Social networking older adults with mild cognitive impairment: Systematic review protocol on their use of information and communication technology.

This systematic review will identify and synthesize the emerging evidence on older adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) utilizing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to maintain, restore, or augment social networks. The systematic review will consider the evidence on contextual and personal factors of older adults with MCI and their ICT use for social connectedness. The evidence searches will be implemented in PsycINFO, Academic Search Complete, Medline, PubMed, and manual searches. We shall review articles that were published between January 2010 and October 2023 in English and on Information and Communication Technology utility in social networking among older adults with MCI. The process of article selection will be conducted through title screening, abstract screening; and full article screening, following the Population, Intervention, Control, Outcomes (PICO) criteria. Given that all the studies included in this review are publicly accessible and have already obtained ethical approval from their respective institutions, there is no obligation for us to seek additional ethical clearance for our systematic review. We plan to share the outcomes of the systematic review through online presentations and dissemination within the research community. The findings from this review will identify the extent of empirical evidence on older adults with MCI utilizing ICTs to maintain, restore or augment their social networks. This review will provide evidence for contextual and personal factors in older adults with MCI for the social networks with ICT use. This review will propose practical implications for the effective utilization of ICT by older adults with MCI.

Evolution of the availability of Information and Communication Technologies in primary health care in Brazil, 2012 to 2018.

OBJECTIVE: To verify the evolution of the availability of information and communication technology equipment and inputs in primary health care services that participated in the external evaluation of the Access and Quality Improvement Program in Primary Care and its distribution according to context characteristics social and geographic. METHODS: Cross-sectional study, analyzed the distribution of information and communication technology equipment in basic health units in Brazil, during the three cycles (2012 to 2018) of the Program for Improving Access and Quality in Primary Care. The variables were examined at the municipal level and stratified by geopolitical region. Univariate analysis was performed, using the chi-square test and testing the distributions of exposures among themselves and between the outcome and exposures. RESULTS: The availability of information and communication technology equipment increased from 9.4% (2012) to 17.5% (2018), with emphasis on the Southeast and South regions, in municipalities with a population size of up to 10,000 inhabitants², with greater family health coverage and high/very high HDI-M. Over the period from 2012 to 2018, basic units joined the program and increased availability of information and communication technologies, such as Internet access, which ranged from 45.2% (n=6,249) to 74.0% (n=21,423), with emphasis on the Northeast region, which increased from 19.1% (n=970) to 58.8% (n=7,087). CONCLUSION: Investment in technologies and constant evaluation of primary care in the country is necessary, contributing to its strengthening.

Study protocol for two stepped-wedge interventional trials evaluating the effects of holistic information technology-based patient-oriented management in older multimorbid patients with cancer: The GERONTE trials.

INTRODUCTION: Current hospital-based care pathways are generally single-disease centred. As a result, coexisting morbidities are often suboptimally evaluated and managed, a deficiency becoming increasingly apparent among older patients who exhibit heterogeneity in health status, functional abilities, frailty, and other geriatric impairments. To address this issue, our study aims to assess a newly developed patient-centred care pathway for older patients with multimorbidity and cancer. The new care pathway was based on currently available evidence and co-designed by end-users including health care professionals, patients, and informal caregivers. Within this care pathway, all healthcare professionals involved in the care of older patients with multimorbidity and cancer will form a Health Professional Consortium (HPC). The role of the HPC will be to centralise oncologic and non-oncologic treatment recommendations in accordance with the patient's priorities. Moreover, an Advanced Practice Nurse will act as case-manager by being the primary point of contact for the patient, thus improving coordination between specialists, and by organising and leading the consortium. Patient monitoring and the HPC collaboration will be facilitated by digital communication tools designed specifically for this purpose, with the added benefit of being customisable for each patient. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The GERONTE study is a prospective international, multicentric study consisting of two stepped-wedge trials performed at 16 clinical sites across three European countries. Each trial will include 720 patients aged 70 years and over with a new or progressive cancer (breast, lung, colorectal, prostate) and at least one moderate or severe multimorbidity. The patients in the intervention group will receive the new care pathway whereas patients in the control group will receive usual oncologic care. DISCUSSION: GERONTE will evaluate whether this kind of holistic, patient-oriented healthcare management can improve quality of life (primary outcome) and other valuable endpoints in older patients with multimorbidity and cancer. An ancillary study will assess in depth the socio-economic impact of the intervention and deliver concrete implementation guidelines for the GERONTE intervention care pathway. TRIAL REGISTRATION: FRONE: NCT05720910 TWOBE: NCT05423808.

