Christina Bröhl

The “Aachen fall prevention App” – a Smartphone application app for the self-assessment of elderly patients at risk for ground level falls

BackgroundFall incidents are a major problem for patients and healthcare. The “Aachen Fall Prevention App” (AFPA) represents the first mobile Health (mHealth) application (app) empowering older patients (persons 50+ years) to self-assess and monitor their individual fall risk. Self-assessment is based on the “Aachen Fall Prevention Scale,” which consists of three steps. First, patients answer ten standardized yes–no questions (positive criterion ≥ 5 “Yes” responses). Second, a ten-second test of free standing without compensatory movement is performed (positive criterion: compensatory movement). Finally, during the third step, patients rate their subjective fall risk on a 10-point Likert scale, based on the results of steps one and two. The purpose of this app is (1) to offer a low-threshold service through which individuals can independently monitor their individual fall risk and (2) to collect data about how a patient-centered mHealth app for fall risk assessment is used in the field.ResultsThe results represent the first year of an ongoing field study. From December 2015 to December 2016, 197 persons downloaded the AFPA (iOS™ and Android™; free of charge). N = 111 of these persons voluntarily shared their data and thereby participated in the field study. Data from a final number of n = 79 persons were analyzed due to exclusion criteria (age, missing objective fall risk, missing self-assessment). The objective fall risk and the self-assessed subjective risk measured by the AFPA showed a significant positive relationship.ConclusionsThe “Aachen Fall Prevention App” (AFPA) is an mHealth app released for iOS and Android. This field study revealed the AFPA as a promising tool to raise older adults’ awareness of their individual fall risk by means of a low-threshold patient-driven fall risk assessment tool.

Human-Robot Synergy For Cooperative Robots

This paper presents two human-robot cooperative application scenarios of the project MeRoSy (Human-Robot Synergy) funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The first scenario relates to the human-robot cooperation in an industrial application, while the second one refers to the robotic workplace assistance for people with disabilities. The presented scenarios reflect different aspects of human-robot interaction, among others different novel possibilities for human-robot interaction depending on different physical abilities of human co-worker. Beside the consideration of the human-robot cooperative technologies in two MeRoSy scenarios, this paper considers also the identification and classification of the ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) in the context of human-robot cooperation.

Use of Information and Communication Technology in Healthcare Context by Older Adults in Germany: Initial Results of the Tech4Age Long-Term Study

Abstract In 2016 the interdisciplinary research team Tech4Age started its long-term survey to evaluate the use of information and communication technology (ICT) by older adults ( 60 +

Best Practices for Designing Electronic Healthcare Devices and Services for the Elderly

60+

Human-Robot Interaction: Testing Distances that Humans will Accept Between Themselves and a Robot Approaching at Different Speeds

) in Germany. This study focuses on the use of ICT devices and applications, the evaluation how these devices are operated in terms of ergonomic hand positions, the investigation of health information usage as well as technology affinity, health literacy and computer literacy. The first run of the Tech4Age long-term study was done by sending a paper-based questionnaire to 5,000 individuals older than 60 years randomly selected from the total German population and equally locally distributed within Germany. Responses were collected from N = 551 participants with a mean age of 69.17 years (SD = 5.787). The gender ratio of the sample is balanced, including 51.3% male and 48.7% female. Results provide descriptive insights into technology usage and knowledge about influencing factors. Older adults already use modern ICT on a large scale, for example to do online banking or for mobility reasons (navigation, booking tickets, etc.), but health-related ICT products and applications have been used less, mainly due to mistrust. Investigation of health information usage showed that doctors and pharmacists are the main sources older adults rely on. Two thirds of all participants were satisfied with general information they got about health. The evaluation of the ergonomic use of ICT devices revealed a common way of use, namely that a majority of older adults prefer to use their ICT devices in the case of a small display in portrait mode and in the case of larger displays in portrait as well as landscape mode. Touch input is always performed with a finger or the second hand, the one not holding the device. The article will present and discuss the results in detail.

