bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
End Users Transforming Experiences into Formal Information and Process Models for Personalised Health Interventions
Authors: Lindgren Helena  , Lundin-Olsson Lillemor  , Pohl Petra  , Sandlund Marlene
Published: February 2025

Five physiotherapists organised a user-centric design process of a knowledge-based support system for promoting exercise and preventing falls. The process integrated focus group studies with 17 older adults and prototyping. The transformation of informal medical and rehabilitation expertise and older adults' experiences into formal information and process models during the development was studied. As tool they used ACKTUS, a development platform for knowledge-based applications. The process became agile and incremental, partly due to the diversity of expectations and preferences among both older adults and physiotherapists, and the participatory approach to design and development. In addition, there was a need to develop the knowledge content alongside with the formal models and their presentations, which allowed the participants to test hands-on and evaluate the ideas, content and design. The resulting application is modular, extendable, flexible and adaptable to the individual end user. Moreover, the physiotherapists are able to modify the information and process models, and in this way further develop the application. The main constraint was found to be the lack of support for the initial phase of concept modelling, which lead to a redesigned user interface and functionality of ACKTUS.
Pediatrics Prescriptions with Ontologies and Treatment Suggestions
Authors: Lupşe Oana-Sorina  , Stoicu-Tivadar Lăcrămioara
Published: February 2025

Diagnosis and treatment for children healthcare are very sensitive activities. The present work presents an ontology based model for a future information system to support these activities. The input data contains children health status, and drug characteristics. During clinical practice a database with what specialists mark as successful treatments is created. This database is gradually growing bigger and is built by physicians based on their good results related to a treatment for a certain health condition. The new ontology system proposed in this paper is supporting the e-prescription process. The relations are managed using the open source application Protégé and for suggesting treatments, using the database with successful treatments, we developed a special module that offers to physicians a selection from which they can chose the best treatment for their current case.
Integration of Federated Medical Systems for Vendor Neutral Image Access in Teleradiology Applications
Authors: Yilmaz Ayhan Ozan  , Baykal Nazife
Published: February 2025

This paper proposes a framework designed to interconnect medical imaging facilities and teleradiology service providers on a single access interface. This framework aims to solve the interoperability issues of Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS), Radiology Information System (RIS) and Hospital Information System (HIS) developed by different vendors and enrich the digital health record delivered to non-local radiologists or physicians with the integrated information from several systems. This is achieved by introducing a “Grid Agent” into the domain of medical software systems, which seamlessly integrates with present systems and forms a network to deliver data between other Grid Agents and the “Grid Manager”. Resultant solution decreases the access time of medical images by non-local medical staff and increases the efficiency and durability of the teleradiology service architecture.
PAT: An Intelligent Authoring Tool for Facilitating Clinical Trial Design
Authors: Tagaris Anastasios  , Andronikou Vassiliki  , Karanastasis Efstathios  , Chondrogiannis Efthymios  , Tsirmpas Charalambos  , Varvarigou Theodora  , Koutsouris Dimitris
Published: February 2025

Great investments are made by both private and public funds and a wealth of research findings is published, the research and development pipeline phases quite low productivity and tremendous delays. In this paper, we present a novel authoring tool which has been designed and developed for facilitating study design. Its underlying models are based on a thorough analysis of existing clinical trial protocols (CTPs) and eligibility criteria (EC) published in clinicaltrials.gov by domain experts. Moreover, its integration with intelligent decision support services and mechanisms linking the study design process with healthcare patient data as well as its direct access to literature designate it as a powerful tool offering great support to researchers during clinical trial design.
The design and implementation of a ubiquitous personal health record system for South Africa
Authors: Kyazze Michael  , Wesson Janet  , Naude Kevin
Published: February 2025

Doctors can experience difficulty in accessing medical information of new patients. One reason for this is that, the management of medical records is mostly institution-centred. The lack of access to medical information may affect patients in several ways, such as: new medical tests may be carried out at a cost to the patient, and doctors may prescribe drugs to which the patient is allergic. This paper presents the design and implementation of a ubiquitous Personal Health Record system for South Africa. The design was informed by a literature review of existing personal health record standards, applications and the need to ensure patient privacy. Three medical practices in Port Elizabeth were interviewed with the aim of contextualizing the personal health record standards from the literature study. The findings of this research provide an insight as to how patients can bridge the gap created by institution-centred management of medical records.
A constitutive model for shape memory alloys, visualizing internal deformability mechanism
Authors: Sadrnejad Seyed Amirodin
Published: February 2025

The issue of intelligent structures and intelligent control systems has engaged researchers worldwide. So, analysis of these materials is of high importance in designing and for analysis of the structures in which these alloys have been utilized, a suitable behavioral constitutive law is required. The shape of crystal structure in shape memory alloys is dependent on the temperature and external tension imposed on them.
Material properties of bottom ash and welding slag as fine aggregates in concrete
Authors: Jayakumar Karthikeyan  , Arunachalam Ananthi
Published: February 2025