[The Childhood Decade in Russia: legal securing of health care applying information technologies].

In conditions of impetuous development of national digital technologies and necessity for their legal regulation, significance and possibilities of their implementation in protecting health of rising generation during childhood decade in Russia are demonstrated. The conceptual apparatus related to discussed problem is considered. The emphasis is made on preventive aspect of intersectoral state protection of health care and rights of children and adolescents aged 0-17 years. The scale of problem is especially impressive considering number of contingent over 30 million people and interests of about 24 million of family members with children. The purpose of the study is applying analytical method, content analysis and SWOT analysis to monitor main problems of intersectoral health care and rights of rising generation in Russia in conditions of implementation of information technologies; to evaluate application of legislation in force in context of their role and effect during the Decade of Children (2018-2027); to demonstrate significance of the institution of the Commissioner for rights of child under the President of the Russian Federation.

Wi-AM: Enabling Cross-Domain Gesture Recognition with Commodity Wi-Fi.

RF-based gesture recognition systems outperform computer vision-based systems in terms of user privacy. The integration of Wi-Fi sensing and deep learning has opened new application areas for intelligent multimedia technology. Although promising, existing systems have multiple limitations: (1) they only work well in a fixed domain; (2) when working in a new domain, they require the recollection of a large amount of data. These limitations either lead to a subpar cross-domain performance or require a huge amount of human effort, impeding their widespread adoption in practical scenarios. We propose Wi-AM, a privacy-preserving gesture recognition framework, to address the above limitations. Wi-AM can accurately recognize gestures in a new domain with only one sample. To remove irrelevant disturbances induced by interfering domain factors, we design a multi-domain adversarial scheme to reduce the differences in data distribution between different domains and extract the maximum amount of transferable features related to gestures. Moreover, to quickly adapt to an unseen domain with only a few samples, Wi-AM adopts a meta-learning framework to fine-tune the trained model into a new domain with a one-sample-per-gesture manner while achieving an accurate cross-domain performance. Extensive experiments in a real-world dataset demonstrate that Wi-AM can recognize gestures in an unseen domain with average accuracy of 82.13% and 86.76% for 1 and 3 data samples.

Research on the relationship between CEO career variety, digital knowledge base extension, and digital transformation in the context of digital merger and acquisition: The case of China's new generation of information technology firms.

This study examines the relationship between CEO career variety, digital knowledge base extension, and digital transformation in a digital M&A context. An empirical test was conducted using regression analysis with the digital M&A events of the new generation of information technology firms in China as the research sample. The results reveal that CEO career variety has a positive effect on digital transformation in the digital M&A context and that digital knowledge-base extension plays a mediating role. Moreover, the heterogeneity impact analysis indicated that the moderating effects of geographical distance, knowledge disparity, and cultural difference between target and acquirer firms on the above relationships vary greatly: geographical distance has a negative moderating effect, cultural difference has a positive moderating effect, and the moderating effects of both geographical distance and cultural difference are realized through mediating effects, but none of the moderating effects of knowledge disparity are significant.

Does financial inclusion and information communication technology affect environmental degradation in oil-producing countries?

