Jaspaljeet Singh Dhillon

Designing a web-based telehealth system for elderly people: An interview study in New Zealand

Designing healthcare systems for the elderly is a challenging endeavour. Telehealth systems are gaining popularity among elderly users, but such applications are mostly doctor-centric and are predominantly used for managing and/or treating diseases instead of preventing them. They do little to motivate patients to change their lifestyle and proactively manage their health. To address these shortcomings, we propose a web-based telehealth system, which uses Web 2.0 technologies in order to add social support and user defined content. In this study, we determine the functional and interface requirements of the system by conducting open individual semi-structured interviews with eight elderly people of age range 60 to 87. A paper prototype and three interfaces of existing Web 2.0 health applications were used to determine the optimum user interface design of the system. A qualitative content analysis was used to evaluate the responses. Overall, the respondents were positive about the idea of using the web to manage their healthcare from home and made several suggestions such as including applications to manage their diet, physiotherapy exercises to improve their health conditions and simple network games to reduce loneliness.

Determinants of Patients' Intention to Adopt Diabetes Self-Management Applications

Despite significant advances in medicine, diabetes mellitus remains a major health problem among diabetes patients (diabetics). Diabetes in Malaysia has become increasingly critical along with diabetes complications. Diabetes Self-Management Applications (DSMA) are impactful patient-centered tools that has immense potential in enabling diabetics to manage their health conditions and thereby prevent complications. This study identifies factors that influence the intention to adopt DSMA by diabetics in Malaysia. The aim is to develop a research model to represent the adoption of DSMA amongst diabetics in Malaysia. Previous work is reviewed to develop the proposed model which comprised of constructs from established models and othper constructs from the literature. To test the developed model, a quantitative approach was employed and established questionnaires were administered as research instrument for data collection. The findings indicate that Perceived Financial Risk, Perceived Privacy and Security Risk, Technology Anxiety and Facilitating Conditions have significantly positive relationship with the intention to adopt DSMA. Findings from this study serve as a guideline for DSMA developers in understanding the core factors that influence the adoption and use of diabetes health applications by diabetics.

Evaluation of a web-based telehealth system: a preliminary investigation with seniors in New Zealand

Home telehealth systems are gaining popularity among seniors, but they are mostly doctor centric, focused on managing diseases instead of preventing them, and do not take into account the social needs of the users. Increasing numbers of seniors going online opens up opportunities to address the shortcomings of current telehealth systems. We have developed a patient-centric, web-based telehealth system which uses Web 2.0 technologies to add social support and user defined content. In this study, we have evaluated the functionalities, usability and user interface of the functional prototype with eight seniors of age range 67 to 90 by using a multi-method approach involving individual walkthrough, system usability scale (SUS), protocol analysis and interviews. Overall, users were satisfied with the usability of the system and functionalities promoting exercises and supporting weight management were in most demand. The evaluation of our prototype demonstrates that combining telehealth functionalities with social component and user-generated content is a promising way to enable users to proactively manage and improve their health.

Designing and evaluating a patient-centred health management system for seniors

Introduction Telehealth has been widely promoted as a technology to make healthcare more effective and affordable. However, current telehealth systems suffer from vendor lock-in and high cost, and are designed for managing chronic diseases rather than preventing them. Methods We address shortcomings of existing consumer-level health informatics applications in supporting senior health consumers, and provide designers of such systems with a design framework. We assess the feasibility of patient-centred health management systems (HMSs) that are designed based on the proposed framework. In contrast to traditional telehealth, HMSs are patient centred and aim at enabling health consumers to take control of their own health by providing functionality for health self-management. Quantitative and qualitative methods were adopted in evaluating a prototype HMS. Results Senior healthcare consumers viewed our HMS prototype positively, and experienced a positive change in their attitude towards their health. We identified requirements and challenges for HMSs. In particular, participants indicated that social networking features must have a clear purpose beyond simple broadcasting of emotions and opinions. Discussion Our study indicates that seniors are able and motivated to leverage a web-based patient-centred HMS, provided that there are suitable health support applications tailored to their needs. This could be achieved by making it attractive for third party application developers to contribute HMS content.

Accessible telehealth — Leveraging consumer-level technologies and social networking functionalities for senior care

The increasing cost of healthcare represents a serious challenge to most developed countries. Telehealth has been widely promoted as a technology to make healthcare more effective and affordable. However, current telehealth systems suffer from vendor lock-in and high cost, and are designed for managing chronic diseases, rather than preventing them. In this paper we evaluate technologies for supporting senior health consumers. Based on this we propose a framework for a novel telehealth system overcoming many of the shortcomings of existing technologies. The new system is web-based, has a Facebook-like plug-in architecture for adding new health applications, and incorporates social networking functionalities. We discuss the challenges in implementing the system, and summarize a user study evaluating the system. Our results demonstrate that health consumers have a positive view of this new telehealth technology, and that it can positively change the attitude of users towards their health.

