Understanding factors influencing the adoption of mHealth by the elderly: An extension of the UTAUT model

Mobile-health

Smart city advancements are driving massive transformations of healthcare, the largest global industry. The drivers include increasing demands for ubiquitous, preventive, and personalized healthcare, to be provided to the public at reduced risks and costs. Mobile cloud computing could potentially meet the future healthcare demands by enabling anytime, anywhere capture and analyses of patients’ data. However, network latency, bandwidth, and reliability are among the many challenges hindering the realization of next-generation healthcare. This paper proposes a ubiquitous healthcare framework, UbeHealth, that leverages edge computing, deep learning, big data, high-performance computing (HPC), and the Internet of Things (IoT) to address the aforementioned challenges. The framework enables an enhanced network quality of service using its three main components and four layers. Deep learning, big data, and HPC are used to predict network traffic, which in turn are used by the Cloudlet and network layers to optimize data rates, data caching, and routing decisions. Application protocols of the traffic flows are classified, enabling the network layer to meet applications’ communication requirements better and to detect malicious traffic and anomalous data. Clustering is used to identify the different kinds of data originating from the same application protocols. A proof of concept UbeHealth system has been developed based on the framework. A detailed literature review is used to capture the design requirements for the proposed system. The system is described in detail including the algorithmic implementation of the three components and four layers. Three widely used data sets are used to evaluate the UbeHealth system.

UbeHealth: A Personalized Ubiquitous Cloud and Edge-Enabled Networked Healthcare System for Smart Cities

Visualizing the knowledge structure and evolution of big data research in healthcare informatics

Background: Health care systems are gradually moving toward new models of care based on integrated care processes shared by different care givers and on an empowered role of the patient. Mobile technologies are assuming an emerging role in this scenario. This is particularly true in care processes where the patient has a particularly enhanced role, as is the case of cancer supportive care. Objective: This paper aims to review existing studies on the actual role and use of mobile technology during the different stages of care processes, with particular reference to cancer supportive care. Methods: We carried out a review of literature with the aim of identifying studies related to the use of mHealth in cancer care and cancer supportive care. The final sample size consists of 106 records. Results: There is scant literature concerning the use of mHealth in cancer supportive care. Looking more generally at cancer care, we found that mHealth is mainly used for self-management activities carried out by patients. The main tools used are mobile devices like mobile phones and tablets, but remote monitoring devices also play an important role. Text messaging technologies (short message service, SMS) have a minor role, with the exception of middle income countries where text messaging plays a major role. Telehealth technologies are still rarely used in cancer care processes. If we look at the different stages of health care processes, we can see that mHealth is mainly used during the treatment of patients, especially for self-management activities. It is also used for prevention and diagnosis, although to a lesser extent, whereas it appears rarely used for decision-making and follow-up activities. Conclusions: Since mHealth seems to be employed only for limited uses and during limited phases of the care process, it is unlikely that it can really contribute to the creation of new care models. This under-utilization may depend on many issues, including the need for it to be embedded into broader information systems. If the purpose of introducing mHealth is to promote the adoption of integrated care models, using mHealth should not be limited to some activities or to some phases of the health care process. Instead, there should be a higher degree of pervasiveness at all stages and in all health care delivery activities. [J Med Internet Res 2015;17(2):e26]

The role of mobile technologies in health care processes: the case of cancer supportive care

mHealth (healthcare using mobile wireless technologies) has the potential to improve healthcare and the quality of life for elderly and chronic patients. Many studies from all over the world have addressed this issue in view of the aging population in many countries. However, there has been a lack of any consolidated evidence-based study to classify mHealth from the dual perspectives of healthcare and technology. This paper reports the results of an evidence-based study of mHealth solutions for chronic care amongst the elderly population and proposes a taxonomy of a broad range of mHealth solutions from the perspective of technological complexity. A systematic literature review was conducted over 10 online databases and the findings were classified into four categories of predominant mHealth solutions, that is, self-healthcare, assisted healthcare, supervised healthcare and continuous monitoring. The findings of the study have major implications for information management and policy development in the context of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) related to healthcare in the world.

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Giovanni Chiarini

Papers

mHealth Technologies for Chronic Diseases and Elders: A Systematic Review