Advances in financial inclusions have contributed to economic growth and poverty alleviation, addressing environmental implications and implementing measures to mitigate climate change. Financial inclusions force advanced countries to progress their policies in a manner that does not hinder developing countries' current and future development. Consequently, this research examined the asymmetric effects of information and communication technology (ICT), financial inclusion, consumption of primary energy, employment to population ratio, and human development index on CO2 emissions in oil-producing countries (UAE, Nigeria, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Norway, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Iraq, USA, and Canada). The study utilizes annual panel data spanning from 1990 to 2021. In addition, this study investigates the validity of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) trend on the entire sample, taking into account the effects of energy consumption and population to investigate the impact of financial inclusion on environmental degradation. The study used quantile regression, FMOLS, and FE-OLS techniques. Preliminary outcomes revealed that the data did not follow a normal distribution, emphasizing the need to use quantile regression (QR). This technique can effectively detect outliers, data non-normality, and structural changes. The outcomes from the quantile regression analysis indicate that ICT consistently reduces CO2 emissions in all quantiles (ranging from the 1st to the 9th quantile). In the same way, financial inclusion, and employment to population ratio constrains CO2 emissions across each quantile. On the other side, primary energy consumption and Human development index were found to increase CO2 emissions in each quantile (1st to 9th). The findings of this research have implications for both the academic and policy domains. By unraveling the intricate interplay between financial inclusion, ICT, and environmental degradation in oil-producing nations, the study contributes to a nuanced understanding of sustainable development challenges. Ultimately, the research aims to guide the formulation of targeted policies that leverage financial inclusion and technology to foster environmentally responsible economic growth in oil-dependent economies.

Development and Validation of Information Technology Scale in Nursing.

BACKGROUND: The implementation of information technology (IT) in patient care is on the rise. The nursing workforce should be prepared for using such technology to support the delivery of patient-centered care. The integration of informatics into nursing practice has been progressing at a slower rate than the development of advancements and in which areas nurses use IT is still not clear. OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to develop a new instrument to determine the usage of IT in nursing practice. METHODS: A methodological study was conducted with factor analyses. A total of 498 registered nurses in a university hospital (n = 374) and primary care centers (n = 124) participated in the study. A questionnaire consisting demographic characteristics and an item pool with 50 statements were used to collect data. The validity and reliability of the instrument were statistically tested by computing the Keiser-Meier-Olkin (KMO) and Bartlett tests, an exploratory factor analysis, descriptive statistics, Cronbach's α, and a confirmatory factor analysis. RESULTS: The instrument extracted eight factors comprising 39 items that explained 55% of the variance: professional autonomy(α = 0.82), data sharing/communication(α = 0.80), data management (α = 0.79), professional development (α = 0.71), administration (α = 0.76), research (α = 0.76), informing (α = 0.68), and classification of interventions (α = 0.75). Total reliability was 0.936. KMO index and a measure of sampling adequacy were high (0.936); the Bartlett test of sphericity was significant (p < 0.005). CONCLUSION: Study provided the evidence for the factor structure, internal consistency, reliability, and responsiveness of the 39-item "The Information Technology Scale in Nursing." Further testing of the developed instrument with a larger number of nurses from various backgrounds and different settings is recommended.

The dark side of mobile work during non-work hours: moderated mediation model of presenteeism through conservation of resources lens.

Owing to the development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and the inevitability of telecommuting in the COVID-19 environment, the boundary between working and non-working hours has become blurred. mWork, that is, ICT-based off-hour work, which has increased through the pandemic, affects employees' work attitudes, such as presenteeism. Hence, we designed a study to investigate the antecedents and mechanisms of employee presenteeism from the perspective of the conservation of resources theory. We supported our hypothesis using a sample of 325 Korean office workers obtained through three rounds of time-delay surveys. The results show that presenteeism is higher among employees with high mWork. In addition, employees' mWork increases sleep deprivation and presenteeism, and the exchange ideology of employees reinforces the positive effect of sleep deprivation on presenteeism. Additionally, the higher the level of exchange ideology, the stronger the mediating effect of mWork on presenteeism through sleep deprivation. This study verified the conservation of resources theory by identifying the mechanism by which mWork affects an employee's life, which in turn affects their work, and provides practical implications for managing productivity loss due to presenteeism.

Nomofobia e pandemia: um estudo sobre o medo de ficar desconectado no Brasil / Nomophobia and the pandemic: a study on the fear of being disconnected in Brazil / Nomofobia y pandemia: un estudio sobre el miedo a la desconexión en Brasil

As Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação estão presentes na vida humana. Oferecem diversas vantagens, mas podem provocar problemas, entre eles a nomofobia ­ a angústia e o medo de se tornar incomunicável, sem acesso ao smartphone ou à internet. Para avaliar o grau de nomofobia foi criado o Nomophobia Questionnaire (NMP-Q). O objetivo deste artigo foi avaliar em que medida o isolamento social, como medida preventiva à covid-19, interferiu nos índices de nomofobia no Brasil. Foi aplicada uma versão adaptada do instrumento NMP-Q, durante a pandemia, a jovens através das mídias digitais. Os resultados indicam que o isolamento social interferiu no aumento da nomofobia, sobretudo em mulheres de 20 a 29 anos e de 50 a 59 anos, universitárias ou com pós-graduação e ganhando de 10 a 20 salários-mínimos. Este artigo se inscreve no conjunto de estudos internacionais que usaram o NMP-Q para avaliar o medo de ficar desconectado.