User requirements for prediabetes self-care application: a healthcare professional perspective

The number of people with diabetes is increasing dreadfully in the world today. Efforts to prevent diabetes should be taken at the prediabetes stage itself, because with proper lifestyle changes, diabetes can be prevented or delayed. As such, a self-care application can help prediabetics to monitor their own health to prevent diabetes. The objective of this study is to explore the healthcare professionals’ perspectives that contribute to behavioural change in prediabetics and the user requirements for a self-care application. We conducted semi-structured interviews with eight healthcare professionals. Pre-determined set of open-ended questions were asked by the interviewer to prompt the discussion. Thematic Analysis approach was used to evaluate the responses. Overall, the health professionals were keen with the idea of empowering prediabetics to take control of their health conditions via a self-care application incorporating behaviour change techniques. Several functions were suggested to be included into the application such as forums to allow discussions among the prediabetics, coaching to communicate with healthcare professionals and peer/family support to motivate them to use the applications continuously.

Self-reflective Visualizations of Patient-Centered Health Information Systems

Patient-centered systems have great potential to empower patients to take proactive actions in preventing or managing serious diseases and health problems and they can help to reduce healthcare costs. Commonly, these applications are equipped with visuals or graphical representations that enable users to comprehend their health progress. In this paper, we review and analyze the different types of health information visuals that are presented in popular self-monitoring applications and devices, i.e. web-based health support applications, mobile health support applications, stand-alone health monitoring devices, and wearable health monitoring devices. The aim is to gain better insights into designing self-reflective and comprehensible visualizations of health information in patient-centered systems. Results indicate that most of these applications present trends of monitored health data via visuals. Web-based applications feature more comprehensive and complex visuals than applications that are found in other platforms. Stand-alone and wearable devices are found to be more user-friendly and present data in the most simplified manner. There is a need to develop a guideline to aid developers to design effective visuals in patient-centered systems.

Review on the role of social support in health information systems

Social support is the physical and emotional comfort given to someone in times of need or crisis and it is exceptionally important for maintaining good physical and mental health. Despite the contribution and intelligence of technology, which has led to the availability and offer of various types of social support systems, they are still not widely known to many. These support systems are currently available in many versions such as in tablets and smartphones where many health information systems have been created specifically to accommodate to the necessity of current mobile healthcare consumers. This paper systematically reviews the role of social support provided via health information systems. Related studies found in different databases such as IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, Springer, ScienceDirect, Cambridge University Press, John Wiley and Sons, were picked out for the review. A total of one hundred and forty four studies were evaluated and filtered in line with the objective of this study that is to analyze the types of social support provided and its role in health information systems. Results obtain from the study reveals that social support is a vital component to be incorporated in any novel health information system. The results from this study will be used to create a social support framework that could be useful to the health application developers and healthcare stakeholders in designing a social support based self-care application to manage more effectively specific diseases and medical conditions.

A systematic review of factors influencing the effective use of mHealth apps for self-care

mHealth refers to the emerging mobile communications and network technologies for healthcare. With the penetration of smartphones and tablets, many healthcare apps for self-care have been deployed to cater to the needs of mobile healthcare today. This paper systematically reviews the factors influencing the effective use of mHealth apps for self-care. Prominent factors based on their frequencies of occurrence were identified. Related studies found in different databases such as IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, Emerald, and Science Direct were identified for the review. A total of sixty-eight factors were identified and the results show that the following seven factors were seen to appear most frequently: perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, behavioral intention, social-influence, self-efficacy, perceived privacy risk and attitude. This review will be useful to healthcare application developers in order for them to recognize the factors which might most influence the intention of consumers to leverage on mHealth apps for self-care.

An investigation of factors affecting the adoption of cloud computing for E-government implementation

Electronic Government (E-government) refers to the simplification and the transaction of business processes by the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), such as the Internet, to improve public service delivery. The implementation of E-government differs from country to country and is associated with a number of challenges for public administrators. Cloud computing is widely proposed as a solution to enhance the development of E-government. Previously, we have conducted a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) to identify essential factors that influence the adoption of cloud computing for E-government implementation in developing countries. In this paper, we present a quantitative study involving 234 IT experts to confirm the significance of the identified factors. SPSS along with AMOS is employed to analyze the data. Confirmatory factor analysis, measurement model and structural model are executed. Findings indicate that the following factors significantly influence the adoption of cloud computing for E-government implementation in Iraq: complexity, compatibility, top management support, relative advantage, IT knowledge and security. The results show that trust and technology readiness have no significant influence on E-government implementation via cloud computing. On a wider perspective, non-technological factors require more attention than technological factors. This review will be useful to decision makers in governments and public sectors that intend to leverage cloud computing to overcome the challenges they face in implementing e-Government successfully.