This paper highlights the use of industrial waste such as bottom ash and two types of welding slag (WS) such as Steel WS and Stainless Steel WS, as the partial replacements for fine aggregates in concrete. This Paper presents the chemical analysis and strength properties of industrial solid waste consisting of Bottom ash, Steel WS and Stainless Steel WS. Their chemical compositions were identified by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) analysis. The results shows that the 7-day compressive strength of concrete containing 10% bottom ash increases by about 1.2 N/mm2and at 28 days, it increases by about 1.5 N/mm2and Similar changes were noted for Stainless Steel WS. The enhancement of concrete strength in bottom ash and Stainless steel WS was due to the presence of calcium and silica. The compressive strength of concrete containing 10% Steel WS at 7 days was the same as that of control mix but at 28 days, its compressive strength decreased by about 1.8 N/mm2. In the Steel WS concrete, later the strength is decreased due to the presence of chromium and magnesium in the slag.
Blended cements based on C&DW: its influence in the pozzolanicity
Authors: Asensio E.  , Medina C.  , Sánchez de Rojas M.I.  , Frías M.
Published: February 2025

Construction sector is in constant research and innovation, and in this way is the search of new cementitious materials that it can be used in construction to achieve a more sustainable and eco–efficient industry. Actually, the construction and demolition waste (C&DW) has low percentages of recycling, with a correct management by the recycling plants and a minimum previous conditioning it can be used as pozzolanic addition in cement. In view of its mineralogical and chemical composition have been chosen three different wastes from all the samples collected and used for making blended cements for the study of their pozzolanicity. Good results have been obtained and show that this kind of materials can be useful for pozzolanic additions in cements.
Steel-slag and activators ratio impacts on the shrinkage of alkaline activated ultrafine palm oil ash-steel slag paste/mortar
Authors: Yusuf Moruf O.  , Johari Megat A.M.  , Ahmad Zainal A.  , Maslehuddin M.
Published: February 2025

The ground steel slag (GSS) was used in synergy with ultrafine-palm oil fuel ash (UPOFA) to study the shrinkage of alkaline activated GSS-UPOFA (AAGU) products, which were oven-cured for 24 h at 60 °C and relative humidity of 50%. The GSS (G)/(GSS+UPOFA) varied from 0 to 0.8 and 0 to 0.4 for pastes and mortars, respectively with the use of the two activators - Na2SiO3aq(SiO2/Na2O=3.3) and 10 M NaOHaq. The findings showed that steel slag inclusion decreased the shrinkage of AAGU mortars and pastes due to its larger pore volume, and its enhancement of bulk modulus of the solid skeleton (C-(A)-S-H) through infusion of a network-modified Ca2+. The shrinkage was also found to decrease with the increase in the NaOHaq/ Na2SiO3aqmass ratio from 1 to 2.5. The 90-day shrinkage of the product prepared with GSS/(GSS+UPOFA) of 0.2 were found to be 25.88x103and 8.20x103μϵ in the paste and mortar, respectively.
Using carbon nanotubes in self-compacting paste systems
Authors: Naz Afshan  , Rizwan Syed Ali  , Ali Naveed Z.  , Bier Thomas A.  , Ullah Hameed
Published: February 2025

Dispersions of carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) with different surfactants were prepared and were used in self-compacting paste (SCP) systems with a view to observe improvement in their response under fresh and hardened state. Different surfactants were tried and the better ones were used on the basis of dispersion time of CNTs solutions and other properties compatible with those of SCP systems. The flow and strength response of SCP system using CNTs dispersed in solution of acacia gum obtained from a plant in Pakistan showed an overall improved performance in terms of strength gain due to CNTs dispersed solutions.
Molecular dynamics research of triple junctions structure of tilt and mixed-type grain boundaries in nickel
Authors: Poletaev Gennady  , Dmitrienko Darya  , Diabdenkov Vadim  , Mikrukov Vladimir  , Starostenkov Mikhail
Published: February 2025

The atomic structure and the diffusion permeability of triple junctions of high-angle tilt boundaries and mixed-type grain boundaries in nickel have been investigated using the molecular dynamics method. It has been shown that equilibrium triple junction has no structural features, which ably single it out as a special defect among its constituent grain boundaries. The diffusion permeability of triple junctions does not exceed the permeability of the boundaries. The effective diffusion radius of the considered triple junctions and the width of the grain boundaries are determined.
Effects of sulphuric acid on the compressive strength of blended cement-cassava peel ash concrete
Authors: Olonade Kolawole Adisa  , Olajumoke Akinropo Musiliu  , Omotosho Ayoade Oluwaseun  , Oyekunle Funso Ayobami
Published: February 2025