The Information and Communication Technologies are present in human life. They offer many advantages, but they can also cause problems, among them nomophobia ­ anguish and fear of becoming incommunicado, without access to a smartphone or internet. To assess the degree of nomophobia, the Nomophobia Questionnaire (NMP-Q) was created. The objective of this article was to evaluate to what extent the social isolation proposed as a preventive measure against covid-19 interfered in the indices of nomophobia in Brazil. An adapted version of NMP-Q was applied to young people through digital media during the pandemic. The results indicate social isolation interfered with the increase of nomophobia, especially in women aged 20 to 29 and 50 to 59 years, with university degree or post-graduation and earning 10 to 20 minimum wages. This article is part of a set of international studies that used the NMP-Q to assess the fear of being disconnected.

Las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación están cada vez más presentes en la vida humana. Ofrecen numerosas ventajas; pero también pueden causar problemas, entre ellos la nomofobia ­ la angustia y el miedo a quedar incomunicado, sin acceso a smartphone o internet. Para evaluar el grado de nomofobia, se creó el Nomophobia Questionnaire (NMP-Q). El objetivo fue evaluar hasta qué punto el aislamiento social interfiere en los índices de nomofobia en Brasil. Durante la pandemia se aplicó una versión adaptada del NMP-Q a jóvenes a través de los medios digitales. Los resultados indican que el aislamiento social interfirió en el aumento de la nomofobia, especialmente en mujeres de 20 a 29 años y 50 a 59 años, con título universitario o postgrado y 10 a 20 salarios mínimos. Este artículo forma parte de un conjunto de estudios internacionales que evaluaron el miedo a la desconexión mediante el NMP-Q.

Artificial intelligence predictive analytics in heart failure: results of the pilot phase of a pragmatic randomized clinical trial.

OBJECTIVES: We conducted an implementation planning process during the pilot phase of a pragmatic trial, which tests an intervention guided by artificial intelligence (AI) analytics sourced from noninvasive monitoring data in heart failure patients (LINK-HF2). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A mixed-method analysis was conducted at 2 pilot sites. Interviews were conducted with 12 of 27 enrolled patients and with 13 participating clinicians. iPARIHS constructs were used for interview construction to identify workflow, communication patterns, and clinician's beliefs. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed using inductive coding protocols to identify key themes. Behavioral response data from the AI-generated notifications were collected. RESULTS: Clinicians responded to notifications within 24 hours in 95% of instances, with 26.7% resulting in clinical action. Four implementation themes emerged: (1) High anticipatory expectations for reliable patient communications, reduced patient burden, and less proactive provider monitoring. (2) The AI notifications required a differential and tailored balance of trust and action advice related to role. (3) Clinic experience with other home-based programs influenced utilization. (4) Responding to notifications involved significant effort, including electronic health record (EHR) review, patient contact, and consultation with other clinicians. DISCUSSION: Clinician's use of AI data is a function of beliefs regarding the trustworthiness and usefulness of the data, the degree of autonomy in professional roles, and the cognitive effort involved. CONCLUSION: The implementation planning analysis guided development of strategies that addressed communication technology, patient education, and EHR integration to reduce clinician and patient burden in the subsequent main randomized phase of the trial. Our results provide important insights into the unique implications of implementing AI analytics into clinical workflow.

Improvement of Cancer Prevention and Control: Reflection on the Role of Emerging Information Technologies.

