Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) in Healthcare: A Systematic Review.

Amid global health challenges, resilient health systems require continuous innovation and progress. Stakeholders highlight the critical role of digital technologies in accelerating this progress. However, the digital health field faces significant challenges, including the sensitivity of health data, the absence of evidence-based standards, data governance issues, and a lack of evidence on the impact of digital health strategies. Overcoming these challenges is crucial to unlocking the full potential of digital health innovations in enhancing healthcare delivery and outcomes. Prioritizing security and privacy is essential in developing digital health solutions that are transparent, accessible, and effective. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have gained widespread attention, including in healthcare, offering innovative solutions and addressing challenges through blockchain technology. This paper addresses the gap in systematic-level studies on NFT applications in healthcare, aiming to comprehensively analyze use cases and associated research challenges. The search included primary studies published between 2014 and November 2023, searching in a balanced set of databases compiling articles from different fields. A review was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework and strictly focusing on research articles related to NFT applications in the healthcare sector. The electronic search retrieved 1902 articles, ultimately resulting in 15 articles for data extraction. These articles span applications of NFTs in medical devices, pathology exams, diagnosis, pharmaceuticals, and other healthcare domains, highlighting their potential to eliminate centralized trust sources in health informatics. The review emphasizes the adaptability and versatility of NFT-based solutions, indicating their broader applicability across various healthcare stages and expansion into diverse industries. Given their role in addressing challenges associated with enhancing data integrity, availability, non-repudiation, and authentication, NFTs remain a promising avenue for future research within digital health solutions.

Digital finance and M&As: An empirical study and mechanism analysis.

With the rapid growth and wide application of digital technology, enterprises have entered the digital era with both opportunities and challenges existing. Mergers and acquisitions are one of the most efficient ways to integrate resources and achieve profit growth, giving enterprises advantages in competing in the new mode of economic growth. Based on this, this research tries to explore whether the development of digital finance will contribute to the emergence of M&As activities through combining M&As data of the Chinese stock market with the digital finance inclusion index between 2012 and 2020. The results show that the development of digital finance largely influences M&As activities through lower acquirers' financial constraints. We further replace digital finance with three sub-indexes including coverage breadth, usage depth, and digitalization level to explore the impact of different dimensions of digital finance on M&As. Results show that coverage breadth plays a more important role. In addition, heterogeneity tests reveal that the relationship between the development of digital finance and M&As activities varies significantly. The influences of digital finance on private and western and central enterprises are more significant compared with state-owned and eastern enterprises. According to the study, since the development of digital finance can be an efficient way to ease financial constraints and boost M&As activities, the government should promote the development of digital finance while companies strive to make the most use of it.

Implementation of a Web-Based Communication System for Primary Care Providers and Cancer Specialists.

Healthcare providers have reported challenges with coordinating care for patients with cancer. Digital technology tools have brought new possibilities for improving care coordination. A web- and text-based asynchronous system (eOncoNote) was implemented in Ottawa, Canada for cancer specialists and primary care providers (PCPs). This study aimed to examine PCPs' experiences of implementing eOncoNote and how access to the system influenced communication between PCPs and cancer specialists. As part of a larger study, we collected and analyzed system usage data and administered an end-of-discussion survey to understand the perceived value of using eOncoNote. eOncoNote data were analyzed for 76 shared patients (33 patients receiving treatment and 43 patients in the survivorship phase). Thirty-nine percent of the PCPs responded to the cancer specialist's initial eOncoNote message and nearly all of those sent only one message. Forty-five percent of the PCPs completed the survey. Most PCPs reported no additional benefits of using eOncoNote and emphasized the need for electronic medical record (EMR) integration. Over half of the PCPs indicated that eOncoNote could be a helpful service if they had questions about a patient. Future research should examine opportunities for EMR integration and whether additional interventions could support communication between PCPs and cancer specialists.

Making the COVID-19 Pandemic a Driver for Digital Health: Brazilian Strategies.

The COVID-19 outbreak exposed several problems faced by health systems worldwide, especially concerning the safe and rapid generation and sharing of health data. However, this pandemic scenario has also facilitated the rapid implementation and monitoring of technologies in the health field. In view of the occurrence of the public emergency caused by SARS-CoV-2 in Brazil, the Department of Informatics of the Brazilian Unified Health System created a contingency plan. In this paper, we aim to report the digital health strategies applied in Brazil and the first results obtained during the fight against COVID-19. Conecte SUS, a platform created to store all the health data of an individual throughout their life, is the center point of the Brazilian digital strategy. Access to the platform can be obtained through an app by the patient and the health professionals involved in the case. Health data sharing became possible due to the creation of the National Health Data Network (Rede Nacional de Dados em Saúde, RNDS). A mobile app was developed to guide citizens regarding the need to go to a health facility and to assist in disseminating official news about the virus. The mobile app can also alert the user if they have had contact with an infected person. The official numbers of cases and available hospital beds are updated and published daily on a website containing interactive graphs. These data are obtained due to creating a web-based notification system that uses the RNDS to share information about the cases. Preclinical care through telemedicine has become essential to prevent overload in health facilities. The exchange of experiences between medical teams from large centers and small hospitals was made possible using telehealth. Brazil took a giant step toward digital health adoption, creating and implementing important initiatives; however, these initiatives do not yet cover the entire health system. It is expected that the sharing of health data that are maintained and authorized by the patient will become a reality in the near future. The intention is to obtain better clinical outcomes, cost reduction, and faster and better services in the public health network.

