Wearables measuring electrodermal activity to assess perceived stress in care: a scoping review.

BACKGROUND: Chronic stress responses can lead to physical and behavioural health problems, often experienced and observed in the care of people with intellectual disabilities or people with dementia. Electrodermal activity (EDA) is a bio-signal for stress, which can be measured by wearables and thereby support stress management. However, the how, when and to what extent patients and healthcare providers can benefit is unclear. This study aims to create an overview of available wearables enabling the detection of perceived stress by using EDA. METHODS: Following the PRISMA-SCR protocol for scoping reviews, four databases were included in the search of peer-reviewed studies published between 2012 and 2022, reporting detection of EDA in relation to self-reported stress or stress-related behaviours. Type of wearable, bodily location, research population, context, stressor type and the reported relationship between EDA and perceived stress were extracted. RESULTS: Of the 74 included studies, the majority included healthy subjects in laboratory situations. Field studies and studies using machine learning (ML) to predict stress have increased in the last years. EDA is most often measured on the wrist, with offline data processing. Studies predicting perceived stress or stress-related behaviour using EDA features, reported accuracies between 42% and 100% with an average of 82.6%. Of these studies, the majority used ML. CONCLUSION: Wearable EDA sensors are promising in detecting perceived stress. Field studies with relevant populations in a health or care context are lacking. Future studies should focus on the application of EDA-measuring wearables in real-life situations to support stress management.

A new method of real-time skin dose visualization. Clinical evaluation of fluoroscopically guided interventions.

INTRODUCTION: We have conducted a prospective study to clinically evaluate a new radiation dose observing tool that displays patient's peak skin dose (PSD) map in real time. METHODS: The skin dose map (SDM) prototype quantifies the air kerma based on exposure parameters from the X-ray system. The accuracy of this prototype was evaluated with radiochromic films, which were used as a mean for PSD measurement. RESULTS: The SDM is a reliable tool that provides an accurate PSD estimation and location. CONCLUSION: SDM also has many advantages over the radiochromic films, such as real-time dose evaluation and easy access to critical operational parameters for physicians and technicians.