Cancer has become an important public health problem affecting the health of Chinese residents, as well as residents all over the world. With the improvement of cancer prevention and treatment, the growth of the mortality rate of cancers has slowed down gradually, but the incidence rate is still increasing rapidly, and cancers still impose heavy disease and economic burdens. Cancer screening and early cancer diagnosis and treatment are important ways to reduce the burden of cancer-related diseases. At present, various projects for early cancer diagnosis and treatment have been implemented in China. With the expansion of the coverage of these projects, the problems related to project implementation, operation, and management have emerged gradually. In recent years, emerging information technologies have been applied in the field of health and have facilitated health management and clinical decision-making. Meanwhile, China announced multiple policies to encourage and promote the application of information technologies in the field of health. Therefore, combined with the analysis of major problems in cancer prevention and control projects, this paper probes into how to apply information technologies such as biological information mining, artificial intelligence, and electronic information collection technology to various stages of cancer prevention and control. Information technologies realize the integrated management of prevention and control processes, for example, mobilization and preliminary identification, high-risk assessment, clinical screening, clinical diagnosis and treatment, tracking and follow-up, and biological sample management of high-risk groups, and promote the efficient implementation of cancer prevention and control projects in China.

El metaverso en el mundo de la salud: el futuro presente. Desafíos y oportunidades / The metaverse in the world of health: The present future. Challenges and opportunities

La Organización Mundial de la Salud define la salud digital como la incorporación de tecnologías de información y comunicación para mejorar la salud. En los últimos años, se vio una fuerte aceleración en la adopción de estas herramientas digitales, lo que impactó de lleno en los modelos asistenciales tradicionales. Actualmente, estamos observando el surgimiento de un gran entorno virtual inmersivo llamado metaverso. Su aparición genera nuevas y desafiantes oportunidades en la salud. En este artículo se exploran algunos conceptos relacionados con este campo, se dan ejemplos concretos de su aplicación en pediatría, se mencionan algunas experiencias en el ámbito hospitalario para finalmente adentrarse en los desafíos y oportunidades que emergen.

The World Health Organization has defined "digital health" as the use of information and communication technologies to improve health. In recent years, there has been a strong acceleration in the adoption of these digital tools, which has had a major impact on traditional healthcare models. We are currently witnessing the emergence of a large immersive virtual environment called the "metaverse." Its emergence creates new and challenging opportunities in health care. This article explores some metaverse-related concepts, provides specific examples of its use in pediatrics, describes experiences in the hospital setting, and finally delves into the resulting challenges and opportunities.

Unveiling the affecting mechanism of digital transformation on total factor productivity of Chinese firms.

The importance of digital transformation (DGT) for increasing productivity cannot be negated and Chinese firms are rapidly embracing the digital transformation for their sustainability. But the mechanism and impact of digital transformation on total factor productivity (TFP) of firms is still unclear and this study is intended to fill this gap using the data of 3112 listed firms of China during 2011 to 2022. We applied various econometric techniques like stepwise regression analysis, instrumental variable approach, differences in difference approach, and mediating analysis to determine the relationship between digital transformation and TFP and robustness of estimated findings. The findings indicate that DGT has a positive impact on overall TFP of firms in China while operating efficiency, cheaper costs, and a stronger capacity for innovation mediates this relationship. Moreover, it is explored that conventional information and communication technologies have not significant impact on TFP of firms. The findings of the study remain valid even applying many robustness checks and attempts to control the issue of endogeneity. To fully leverage the potential benefits of digital transformation on TFP, it is essential to focus on enhancing digital literacy and skills among the workforce. Governments and relevant stakeholders should prioritize and invest in comprehensive digital literacy and skills training programs to empower the workforce with the knowledge and expertise needed to navigate the digital age effectively.

Effectiveness of information technology assisted relapse prevention program on relapse among people who live with severe mental disorders.