How Do Users Interact with Mobile Devices? An Analysis of Handheld Positions for Different Technology Generations

Abstract Demographic change and associated shifts in the age structure lead to major challenges in health processes. One way to address this is to increase the use of telemedicine systems and services to ensure non-local yet individualized patient care, such as in rural areas. When considering new medical technology components, we must compensate for age-related changes in perception, cognition and motor skills to achieve user-centered design and take into account psychophysical effect relationships to achieve sustainable acceptance for technology integration. This paper presents various best-practice examples for participatory investigation into influencing factors, with a focus on the different times and periods within the lifecycle of a telemedical product and associated services. In addition to giving concrete design hints derived from individual studies, the paper discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the paradigms used and provides recommendations for user-centric development with old and very old patients.

Mobile Technology Improves Therapy-Adherence Rates in Elderly Patients Undergoing Rehabilitation—A Crossover Design Study

Service robotics has great potential for helping people to live independent lives in their own homes. However, if this potential is to be fully exploited in the near future, research and development cannot limit itself to solving the technological challenges involved. The only way to develop service robots that people will accept is to get potential users involved in the process as early as possible. With that in mind, this study investigates human-robot interaction from the perspective of a service robot approaching the user at varying speeds. We developed an empirical study to measure the distance that humans will accept between themselves and a robot when approached by that robot. The results show that the robot’s speed and the test subject’s body position significantly affect the accepted distance. We also found that the physical appearance of humanoid service robots has no substantial bearing on the accepted distance.

TAM Reloaded: A Technology Acceptance Model for Human-Robot Cooperation in Production Systems

While interacting with digital information, input devices are varying widely as technology is constantly changing. The most successful input devices are currently touchscreens, as they combine information input and output on a single interface. The aim of the present research was to gain a basic understanding of how people hold their hands when interacting with handheld devices and how this interaction changes depending on task context. To gain a large sample size, the study was administered via an online questionnaire. Five different hand positions were evaluated with regard to three different tasks: typing short text, typing long text, and reading. When considering user characteristics with regard to technology, one of the most influential factors is the user’s age. Therefore, the sample (N = 1022) was analyzed with regard to four different technology generations. Results show that there are significant differences in handheld positions with regard to different tasks and depending on the interaction with a smartphone or tablet PC. Furthermore, significant differences were detected between the four technology generations.

Age-related usability investigation of an activity tracker

In this publication the results of an empirical study are analyzes regarding the research question if a mobile application on a tablet computer, to support the drug intake and vital sign parameter documentation, affects adherence of elderly patients. For the achievement in the management of patients with hypertension adherence of their medication is essential. Patients with no prior knowledge of tablet computers and a coronary heart disease were included. All Patients were instructed personally into the mobile application “Medication Plan”, installed on an Apple iPad™. This study was performed in a crossover design with three sequences. The first sequence is the initial phase, followed by the interventional phase (28 days of using the app system) and at least the comparative phase (28 days of using a paper diary). The interventional and comparative phases were conducted alternately. Altogether, 24 patients (12 male; mean age 73.8 years) were registered. The subjectively assessed adherence (A 14 scale) was 50.0 before the study started (SD 3.44). After the enforcement of both interventions there was a significant increase, which was more pronounced after the intervention phase (54.0, SD 2.01) than the comparative phase (52.6, SD 2.49) (for all pairs p < 0.001). Furthermore, the medical conditions, or the number of drug intakes per day had no effect on the subjective adherence. For both blood pressure recordings (p < 0.001) and medication intake (p = 0.033) the obtained logging data showed a significantly stronger adherence for the medication-app than the paper diary system. The majority of participants (n = 22) denoted that they would like to use the medication-app in everyday life and do not need any further assistance. A mobile app for medication adherence strengthened objectively and subjectively metered adherence of elderly users folding rehabilitation.

Icon Design for Older Users of Project Management Software

The cooperation and collaboration between humans and robots is getting ever closer: While the human body was historically protected by a large safety distance, more and more organizations let robots and humans work hand-in-hand. This means that humans and robots are sharing physical space and are engaging in direct contact with each other. One factor that predicts successful human-robot interaction is the acceptance of the robot by the human. In general, only when a product covers human needs and expectations, it is perceived to be useful and hence accepted. This paper aims at presenting an acceptance model with regard to the cooperation between humans and robots that is based on prior acceptance models while also taking ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) into account.