements be prioritized to develop a first prototype of the platform? (2) How can the user interface of the telerehabilitation platform be designed so as to match the predefined critical user requirements and how can this interface be translated into a medium-fidelity prototype of the platform? (3) How do patients with phantom limb pain and their treating therapists judge the usability of the medium-fidelity prototype of the telerehabilitation platform in routine care and how can the platform be redesigned based on their feedback to achieve a high-fidelity prototype?
-Chatbots are being used at an increasing rate, for instance, for simple Q&A conversations, flight reservations, online shopping and news aggregation. However, users expect to be served as effective and reliable as they were with human-based systems and are unforgiving once the system fails to understand them, engage them or show them human empathy. This problem is more prominent when the technology is used in domains such as health care, where empathy and the ability to give emotional support are most essential during interaction with the person. Empathy, however, is a unique human skill, and conversational agents such as chatbots cannot yet express empathy in nuanced ways to account for its complex nature and quality. This project focuses on designing emotionally supportive conversational agents within the mental health domain. We take a user-centered co-creation approach to focus on the mental health problems of sexual assault victims. This group is chosen specifically, because of the high rate of the sexual assault incidents and its lifetime destructive effects on the victim and the fact that although early intervention and treatment is necessary to prevent future mental health problems, these incidents largely go unreported due to the stigma attached to sexual assault. On the other hand, research shows that people feel more comfortable talking to chatbots about intimate topics since they feel no fear of judgment. We think an emotionally supportive and empathic chatbot specifically designed to encourage self-disclosure among sexual assault victims could help those who remain silent in fear of negative evaluation and empower them to process their experience better and take the necessary steps towards treatment early on.
Hart- en Vaatziekten zijn doodsoorzaak nummer 1, wereldwijd. Het is een aanzienlijk probleem. In de grote stad, in Nederland, en ook daarbuiten. Aan dit probleem is wel wat te doen, het is belangrijk om gezonde leefgewoonten te hebben, daar zit heel veel gezondheidswinst in. We weten hoe we gezond moeten leven: niet roken, een gezond gewicht hebben en voldoende lichaamsbeweging elke dag. Richtlijnen voor zorgprofessionals geven deze doelen aan, maar deze doelen worden, bijvoorbeeld door hartpatiënten, bij lange na niet gehaald. Richtlijnen in de zorg benadrukken ook het belang van het concept ‘personalised prevention’ en ’patient centered care’, om doelen te behalen, maar geven deze concepten tot op heden geen concrete, wetenschappelijk onderbouwde betekenis. Met het toenemende aantal beschikbare behandelingen voor leefstijlverandering, neem de complexiteit toe, niet alleen voor hulpverleners, maar ook voor patiënten. Consistentie in de behandeling van alle betrokken hulpverleners in alle fasen van de zorg en deze laten leiden door de voorkeur van de patiënt kan beter en lijkt noodzakelijk voor het volhouden van een leefstijlaanpassing. De keuze voor een behandeling laten leiden door de voorkeuren en waarden van de patiënt kan beter en is noodzakelijk voor het volhouden van leefstijlaanpassingen in het dagelijks leven. Er is schrijnend tekort aan kennis en hulpmiddelen om leefstijlverandering op patiëntniveau te realiseren, om de (hart)patiënt te bereiken. Mijn hypothese is dat de kans op het aannemen van een gezonde leefstijl groter is wanneer de voorkeur van de individuele patiënt meer leidend is in de afweging van behandelstrategieën. Voor toetsing van deze hypothese ontbreekt nog veel kennis, bijvoorbeeld over wat de behandelvoorkeuren van patiënten zijn, in hoeverre deze afwijken van de voorkeuren van de behandelende hulpverleners (medisch specialisten, huisarts, verpleegkundige, fysiotherapeut, diëtist, psycholoog) en op welke manier technologie de behandelvoorkeuren kan verhelderen.
