Enabling New Delivery Models for Ubiquitous and Comprehensive Healthcare

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    Investigating the Influence of Empowerment on Patients’ Satisfaction: How to Empower Patients in Online Health Consultation Platform
    ( 2022-01-04) Li, Jingyi ; Liu, Libo ; Xiao, Yundan
    Online health consultation platform becomes a significant channel for health consumers to seek online support and health consultation. As the health consultation moves from offline to online, it significantly changes the communication circumstance between patients and physicians. It is crucial to understand the empowerment process embedded in online physician-patient interaction, in turn to improve patients’ satisfaction on line health services. This study examined how social-structural empowerment and psychological empowerment affect patients’ satisfaction, as an empowerment outcome, in the online health consultation platform using text mining techniques and econometric analysis. Our results indicate that informational and emotional support can extrinsically empower patients and thereby increase their satisfaction. Psychological empowerment is also found that has two roles in the empowerment process, a partial mediating effect and a moderating effect on the relationship between social-structural empowerment and patients’ satisfaction. This study enriches the empowerment theory from a text mining perspective and extends the empowerment theory in the organizational context to the context of digital health.
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    Development and Use of a COVID-19 Back to Work Symptom Assessment Tool to Reduce COVID-19 Disease Exposure
    ( 2022-01-04) Schooley, Benjamin ; Feldman, Sue
    Technology solutions to mitigate repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic include tools that provide guidelines and interfaces to guide behavior, reduce exposure to the disease, and enable policy-driven avenues to return to a sense of normalcy (e.g., work and school). This paper takes a design science approach to present the justification, design, development, and early assessment of a return-to-work COVID-19 symptom checker and risk assessor. The system was implemented across 34 institutions of health and education in the US State of Alabama, including over 174k users with over 4 million total uses between July 2020 and April 2021. Users complied with use policies more than 50% of the time, with k-12 schools showing higher compliance than colleges and universities. Using system use data and focus group discussions, findings indicate the system was generally accepted, used regularly, facilitated reduction of disease exposure, and enabled a path back to work and school.
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    Design of a Simulation Tool for Audiology Education to provide Hearing Screening Training
    ( 2022-01-04) Gerdes, John ; Schooley, Benjamin ; Sharp, Dakota
    Early identification of hearing impairment and ear disorders is important, which is why hearing screening is routinely done on newborns, with regular screening recommended on children through the age of 18. Screening is also completed with adults to assess and treat hearing problems. Procedural training is needed for new Speech-Language Pathologists and nursing students as well as continuing education for those trained to perform this procedure. An audiology simulator was developed to provide an alternative to traditional face-to-face lab instruction. Using a design science approach, the development of the simulation prototype is discussed. Contributions include a useful framework for developing such a simulation of an existing process, a description of a unique artifact that supports an individualized, self-paced learning environment using context-sensitive feedback and performance assessment, and an extensible approach to supporting virtual subjects in audiological training.
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    Design and Evaluation of the Probation/Parole and Reentry Coach App (PARCA): A Platform to Support a Successful Reentry into Community
    ( 2022-01-04) Zhang, Lidan ; Tulu, Bengisu ; Jenkins, Steven ; Richardson, Nick ; Shoptaw, Steve ; Taxman, Faye
    Justice-involved people (JIP), especially those with substance use disorder (SUD), face multiple challenges and inadequate resources as they re-enter their communities post-incarceration. Technology interventions have proven to be feasible in supporting this unique population. In this study, we applied iterative development methodology and user-centered design to develop and evaluate a technology artifact called Probation/Parole and Reentry Coach App (PARCA) composed of a JIP mobile app and justice team (JT) portal. PARCA assists recently released JIP with SUD with their reentry. We completed three feedback cycles involving healthcare and criminal justice experts and JIP (N=16) in design workshops, interviews, and usability studies. We collected and analyzed qualitative (semi-structured interviews) and quantitative (System Usability Scale and app use) data. As a pilot study that focuses on qualitative observations, the results indicate that PARCA provides an excellent usability experience for JIP (SUS scores>80) and is useful and satisfactory (based on qualitative responses).
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    COVID-19 and Beyond: Taming the Virtual Healthcare Tiger with Colored Petri Nets based Modeling and Simulation
    ( 2022-01-04) Gehlot, Vijay ; Sloane, Elliot ; Kirk, Michael ; Miller, Eric ; Schaffer, Jonathan ; Wickramasinghe, Nilmini
    The Coronavirus crisis has forced hospitals globally to develop new virtual service portals and systems to: 1) triage, diagnose, and manage new patients virtually for every clinical specialty at home as their symptoms emerge, avoiding COVID-19 exposure to patient or physicians, and hospitalization, as much as possible, and 2) discharge, track, and support recovered patients via homecare and virtual visits to free as many critical care beds as possible. This paper focuses on simulating and modeling an episode of care with innovative initial patient contact and triage processes using the Colored Petri Net (CPN) formalism to help optimize workflow, patient throughput, and overall system efficacy. The two patient triage programs under consideration are a health system in Australia and an orthopedic surgical program in the US. We describe our model for the US program. Our presented results establish a desired stratification of patients through a virtual musculoskeletal triage.
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