Influence of sulphuric acid on compressive strength of concrete made with blended cement-cassava peel ash was investigated in this study. This is with a view to determining the level of resistance of such concrete to acidic exposure. Cassava peel ash (CPA) prepared from uncontrolled burning was used to substitute cement at 5, 10, 15 and 20% by weight of cement as binder. Concrete mix proportions of 1:2:4 (batching by weight) were prepared with the slump value within 6±10 mm while water-binder ratios (w/b) were being noted. A total of 90 cubes of the concrete mixture of sizes 150 mm were cast and cured in fresh water (as control), 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 M concentrations of sulphuric acid solution (H2SO4) for 7, 28, 56 and 90 days. The compressive strength was determined at the expiration of each curing age. The results showed that the w/b increased with increase in the quantity of CPA in the mixture. Compressive strength of concrete made with cement-CPA as binder and cured in fresh water was comparable to that of normal concrete when up to 15% CPA was used, but relatively low strength was obtained when cured in H2SO4solutions, depending on the quantity of CPA. Leaching of Porlandite in the concrete cubes was observed with worse condition in the case of concrete containing 20% CPA in sulphuric acid solution of 1.5 M. The compressive strength reduced with increase in concentrations of the acid as well as with increase in the content of the CPA. It is concluded that CPA did not mitigate the adverse effects of sulphuric acid on the compressive strength of blended cement-CPA concrete.
Relation between crack width and corrosion degree in elements of concrete with crushed sand
Authors: Cabrera Oscar A.  , Ortega Néstor F.  , Traversa Luis P.  , Donza Horacio
Published: February 2025

The development of cracks due to corrosion products depends on the quality of the concrete, the concrete cover thickness, etc. The link between the rate of growth of crack width and the evolution of corrosion, can predict the safety and suitability for service residual of reinforced concrete structures. In this sense, this work assesses the impact of the influence of the type of fine aggregate and water/cement (w/c) ratio on the evolution of the “crack width” regarding the “concrete cover/diameter of the steel” relation. Then, two series of beams were made with w/c ratio of 0.45 and 0.50. The results show that the type of sand and the w/c ratio significantly influence the growing mechanism of crack width, and the obtained information is compared to results obtained by other authors.
IEEE 802.14.5/ZigBee Based WSNs – WPANs and Innovative Application in Medical Health Care Systems
Authors: Zhang Zhongwei
Published: February 2025

With recent developments in wireless networks field and in sensing technology, new and innovative medical applications based on the wireless sensor networks (WSN) technology are being developed in the research lab or commercial sectors. The key problem of WSN based application in the medical and health care domain is to get the message with the bounded delays and/or real-time data such as the signal of falls, the alarm of heart attacks traversed to the cluster at where the emergence unit located while delivering the steady flows of data with a certain level of Quality of Service (QoS). In this paper, we address this problem by proposing to use a periodic scheduling–Time Division Cluster Schedule (TDCS), to avoid the flow collision while meeting the end-to-end delay deadlines. The proposed scheduling mechanism has been studied on simulated Wireless sensor networks with a cluster tree topology on which the OPEN-ZB simulation model is adopted. The preliminary results shown that it is feasible to guarantee the real time medical data delivered on time over the low data rate wireless sensor networks when deployed at medical and/or health care domain, under the governance of the TDCS mechanism.
Automatic assessment of tear film break-up dynamics
Authors: Ramos L.  , Barreira N.  , Pena-Verdeal H.  , Giráldez M.J.
Published: February 2025

Dry eye syndrome is a common disorder of the tear film which affects a remarkable percentage of the population. The Break-Up Time (BUT) is a clinical test used for the diagnosis of this disease, which computes the time the first tear film break-up appears. This work describes a fully automatic methodology to compute the BUT measurement and evaluate the break-up dynamics until the final blink. This analysis provides useful additional information for the assessment of tear film stability.
Statistical Significance in the Selection of the Regions of Interest for Parkinson Brain Image Processing
Authors: Padilla Pablo  , Ramírez Javier  , Górriz Juan Manuel  , Salas-González Diego  , Alvarez-Illán Ignacio  , Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative
Published: February 2025

This paper presents the analysis of the statistical significance in the selection of the ROI for the discriminant analysis of brain images to identify Parkinson patients or subjects without any pathology. The particular features and brain functional patterns of the Parkinson's disease cause that there are regions that conveniently reveal the presence of the pathology, in this case mainly the striatum region. The selection of the brain mask makes incidence in two main aspects: the selection of the region of interest (striatum and surrounding area) for the analysis, but also the selection of the region without significance, which is the reference area for the intensity normalization, previous to the analysis. This work studies the statistical significance in the selection of ROIs in 3D brain images for Parkinson, depending on the objective to be achieved in the posterior analysis process.
Using a Digital Marketing Platform for the Promotion of an Internet Based Health Encyclopedia in Saudi Arabia
Authors: Al Ateeq Asma  , Al Moamary Eman  , Daghestani Tahani  , Al Muallem Yahya  , Al Dogether Majed  , Alsughayr Abdulrahman  , Altuwaijri Majid  , Househ Mowafa
Published: February 2025