Digital Is Political: Why We Need a Feminist Conceptual Lens on Determinants of Digital Health.

Digital health is a rapidly emerging field that offers several promising potentials: health care delivery remotely, in urban and rural areas, in any time zone, and in times of pandemics and ecological crises. Digital health encompasses electronic health, computing science, big data, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things, to name but a few technical components. Digital health is part of a vision for systems medicine. The advances in digital health have been, however, uneven and highly variable across communities, countries, medical specialties, and societal contexts. This article critically examines the determinants of digital health (DDH). DDH describes and critically responds to inequities and differences in digital health theory and practice across people, places, spaces, and time. DDH is not limited to studying variability in design and access to digital technologies. DDH is situated within a larger context of the political determinants of health. Hence, this article presents an analysis of DDH, as seen through political science, and the feminist studies of technology and society. A feminist lens would strengthen systems-driven, historically and critically informed governance for DDH. This would be a timely antidote against unchecked destructive/extractive governance narratives (e.g., technocracy and patriarchy) that produce and reproduce the health inequities. Moreover, feminist framing of DDH can help cultivate epistemic competence to detect and reject false equivalences in how we understand the emerging digital world(s). False equivalence, very common in the current pandemic and post-truth era, is a type of flawed reasoning in decision-making where equal weight is given to arguments with concrete material evidence, and those that are conjecture, untrue, or unjust. A feminist conceptual lens on DDH would help remedy what I refer to in this article as "the normative deficits" in science and technology policy that became endemic with the rise of neoliberal governance since the 1980s in particular. In this context, it is helpful to recall the feminist writer Ursula K. Le Guin. Le Guin posed "what if?" questions, to break free from oppressive narratives such as patriarchy and re-imagine technology futures. It is time to envision an emancipated, equitable, and more democratic world by asking "what if we lived in a feminist world?" That would be truly awesome, for everyone, women and men, children, youth, and future generations, to steer digital technologies and the new field of DDH toward broadly relevant, ethical, experiential, democratic, and socially responsive health outcomes.

IT support in emergency remote teaching in response to COVID-19.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic hit the German education system unexpectedly and forced its universities to shift to Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT). The Data Integration Center (DIC) of the University Hospital Magdeburg and the Institute of Biometry and Medical Informatics (IBMI) has developed a concept based on existing structures that can be quickly implemented and used by the Medical Faculty at Otto von Guericke University. This manuscript focuses on the IT support for lecturers, which allows them to concentrate on teaching their lessons, although the authors are aware that this is only a small part of the entire subject. Additionally, there is a great awareness that ERT can never replace well-structured in-person classes. Concept: The key feature of the concept uses the well-working management system for all physical rooms of the university by designing a virtual video conference room for every physical room. This allows high interactivity for lectures and seminars while applying proven teaching methods. Additionally, a collaboration software system to document all lessons learned and a technical support team have been available for the teaching staff. Courses with a hands-on approach require more personal interaction than lectures. Therefore, the issues of practical trainings have not been solved with this concept, but been tackled by using questionnaires and minimizing contacts during attestations. Applied IT tools: The concept's requirements were met by Zoom Meetings, Confluence, HIS/LSF and Moodle. Discussion and Conclusion: The concept helped the lecturers to provide high-quality teaching for students at universities. Additionally, it allows for a dynamic response to new needs and problems. The concept will be reviewed as part of a higher Universal Design for Learning concept and may support lecturers in the following semesters in hybrid meetings with real and virtual attendees.

Digital health communication and health literacy in times of COVID-19. Planning and implementation of a special course of study in health promotion and prevention.

