Fazilatur Rahman

Adaptive information retrieval system via modelling user behaviour

There has been an exponential growth in the volume and variety of information available on the Internet, similarly there has been a significant demand from users’ for accurate information that matches their interests, however, the two are often incompatible because of the effectiveness of retrieving the exact information the user requires. This paper addresses this problem with an adaptive agent-based modelling approach that relies on evolutionary user-modelling. The proposed information retrieval system learns user needs from user-provided relevance feedback. It is proposed that retrieval effectiveness can be improved by applying computational intelligence techniques for modelling information needs, through interactive reinforcement learning. The method combines qualitative (subjective) user relevance feedback with quantitative (algorithmic) measures of the relevance of retrieved documents. An adaptive information retrieval system is developed whose retrieval effectiveness is evaluated using traditional precision and recall.

Pervasive healthcare in lived experience: Thinking beyond the home

The National Health Service (NHS) in the UK, like many other public health services worldwide, is facing a number of key challenges. Among them are an ageing population and a rising incidence of chronic health conditions. This situation requires a radical re-examination of how people manage their health and their healthcare in ways that challenge the relationship between people and healthcare services. Combining this observation with the opportunities afforded by pervasive information and communication technologies, we argue that design research should reach beyond simply locating devices and services to offer healthcare ‘in the home’ and should examine this broader agenda. Rather than focussing design discourse on the specifics of one location, we should adopt a holistic view, beginning from peoples lived experience. In this position paper we describe the User-Centred Healthcare Design (UCHD) project, 5-year collaboration between universities and NHS Trusts in South Yorkshire, UK. We suggest that new models of healthcare that re-define the institutional and social context of care are required if we are to meet the challenge of chronic illness. We describe our progress to date on the UCHD project, our commitment to placing patient experience at the centre of design, and our initial experiences of using an experience-based co-design method to improve outpatient services in a Sheffield hospital.

User-centred design and pervasive health: A position statement from the User-Centred Healthcare Design project

The National Health Service in the UK, like many other public heath services worldwide, is facing a number of key challenges. Among them are an ageing population and a rising incidence of chronic health conditions. In this position paper we describe the User-Centred Healthcare Design (UCHD) project, a 5-year collaboration between universities and health Service Trusts in South Yorkshire, UK. We suggest that new models of healthcare that re-define the institutional and social context of care are required if we are to meet the challenge of chronic illness. We argue that user-centred design is a timely and necessary way of bringing about not only service improvement but also innovation and strategic change to healthcare provision in the UK. We describe our progress to date on the UCHD project, our commitment to placing patient experience at the centre of design, and our initial experiences of using an experience-based co-design method to improve outpatient services in a Sheffield hospital.

Towards an Integrated Platform for Improving Hospital Risk Management

REMINE Project aims to develop an integrated system to manage risk associated with patient safety. The system is a computer based platform that facilitates integration of diverse multimedia data, providing an interface between clinical activity and risk management. The project objective is to develop a framework whereby data is extracted from a heterogeneous source. This framework is designed to make it possible to efficiently handle risk management data and to trial, validate and evaluate new risk management processes to improve on patient safety.

A System for Semantically Enhanced, Multifaceted, Collaborative Access: Requirements and Architecture

Requirement analysis is an important process in the design and development of information systems. Various tools and methodologies are used to gather the user requirements. These methodologies have their own strength and weakness. In this paper we will apply collaborative requirements engineering process to determine the requirements of the: Semantically Enhanced, Multifaceted, and Collaborative Access to Cultural Heritage (MOSAICA) project. MOSAICA is an EU Framework VI funded project. The process has been carried out in an interactive manner thereby creating a process that permits effective coordination and easy change management among project partners

Innovative technology combination for psychophysical assistance for senescent societies

The paper presents a vision and a progress report of an innovative combination of the state of the art technologies for (Psychophysical Assistance for Senescent Societies) -the PASS project. PASS will innovatively combine: wireless networking and sensing technologies with the smart environment paradigm and the notion of the embedded media interface to deliver a unique innovation in assistive technology. The outcome of the PASS project provides a practical impact that supports the concept of psychophysical assistance for empowering elderly individuals. The resulting technology assists them to lead independent, full and rewarding lives as members of society, thereby, helping to eliminate barriers that arise from difficulties that the elderly experience in using current interaction devices.

Collaborative access through semantically enhanced distributed & diversified cultural content

This paper reports specifically on the architectural and design issues associated with the development of Web portal that will act as a conceptual platform of online utilities that enable users to collaboratively author and manage cultural resources in the globally distributed environment, featuring a Web-based portal with multifaceted interfaces that can additionally be utilised as an educational and pedagogical tool delivering a virtual expedition. The project combines in a novel manner the research and exploitation of cutting edge technologies of ontology engineering for semantic Web and distributed content management.