The objective of this paper is to investigate the experiences of using a digital marketing platform to promote the use of an internet based health encyclopedia in Saudi Arabia. Key informant interviews, meeting documentation, and Google Analytics were the data collection sources used in the study. Findings show that using a digital marketing platform led to a significant increase in the number of visitors to the health encyclopedia. The results demonstrate that digital marketing platforms are effective tools to be used for promoting internet based health education interventions. Future work will examine long-term educational impacts and costs in using digital marketing platforms to promote online healthcare sites in Saudi Arabia.
Cultural Issues in Adverse Event Reporting – An ethnographic study
Authors: Harter Christopher D.  , Nøhr Christian
Published: February 2025

Adverse event reporting is a frequently used mechanism to establish a learning cycle to avoid future errors. However a precondition is that the potential – as well as the occurred adverse events is reported. This study explores two comparable internal medicine departments to find possible explanations on a differing frequency of adverse event reporting. Ethnographic methods – observation and interviews – are applied to collect data. The analysis reveals specific, but common ways of doing task prioritization and rating of adverse event severity. The interpesonal relationships, however, show significant differences in the two departments and can be the most plausible explanation of the difference in adverse event reporting.
A See Through Future: Augmented Reality and Health Information Systems
Authors: Monkman Helen  , Kushniruk Andre W.
Published: February 2025

Augmented Reality (AR) is a method whereby virtual objects are superimposed on the real world. AR technology is becoming increasingly accessible and affordable and it has many potential health applications. This paper discusses current research on AR health applications such as medical education and medical practice. Some of the potential future uses for this technology (e.g., health information systems, consumer health applications) will also be presented. Additionally, there will be a discussion outlining some of usability and human factors challenges associated with AR in healthcare. It is expected that AR will become increasingly prevalent in healthcare; however, further investigation is required to demonstrate that they provide benefits over traditional methods. Moreover, AR applications must be thoroughly tested to ensure they do not introduce new errors into practice and have patient safety implications.
Hype, Harmony and Human Factors: Applying User-Centered Design to Achieve Sustainable Telehealth Program Adoption and Growth
Authors: Rossos P.G.  , St-Cyr O.  , Purdy B.  , Toenjes C.  , Masino C.  , Chmelnitsky D.
Published: February 2025

Despite decades of international experience with the use of information and communication technologies in healthcare delivery, widespread telehealth adoption remains limited and progress slow. Escalating health system challenges related to access, cost and quality currently coincide with rapid advancement of affordable and reliable internet based communication technologies creating unprecedented opportunities and incentives for telehealth. In this paper, we will describe how Human Factors Engineering (HFE) and user-centric elements have been incorporated into the establishment of telehealth within a large academic medical center to increase acceptance and sustainability. Through examples and lessons learned we wish to increase awareness of HFE and its importance in the successful implementation, innovation and growth of telehealth programs.
ECHO Ontario Chronic Pain & Opioid Stewardship: Providing Access and Building Capacity for Primary Care Providers in Underserviced, Rural, and Remote Communities
Authors: Dubin Ruth E.  , Flannery John  , Taenzer Paul  , Smith Andrew  , Smith Karen  , Fabico Ralph  , Zhao Jane  , Cameron Lindsay  , Chmelnitsky Dana  , Williams Rob  , Carlin Leslie  , Sidrak Hannah  , Arora Sanjeev  , Furlan Andrea D.
Published: February 2025

Chronic pain is a prevalent and serious problem in the province of Ontario. Frontline primary care providers (PCPs) manage the majority of chronic pain patients, yet receive minimal training in chronic pain. ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) Ontario Chronic Pain & Opioid Stewardship aims to address the problem of chronic pain management in Ontario. This paper describes the development, operation, and evaluation of the ECHO Ontario Chronic Pain project. We discuss how ECHO increases PCP access and capacity to manage chronic pain, the development of a community of practice, as well as the limitations of our approach. The ECHO model is a promising approach for healthcare system improvement. ECHO's strength lies in its simplicity, adaptability, and use of existing telemedicine infrastructure to increase both access and capacity of PCPs in underserviced, rural, and remote communities.
Scaling Up the Use of Remote Patient Monitoring in Canada
Authors: Gheorghiu Bobby  , Ratchford Fraser
Published: February 2025

Evidence supporting the use of remote patient monitoring (RPM) as a cost-effective means of keeping patients from being re-admitted to hospitals or making repeated emergency department visits is growing, especially for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and congestive heart failure (CHF). A recent study funded by Canada Health Infoway, titled Connecting Patients with Providers: A Pan-Canadian Study on Remote Patient Monitoring, aimed to assess the current state of RPM solutions; to examine the evidence for patient and health system benefits achieved both in Canada and internationally; and to determine the critical success factors needed to support further investment and scaling-up of RPM solutions across the Canadian health care system. Break-even analysis of four different implementations reviewed in this study demonstrated that RPM programs can be viable and sustainable for large and small jurisdictions; however, more evidence is needed with regards to a number of potential applications for RPM beyond the management of COPD and CHF.
Lessons learned in the generation of biomedical research datasets using Semantic Open Data technologies
Authors: Legaz-García María del Carmen  , Miñarro-Giménez José Antonio  , Menárguez-Tortosa Marcos  , Fernández-Breis Jesualdo Tomás
Published: February 2025