BACKGROUND: Severe Mental Disorders (SMDs) cause mental health worldwide challenges because of several relapses and extensive recovery periods of hospitalization, which put a lot of economic and social burden on families and governments. Therefore, interventions are necessary to decrease the relapse of these disorders. AIM: This study was conducted to investigate the effect of Information Technology Assisted Relapse Prevention Program (ITAREP) on relapse among people who live with SMDs. METHOD: This study was a randomized clinical trial with intervention and control groups. ITAREP is a remote intervention based on monitoring the Early Warning Signs (EWS) to decrease the number of potential relapses. Using convenience sampling, people with SMDs admitted to Sina Juneqan Psychiatric Hospital and their caregivers were recruited in this study and randomly allocated to the control and intervention groups. Two checklists of the EWS for the patient and the patient's caregiver were used for monitoring the relapse signs. Data were collected at baseline and 90 days after discharge and were analyzed using t-test and Chi-square statistical tests and linear regression in SPSS software. RESULTS: Fifty-two patients who lived with SMDs participated in this study (26 in the intervention group and 26 in the control group). The two groups were homogeneous regarding age, gender, type of mental disorder, and duration of the disorder. Forty-two males and ten females participated in this research. Most of the participants were diagnosed with schizophrenia. The results showed that the number of relapses in the intervention group was significantly lower than in the control group in the post-test. CONCLUSION: Social workers, as the case managers and a member of the interdisciplinary psychiatric team, can actively perform follow-up measures after discharge using ITAREP, and it can be expected that these interventions will reduce the number of relapses among patients who live with SMDs.

The use of information technology to improve interdisciplinary communication during infectious diseases ward rounds on the paediatric intensive care unit.

Prospective audit with feedback during infectious diseases ward rounds (IDWR) is a common antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) practice on the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). These interdisciplinary meetings rely on the quality of handover, with high risk of omission of information. We developed an electronic platform integrating infection-related patient data (COSARAPed). In the mixed PICU of a Belgian tertiary hospital we conducted an observational prospective cohort study comparing patient handovers during IDWRs using the COSARAPed-platform to those with access only to conventional resources. The quality of handover was investigated directly by assessment if the narrative was in accordance with Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation principles and if adequate demonstration of diagnostic information occurred, and also indirectly by registration if this was only achieved after intervention by the non-presenting AMS team members. We also recorded all AMS-recommendations. During a 6-month study period, 24 IDWRs and 82 patient presentations were assessed. We could only find a statistically significant advantage in favor of COSARAPed by indirect evaluation. We registered 92 AMS-recommendations, mainly resulting in reduced antibiotic pressure. We concluded that the IDWR is an appropriate platform for AMS on the PICU and that the utilisation of COSARAPed may enhance the quality of patient handover.

Evolutionary game analysis of carbon emission reduction of Internet enterprises under multiple constraints.

With the rapid development of information technology, internet enterprises have sprung up, bringing about huge power consumption due to constantly expanding enterprise scale, which in turn leads to significant carbon emissions. Additionally, the large influence of internet enterprises on the public and other businesses makes it particularly necessary to pay attention to their carbon emission reduction efforts. To explore the evolution path and patterns of carbon emission reduction among internet enterprises under the carbon neutrality goal, this paper constructs an evolutionary game model for internet enterprises to enter the carbon emissions trading market based on Externality and Sustainable Development Theories, while considering constraints from the carbon market, financial institutions and the public. The model utilizes Python 3.8.2 software for numerical simulations, aiming to push internet enterprises towards low-carbon development. The research findings indicate that: (1) Carbon emission reduction behavior of internet enterprises exhibits significant externality, and when constraints are weak or incentives are not evident, the motivation for enterprises to reduce carbon emissions is insufficient. (2) The carbon market can effectively promote carbon emission reduction among internet enterprises, and the strategy of entering the carbon market becomes the preferred option for these enterprises gradually. (3) Multiple constraints, including emission reduction costs, penalty for non-compliance, government subsidies, financing costs, opportunity losses, and reputation losses, can force internet enterprises towards low-carbon development.

Direct Secure Messaging in Practice: Addressing Workflow Challenges.

Direct Secure Messaging (DSM) is a sender-initiated communication technology for exchanging patient-specific information among clinicians and disparate healthcare organizations. As DSM adoption increases it becomes more difficult for clinicians and staff to manage the volume and variety of external data received. This can lead to information hazards that can produce cognitive overload and decrease the ability of clinicians to process patient data when reviewing multiple sources. While DSM is one of many options for electronically exchanging health information, we have found that poor user awareness of DSM features and variable EHR capabilities for sending, receiving, and managing messages and their contents demonstrate that additional work is needed to achieve DSM's potential as a low-barrier, ubiquitous option for clinical interoperability. This paper reviews these problems from end-user perspective and offers best-practices for both senders and recipients of DSM.