As a result of the corona pandemic, the amount of digital health information has increased substantially. As the quantity and diversity of information increased, so does the need for evidence based and reliable health information. In the special course of study "Health Communication", students of the Bachelors program "Health Promotion" at Fulda University of Applied Sciences are enabled to develop and disseminate evidence-based health information and preventive messages that meet the demands of the target group. Due to the corona-related university closure, the module "Digital Health Communication" was realized in a digital format during the summer semester 2020. In order to activate students and promote teamwork, the study course used the approach of problem-based and research-based learning. Moreover, the course concept is based on a variety of methods, including MS Teams with screencasts, videos, synchronous teaching sessions, gamified audience response systems, the online Inverted Classroom Model and a final oral examination. Despite various challenges such as the short planning period or the necessary restructuring of a part previously planned as "en bloc", the experiences are mostly positive. Among other things, the use of MS Teams as an integrated learning, collaboration and communication platform has proven to be useful. In the students' feedback, the broad use of methods, the gamification elements and the flexibility of the lecturers are evaluated positively.

Implications of telehealth and digital care solutions during COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative literature review.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has brought changes to the way medical care is delivered to keep health workers safe while simultaneously managing available resources. The well-being of patients and healthcare workers is crucial and has become a topic of debate as the world faces adjusts to the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, there is need to consider innovative methods of delivering medical care. Telehealth and digital health care which is the provision of medical care via Information Communication Technology (ICT) with highspeed telecommunications systems, has increasingly becoming popular in providing medical care services can be adopted to reduce infections during quarantine and social distancing practices. Specifically, by means of document and literature review this paper discusses the role of telehealth and digital care solutions, types and application of telehealth, and current policies for COVID-19. More importantly, findings from the article present the human, infrastructure, and institutional determinants that influence the adoption of telehealth and digital care solutions during the pandemic. The findings discuss how telehealth and digital care technologies can benefit the society. This study provides implications to informs medical staffs on the potential of digital technologies to provide support during and after the pandemic.

Using multivariate statistical methods to assess the urban smartness on the example of selected European cities.

The growing importance of maturity smart cities is currently observed worldwide. The vast majority of smart city models focus on hard domains such as communication and technology infrastructure. Scientists emphasize the need to take into account social capital and the knowledge of residents. The smart cities invest in enhanced openness and transparency data. Mature smart cities use real-time evidences and information to citizens, businesses and visitors. The smart cities are characterized by bottom-down management and civil government. The paper aims to assess the urban smartness of selected European cities based on the ISO 37120 standard. Several research methods including the Multidimensional Statistical Analysis (MSA) were applied. Using the statistical analysis of European smart cities with the implemented ISO 37120 standard, the author tried to fill gaps in the knowledge and to evaluate maturity smart cities. The results of the research have shown that the smart city concept is a viable strategy which contributes to the urban sustainability. The author also found out that urban sustainability frameworks contain a large number of indicators measuring environmental sustainability, the smart city frameworks lack environmental indicators while highlighting social and economic aspects.

Digital Technology, Health and Well-Being and the Covid-19 Pandemic: It's Time to Call Forward Informal Carers from the Back of the Queue.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the current challenges of family caregivers during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for future digital innovations including involvement from professional nursing roles. DATA SOURCES: Review of recent literature from PubMed and relevant health and care reports. CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused monumental disruption to health care delivery and care. Caregivers face unprecedented levels of uncertainty: both for the people they care for and for their own health and well-being. Given that many carers face poor health and well-being, there is a significant risk that health inequalities will be increased by this pandemic, particularly for high-risk groups. Innovations including those supported and delivered by digital health could make a significant difference but careful planning and implementation is a necessity for widespread implementation. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING PRACTICE: Carers need to be championed in the years ahead to ensure they do not become left at the "back of the queue" for health and well-being equity. This situation has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Disruptive change to health and social care is now required where digital health solutions hold considerable promise, yet to be fully realized.

Personalized medicine, digital technology and trust: a Kantian account.

Trust relations in the health services have changed from asymmetrical paternalism to symmetrical autonomy-based participation, according to a common account. The promises of personalized medicine emphasizing empowerment of the individual through active participation in managing her health, disease and well-being, is characteristic of symmetrical trust. In the influential Kantian account of autonomy, active participation in management of own health is not only an opportunity, but an obligation. Personalized medicine is made possible by the digitalization of medicine with an ensuing increased tailoring of diagnostics, treatment and prevention to the individual. The ideal is to increase wellness by minimizing the layer of interpretation and translation between relevant health information and the patient or user. Arguably, this opens for a new level of autonomy through increased participation in treatment and prevention, and by that, increased empowerment of the individual. However, the empirical realities reveal a more complicated landscape disturbed by information 'noise' and involving a number of complementary areas of expertise and technologies, hiding the source and logic of data interpretation. This has lead to calls for a return to a mild form of paternalism, allowing expertise coaching of patients and even withholding information, with patients escaping responsibility through blind or lazy trust. This is morally unacceptable, according to Kant's ideal of enlightenment, as we have a duty to take responsibility by trusting others reflexively, even as patients. Realizing the promises of personalized medicine requires a system of institutional controls of information and diagnostics, accessible for non-specialists, supported by medical expertise that can function as the accountable gate-keeper taking moral responsibility required for an active, reflexive trust.