Biomedical research usually requires combining large volumes of data from multiple heterogeneous sources. Such heterogeneity makes difficult not only the generation of research-oriented dataset but also its exploitation. In recent years, the Open Data paradigm has proposed new ways for making data available in ways that sharing and integration are facilitated. Open Data approaches may pursue the generation of content readable only by humans and by both humans and machines, which are the ones of interest in our work. The Semantic Web provides a natural technological space for data integration and exploitation and offers a range of technologies for generating not only Open Datasets but also Linked Datasets, that is, open datasets linked to other open datasets. According to the Berners-Lee's classification, each open dataset can be given a rating between one and five stars attending to can be given to each dataset. In the last years, we have developed and applied our SWIT tool, which automates the generation of semantic datasets from heterogeneous data sources. SWIT produces four stars datasets, given that fifth one can be obtained by being the dataset linked from external ones. In this paper, we describe how we have applied the tool in two projects related to health care records and orthology data, as well as the major lessons learned from such efforts.
Nursing Intervention using smartphone technologies; a systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: Jeon Eunjoo  , Park Hyeoun-Ae
Published: February 2025

We reviewed mobile technology-based interventions in nursing and computed effect size of the interventions. We searched eight databases (KoreaMED, KMBASE, KISS, NDSL, Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane central library and CINAHL) using three sets of terms: mobile application, mobile app, mobile phone or smartphone; health or healthcare; and nursing. The study design, mobile technology, sample size and clinical outcomes were extracted from each study. A total of 38 studies were selected for review. Seven and six studies were used in meta-analyses for weight and fasting plasma glucose changes respectively. We found that mobile interventions used in nursing have different characteristics compared to those in other disciplines. We also found that mobile interventions in nursing led to significant improvement in weight and glucose control.
Diagnostic Imaging Requisition Quality When Using an Electronic Medical Record: a Before-After Study
Authors: Benard Marc  , Bouaud Jacques  , Marsault Claude  , Boudghene Frank  , Carette Marie-France  , Séroussi Brigitte
Published: February 2025

Diagnostic imaging requisition (DIR) content is legally constrained for care quality and patient safety concerns. A French national indicator, based on administrative and clinical data, has been introduced to monitor nationwide the conformity of such documents (CDIR). The purpose of this study was to assess the effect on CDIR of the deployment of the ORBIS™electronic medical record at the Tenon hospital (Paris, France). A before-after study has been carried out. A significant increase of CDIR, from 37.0% (n=676) to 49.1% (n=800), was observed (p < 10−5). Conformity of administrative criteria improved, but there was no statistical difference of clinical criteria conformity, despite the improvement of clinical history documentation (100%). Up to five different paper-based requisition forms were used by clinical departments in the before period. In the after period, only 27.1% of requisitions were ORBIS-edited with a CDIR of 66.8% (n=217). In both periods, CDIR was correlated to the level of standardization of the forms.
Nurses' expectations and perceptions of a redesigned Electronic Health Record
Authors: Gonzalez Zulma  , Recondo Francisco  , Sommer Janine  , Schachner Bibiana  , Garcia Gabriela  , Luna Daniel  , Benítez Sonia
Published: February 2025

When a new Electronic Health Record is implemented or modifications are made, the full acceptance by end users depends on their expectations and perceptions about the possible benefits and the potential impacts on care quality. The redesign of an electronic nurse chart should consider the inherent characteristics of nurses' practice and the variables that may influence the implementation and use of the new chart. In this study, a qualitative method evaluated nurses' expectations and perceptions about the implementation impacts of a redesigned nurse chart in an electronic health record at Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires. Seventy-four nurses participated in three operative groups. Following ground theory, three analytic dimensions were found: impact at work, communication and chart quality. In addition, time was a recurrent topic. Nurses found it difficult to think positively if reduction in time of documentation was not assured.
How to Assist Intensive Care Units in Improving Healthcare Quality. Development of Actionable Quality Indicators on Blood use
Authors: Roos-Blom Marie-José  , Dongelmans Dave  , Arbous M. Sesmu  , de Jonge Evert  , de Keizer Nicolette
Published: February 2025

Previously developed quality indicators (QIs) for the intensive care did not give clues for quality improvement. We will improve this by developing new QIs that are actionable, reliable, valid and easy to register. Using a modified RAND technique we developed in three rounds new QIs for blood use at Dutch intensive care units (ICUs). The final set of QIs will be part of the National Intensive Care Evaluation quality registry and evaluated in a randomized controlled trial. In addition, a web-based feedback tool containing strategies for quality improvement will be developed. With the results of this project we hope to improve and maintain good quality of care at the Dutch ICUs .
Supporting in- and off-Hospital Patient Management Using a Web-based Integrated Software Platform
Authors: Spyropoulos Basile  , Botsivali Maria  , Tzavaras Aris  , Pierros Vasileios
Published: February 2025

