EASIER: A new model for online learning of minimally invasive surgery skills.

INTRODUCTION: Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) can provide the tools to safely master minimally invasive surgery (MIS) skills in patient-free environments and receive immediate objective feedback without the constant presence of an instructor. However, TEL-based systems tend to work isolated from one another, focus on different skills, and fail to provide contents without a sound pedagogical background. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this descriptive study is to present in detail EASIER, an innovative TEL platform for surgical and interventional training, as well as the results of its validation. METHODS: EASIER provides a Learning Management System (LMS) for institutions and content creators that can connect and integrate TEL "external assets" (virtual reality simulators, augmented box trainers, augmented videos, etc.) addressing different skills. The platform integrates all skills under an Assessment Module that measures skills' progress in different courses. Finally, it provides content creators with a pedagogical model to scaffold contents while retaining flexibility to approach course design with different training philosophies in mind. Three courses were developed and hosted in the platform to validate it with end-users in terms of usability, performance, learning results in the courses and student self-perception on learning. RESULTS: In total 111 volunteers completed the validation. The study was limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which limited access to external assets (virtual reality simulators). Nevertheless, usability was rated with 73.1 in the System Usability Scale. Most positive aspects on performance were easiness to access the platform, easiness to change the configuration and not requiring additional plug-ins to use the platform. The platform was rated above average in the six scales of the User Experience Questionnaire. Overall, student results improved significantly across the three courses (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: This study provides, within its limitations, evidence on the usefulness of the EASIER platform for distance learning of MIS skills. Results show the potential impact of the platform and are an encouraging boost for the future, especially in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lessons Learned from Older Adults Fusing of an Augmented Reality, Assisted Living and Social Interaction Platform.

The aging population and the subsequent changing societal structures are foreseen to bring both opportunities and challenges for the economy, services and society at large. Digital exclusion among older people may become less of an issue in the future, as those who have used the Internet in their working and social lives continue to do so as they reach old age. However, given the rapid pace of technological advances, older adults, may still experience some degree of digital exclusion. Technological advances may offer benefits for older adults, such as maintaining their independence and connection to society. Nevertheless, adopting new technologies like augmented reality (AR) may be difficult for older adults commonly due to the decline of cognitive and physical abilities and/or their lack of familiarity, apprehension and understanding on these new technologies. In this study, the GUIDed system is presented, an AR-operated app developed in this work, aiming to support the independence and quality of life of older people. Finally, the paper discusses lessons learned from the co-creation process, including the evaluation methods, paper prototypes, focus groups and living labs, and the results on the acceptance of the AR functionality and for improving the GUIDed system.

eSticky: An Advanced Remote Reminder System for People with Early Dementia.

While the European population is ageing, the number of people with dementia is dramatically rising. With this comes an increased need for products that help affected people to be more independent and able to live in their own home for as long as possible. eSticky addresses this need by providing a sophisticated reminder system that replaces the old-fashioned sticky notes by electronic versions thereof, which can be programmed from near and far in a device-independent manner via the internet and using a standard web browser. For this purpose, a set of low-cost ePaper displays are used, accompanied by a small and unobtrusive base station situated at the user's home, and supported by a web platform for user management and the authoring and scheduling of the message reminders. The displays can be placed at several strategically useful places in a user's home, to enable users and/or care persons to place reminders that will, based on the user's daily routines, most probably be read. A sub-set of displays, named active displays, even enable the user to press a confirmation button to show that he or she has actually read the reminder. The confirmation is then made available to the authors of the particular reminder through the web platform. The system is developed using a user-centred design approach, to take all stakeholders' wishes and needs into account, in order to come up with a system that is easy to use and provides good service to many people. In this extended version of the paper, besides a detailed description of the technological advancements of the project, both in terms of software and hardware, we provide an insight of the eSticky device design methodology and results from the design user evaluation.

Low-cost colorimetric assay of biothiols based on the photochemical reduction of silver halides and consumer electronic imaging devices.

This work describes a new approach for the determination of free biothiols in biological fluids that exploits some of the basic principles of early photographic chemistry - that was based on silver-halide recording materials - and uses broadly-available imaging devices (i.e. flatbed scanners) as detectors. Specifically, the proposed approach relies on the ability of biothiols to bind to silver ions and dissociate the silver halide crystals thus changing the photosensitivity of silver halide crystal suspension. The changes induced by biothiols on the light intensity transmitted through the silver halide suspension, after photochemical reduction, were measured with a simplified photometric approach that employs a flatbed scanner operating in transmittance mode. The overall analytical procedure for the determination of biothiols was easily executable, fast and could be applied with inexpensive and commercially available materials and reagents. What is more, physiologically relevant biothiol levels could be inspected even by the unattended eye. The developed assay was successfully applied to the determination of biothiols in urine and blood plasma samples with detection limits as low as 10µM, satisfactory recoveries (92-97%), good reproducibility (6.7-8.8%) and high selectivity against other major components of biological fluids. The utility of the method to the determination of reduced/oxidized thiol ratio's as well as its application under natural light illumination, without external energy sources, was also demonstrated and is discussed with regard to point-of need applications in facility-limited settings.