Older Adults and Covid 19: Social Justice, Disparities, and Social Work Practice.

The Covid- 19 pandemic has brought immense challenges to almost every country as it spreads throughout their populations. Foremost among these challenges is the heightened awareness of inequalities in society and the immense toll that the virus has on the most vulnerable. Globally, older people are the most at risk of getting the virus and dying from the it. Yet, although age is a significant contributor, it is its interaction with other factors, chronic conditions, poverty, and race that makes it a strong determinant. These factors reflect disparities and systemic social injustices that interact to increase the vulnerability of older adults. This paper discusses the many roles that social work, with its focus on social change, injustice, and vulnerable groups can intervene at many levels of practice and with specific groups to alleviate these fundamental disparities.

Global value chains and international pharmaceutical policy.

OBJECTIVES: This paper analyzes ICT diffusion in the biopharmaceutical industry. Since new paradigms emerge in the industry towards precision medicine and fasten the digitalization of health care, it is necessary to measure the changing value system, especially between life science and the IT industry. METHODS: The global value chain (GVC) concept is used and data are extracted from the Trade in Value Added (TiVa) dataset (June 2015) from the GVC-OECD project on interconnectivity of economics and industry. A number of indicators were selected: Foreign value added share of gross exports, % of ICT imported in chemicals as a final product, either exported or in use in domestic demand. Trade data are analyzed for two industries: chemical industry, including pharmaceuticals, and the ICT industry for a group of countries: USA, Switzerland, France, Germany, UK and Japan. RESULTS: Only 0.5 to 1% of value added embodied in final chemicals and chemical products can be attributed to the ICT industry. An additional analysis shows higher prices of connectivity for services in the USA versus Japan and Germany, on a price index for a basket of broadband services (fixed and wireless, OECD 2013); this may also reflect the open model of US innovation with more transactions. CONCLUSIONS: Fast digitalization of life science requires new measures. TiVa dataset is useful for some IT equipment, but not sufficient for all forms of digital economy. The value chain concept is useful for pricing mobile computing in pharmaceuticals, but needs specific data on connectivity. Complementary datasets (e.g. EU KLEMS) can also track ICT investment in chemicals.

Leading a Digital Transformation in the Pharmaceutical Industry: Reimagining the Way We Work in Global Drug Development.

We are experiencing seminal times in computing that seem to define a fourth industrial revolution. This may fundamentally change the way we live, work, and relate to one another. Embracing data and digital information is a top priority for most industries these days, and Life Sciences is no exception. The pharmaceutical industry in particular is fundamentally a data-driven business. Inspired by a desire to "Go Big on Data," we developed a strategic roadmap defining a digital transformation to reimagine the way we work in Novartis Global Drug Development, leveraging data science to generate and inject actionable insights into our best practices. We launched a program called Nerve Live, and built a state-of-the-art data and analytics platform to harness past and present operational data, providing access to decades of drug development "experience" buried across multiple sources. The platform enabled the systematic application of machine learning and predictive analytics to generate "intelligence": new insights across multiple functional areas. To action the insights and create "value," we crafted skillfully designed end-user applications for domain experts to plan, track, predict, compare and monitor domain activities, optimize costs, and maximize quality. Today, the Nerve Live program enables insights-driven decision making at scale, unlocking productivity, and providing transparency across the Novartis Global Drug Development organization and beyond. We identified three main drivers making the Nerve Live program successful and enabling the associated digital transformation to flourish. We discuss the challenges, highlight the benefits, and see the importance of leading the way to become future proof.

Plano Diretor de Tecnologia da Informação e Comunicação - 2019 | 2021 (1ª Revisão de 2020) / Information and Communication Technology Master Plan - 2019 | 2021 (1st Revision of 2020)

O Plano Diretor de Tecnologia da Informação e Comunicação (PDTIC), tem como objetivo organizar e apresentar a estratégia de TIC e o conjunto de resultados esperados durante o período de 2019 a 2021 do DATASUS do Ministério da Saúde. Desta maneira, este plano apoiará a realização de diagnósticos, planejamentos e ações de gestão dos recursos e processos de TIC, que visam atender às necessidades tecnológicas das Unidades Finalísticas deste Ministério. A elaboração do PDTIC do Ministério da Saúde é o resultado do trabalho conjunto entre as Secretarias, Departamentos do MS, unidade do Rio de Janeiro que contempla os Hospitais Federais e o DATASUS no levantamento de necessidades e na proposição de metas e ações para atendimento dos Objetivos Estratégicos do MS. O plano foi estruturado prevendo o monitoramento das metas e ações de TIC, com o objetivo de realizar suas revisões ordinárias anualmente, e extraordinariamente a qualquer momento, para manter o DATASUS alinhado às necessidades das áreas de negócio