In this paper, a Web-based software platform appropriately designed to support the continuity of health care information and management for both in and out of hospital care is presented. The system has some additional features as it is the formation of continuity of care records and the transmission of referral letters with a semantically annotated web service. The platform's Web-orientation provides significant advantages, allowing for easily accomplished remote access.
Telemedicine and Cooperative Remote Healthcare Services: COPD Field Trial
Authors: Gerdes Martin  , Smaradottir Berglind  , Reichert Frank  , Fensli Rune
Published: February 2025

The introduction of sustainable telemedicine solutions throughout Europe requires the development of secure, flexible and expandable systems and the evaluation of their operation in real-world settings such as field trials. This paper describes a system for a remote monitoring and care support field trial with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients. By following a user-centred-development and Privacy by Design approach, the needs of all involved user groups could be addressed, while fulfilling, at the same time, national requirements with emphasis in security and privacy protection. The solution covers specific applications and services for COPD patients and their remote care takers, but allows the generalization of its applicability to other patient groups.
A European inventory of data elements for patient recruitment
Authors: Doods Justin  , Lafitte Caroline  , Ulliac-Sagnes Nadine  , Proeve Johan  , Botteri Florence  , Walls Robert  , Sykes Andy  , Dugas Martin  , Fritz Fleur
Published: February 2025

Introduction: In the last few years much work has been conducted in creating systems that support clinical trials for example by utilizing electronic health record data. One of these endeavours is the Electronic Health Record for Clinical Research project (EHR4CR). An unanswered question that the project aims to answer is which data elements are most commonly required for patient recruitment.
A WSN healthcare monitoring system for elderly people in geriatric facilities
Authors: Yu Xiao  , Weller Peter  , Grattan Kenneth T.V.
Published: February 2025

This paper investigates an enhanced WSN based monitoring system for elderly people in geriatric facilities. Apart from general physical monitoring functionalities, we explore the potential of using a wireless audio module to perform mental health monitoring. The telephone version of the mini mental status examination (T-MMSE) was adopted in the mental health monitoring and the RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) localization algorithm was implemented in this system to track elderly people's the real-time location and send alerts based on their inactivity/activity levels, movement history and entry into restricted zones. Experimental test was performed to evaluate the performance of the proposed system. With results obtained and studied, this work can be extended to perform detection and rehabilitation function for elderly people with mental illness. This kind of monitoring system would be expected to make an important impact on many application scenarios for geriatric facilities.
Internet of Things For an Age-Friendly Healthcare
Authors: Konstantinidis Evdokimos I.  , Bamparopoulos Giorgos  , Billis Antonis  , Bamidis Panagiotis D.
Published: February 2025

In healthcare applications a large cohort of recent implementations utilises IoT-oriented infrastructures (XMPP) as well as smart mobile devices as communication gateways. IoT characteristi Communication/Connectivity, Pervasive Computing and Ambient Intelligence, are all highly related to Active and Healthy Aging environments. This paper presents a new idea, that of IoT enabled devices which are directly connected to the IoT (a glucose meter is used as an example herein), complying with the XMPP messaging protocol and the incorporation of a recently released Controller Application Communication (CAC) framework for distributed, cross-platform communication. A web based exergaming platform and a disease management tool, provide the vehicles for the demonstration of the feasibility and the successful implementation and integration of the aforementioned infrastructure.
Contextual cloud-based service oriented architecture for clinical workflow
Authors: Moreno-Conde Jesús  , Moreno-Conde Alberto  , Núñez-Benjumea Francisco J.  , Parra-Calderón Carlos
Published: February 2025

Given that acceptance of systems within the healthcare domain multiple papers highlighted the importance of integrating tools with the clinical workflow. This paper analyse how clinical context management could be deployed in order to promote the adoption of cloud advanced services and within the clinical workflow. This deployment will be able to be integrated with the eHealth European Interoperability Framework promoted specifications. Throughout this paper, it is proposed a cloud-based service-oriented architecture. This architecture will implement a context management system aligned with the HL7 standard known as CCOW.
Acquisition of Character Translation Rules for Supporting SNOMED CT Localizations
Authors: Miñarro-Giménez Jose Antonio  , Hellrich Johannes  , Schulz Stefan
Published: February 2025

Translating huge medical terminologies like SNOMED CT is costly and time consuming. We present a methodology that acquires substring substitution rules for single words, based on the known similarity between medical words and their translations, due to their common Latin / Greek origin. Character translation rules are automatically acquired from pairs of English words and their automated translations to German. Using a training set with single words extracted from SNOMED CT as input we obtained a list of 268 translation rules. The evaluation of these rules improved the translation of 60% of words compared to Google Translate and 55% of translated words that exactly match the right translations. On a subset of words where machine translation had failed, our method improves translation in 56% of cases, with 27% exactly matching the gold standard.
OpenNCP: a novel framework to foster cross-border e-Health services
Authors: Fonseca Marcelo  , Karkaletsis Kostas  , Cruz Isabel A.  , Berler Alexander  , Oliveira Ilídio C.
Published: February 2025

The continuity of cross-border health care in the European Union depends on the ability to set up shared practices with respect to patient data exchange across Member States. This flow of data must comply with demanding security, legal and interoperability requirements, as defined by the epSOS project specifications. In this paper, we describe the OpenNCP framework that offers a comprehensive set of interoperability services to enable national and regional e-Health platforms to set up cross-border health information networks compliant with epSOS, with minimal adaptation of the existing infrastructure. The OpenNCP, available as open source software, has been adopted in 10 Member States, allowing them to securely interconnect their eHealth infrastructures.
Apps for Hearing Healthcare
Authors: Paglialonga Alessia  , Tognola Gabriella  , Pinciroli Francesco
Published: February 2025

The hearing healthcare scenario is rapidly evolving due to the pervasive use of m-Health solutions, in particular mobile apps. This brings along significant advantages and opportunities (e.g., accessibility, affordability, personalized healthcare, patient empowerment) as well as significant potential risks and threats (e.g., safety, misuse, quality issues, privacy). Our research aims at the identification and assessment of apps in the hearing healthcare domain. In this article we present an overview of the current availability, variety, and penetration of hearing-related apps.
Synthesizing Analytic Evidence to Refine Care Pathways
Authors: Liu Haifeng  , Li Xiang  , Yu Yiqin  , Mei Jing  , Xie Guotong  , Perer Adam  , Wang Fei  , Hu Jianying
Published: February 2025

Care pathways play significant roles in delivering evidence-based and coordinated care to patients with specific conditions. In order to put care pathways into practice, clinical institutions always need to adapt them based on local care settings so that the best local practices can be incorporated and used to develop refined pathways. However, it is knowledge-intensive and error-prone to incorporate various analytic insights from local data sets. In order to assist care pathway developers in working effectively and efficiently, we propose to automatically synthesize the analytical evidences derived from multiple analysis methods, and recommend modelling operations accordingly to derive a refined care pathway for a specific patient cohort. We validated our method by adapting a Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) Ambulatory Care Pathway for patients with additional condition of COPD through synthesizing the results of variation analysis and frequent pattern mining against patient records.
Serious Game Scores as Health Condition Indicator for Cancer Patients
Authors: Peters Konrad  , Kayali Fares  , Reithofer Andrea  , Wölfle Rebecca  , Mateus-Berr Ruth  , Kuczwara Jens  , Lehner Zsuzsanna  , Lawitschka Anita  , Brunmaier Barbara  , Martinek Daniel  , Silbernagl Marisa  , Hlavacs Helmut
Published: February 2025

In this paper we present INTERACCT (Integrating Entertainment and Reaction Assessment into Child Cancer Therapy), a multidisciplinary research project aiming at creating a communication tool for pediatric patients after cancer treatment with HSCT (hematopoietic stem cell transplantation) in after care. The communication platform should foster communication between patients and clinicians, but also increase motivation for treatment compliance by using appropriate designs and gamification elements. A state of the art web interface enables the physicians to evaluate data submitted by the patients, joining data from various sources (lab data, survey data, physiotherapy performance) using HL7 and visualizing imporant changes. This contribution outlines the challenges of designing such a system and presents a solution for the medical data interface and evaluation.
Crack healing in yttria stabilized zirconia thermal barrier coatings
Authors: Sloof W.G.  , Turteltaub S.R.  , Carabat A.L.  , Derelioglu Z.  , Ponnusami S.A.  , Song G.M.
Published: February 2025

A new method for crack healing in thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) is presented, which can be applied to extend the lifetime of coatings that protect turbine blades in the hot section of turbine engines. The method relies on the oxidation of MoSi2(B) healing particles embedded in the top coat. The oxidative decomposition at high temperatures of MoSi2(B) leads to the formation of amorphous SiO2, which flows into cracks and establishes direct contact with the crack faces. The wetting of the crack faces is followed by a chemical reaction with the ZrO2-based TBC coating leading to the formation of solid ZrSiO4. This chemical reaction generates a strong bonding between the healing agent and the matrix material and results in a complete filling and sealing of the crack. A key ingredient in the proposed approach is the encapsulation of the MoSi2(B) healing particles with a shell impermeable to oxygen. The encapsulation is required since the ZrO2matrix is transparent to oxygen and the decomposition reaction of the MoSi2(B) particles can take place even in the absence of cracks, leading to premature healing and undesirable filling of the pores in the YSZ thermal barrier coating.
Bio-inspired cross-linking methods for hydrogel formation
Authors: Jonker Anika M.  , Löwik Dennis W.P.M.  , van Hest Jan C.M.
Published: February 2025

Hydrogels are water swollen polymeric networks, capable of absorbing large amounts of water or biological fluids. The network is formed by cross-links between the polymeric constituents. These cross-links can either be physical or chemical. Chemical cross-linking methods have the advantage that the cross-linking density can easily be varied and with this also the mechanical properties of the final hydrogel. Physically cross-linked hydrogels are on the other hand adaptive and self-healing by nature. A combined chemically and physically cross-linked network could have highly interesting features from a self-healing materials point of view. In recent years, a number of chemical reactions have been utilized for hydrogel cross-linking. Since hydrogels hold great promise in a variety of biomedical applications, there is a need for novel cross-linking methods, especially those that are biocompatible. In this article, we describe the biocompatible cross-linking reaction SPAAC (strain-promoted azide-alkyne cycloaddition). In the SPAAC reaction, the highly selective reaction between a ring strained alkyne (BCN) and an azide simply occurs in water without any other additives. Poly(ethylene)glycol (PEG) hydrogels were successfully formed using SPAAC as the cross-linking method. We especially focussed on preparing soft hydrogels, mimicking the stiffness of soft body tissues. Confocal microscopy studies performed on the hydrogels revealed that gels containing the cell-adhesion peptide RGDS are a good substrate for cellular adherence. One of the disadvantages we encountered when using SPAAC was that it is hampered by slow reaction kinetics. Furthermore, an activatable cross-linking method is desired, especially in the field of injectable hydrogels. We therefore developed a novel cross-linking method which is both fast and activatable. This fast reaction between a catechol (DHPA) and BCN was called SPOCQ (strain-promoted oxidation-controlled cyclooctyne-1,2-quinone cycloaddition). The SPOCQ reaction only occurs upon oxidation of the DHPA (catechol) which can be performed both chemically and enzymatically. Both oxidation methods resulted in fast hydrogel formation. We showed that the SPOCQ and SPAAC reaction can be used in one pot, SPOCQ for the fast hydrogel formation and subsequently the SPAAC reaction for functionalization of these hydrogels. We also give an outlook on combining these chemical cross-linking methods with physical cross-linking by incorporation of the calcium-binding motif alendronic acid.
Technology Ready to be Launched, but is there a Payer? Challenges for Implementing eHealth in Sweden
Authors: Hollmark Malin  , Lefevre Skjöldebrand Anna  , Andersson Christoffer  , Lindblad Ragnar
Published: February 2025

The development of a sustainable, high-quality, affordable health care is today a high priority for many actors in the society. This is to ensure that we will continue to afford to care for the growing portion of elderly in our population. One solution is to enable the individual's power over her own health or illness, and participation in her own care. There are evidently opportunities with the rapid development of eHealth and wearable sensors. Tracking and measuring vital data can help to keep people out of the hospital. Loads of data is generated to help us understand disease, to provide us with early diagnostics and warnings. It is providing us with possibilities to collect and capture the true health status of individuals. Successful technologies demonstrate savings, acceptance among users and improved access to healthcare. But there are also challenges. Implementing new technologies in health care is difficult. Researchers from around the world are reporting on similar problems, such as reimbursement, interoperability, usability and regulatory issues. This paper will discuss a few of these implementation challenges as well as a few of the efforts in meeting them. To conclude, eHealth solutions can contribute to patient empowerment and a sustainable health care. Our assumption is however, that as long as we do not face the implementation challenges and invest in overcoming the pressing obstacles, society will not be able, or willing, to pay for the solutions.
The New Role of Patients in Future Health Settings
Authors: Ruotsalainen Pekka  , Blobel Bernd
Published: February 2025

Health is wide concept covering a person's physical, mental and social well-being. Traditionally, regulated healthcare has been the main source for curative and preventive service offered to patients. Healthcare is in transition, however. Paradigms such as patient empowerment and patient in the centre as well as in-home care service are changing processes and locations healthcare services are offered. Parallel to healthcare, new service models such as pHealth, ubiquitous healthcare, and digital medicine are developing. In the near future, technology enables the creation of a personal digital health dossier (e.g. digital patient and virtual patient model) for any individual. This dossier is stored and used in the unsecure information space. This all means that the traditional paternalistic patient model where patient is a passive object for regulated healthcare services will not work in future pHealth and digital health anymore. Instead, the new patient role (e.g. pHealth user or health consumer role) is dynamic, context-aware and participatory. The pHealth user can also have many roles at the same time, such as the role of informed chooser, decision maker, and personal health coordinator. This requires that the pHealth user can make information-based meaningful decisions before starting to use health services, and that he or she can trust on service providers by having evidence-based and reliable information about the quality and health impact of the services offered. A big challenge is that pHealth and digital health take place in unsecure information space where current healthcare specific laws, regulations, and medical ethics are insufficient to guarantee users' autonomy and privacy as well as the application of fair information and ethical principles when processing personal health information. A new ethical, legal and technical framework is needed. One of the prerequisites successful pHealth and digital health has to meet is the possibility to create information based on trustworthy relationship between service user and service providers. Furthermore, a trusted information platform is inevitable.