Background Asthma is one of the most common long-term conditions worldwide, which places considerable pressure on patients, communities
and health systems. The major international clinical guidelines now recommend the inclusion of self management programmes in
the routine management of patients with asthma. These programmes have been associated with improved outcomes in patients with
asthma. However, the implementation of self management programmes in clinical practice, and their uptake by patients, is still poor.
Recent developments in mobile technology, such as smartphone and tablet computer apps, could help develop a platform for the
delivery of self management interventions that are highly customisable, low-cost and easily accessible. Objectives To assess the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and feasibility of using smartphone and tablet apps to facilitate the self management of
individuals with asthma. Search methods We searched the Cochrane Airways Group Register (CAGR), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL),
MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, GlobalHealth Library, Compendex/Inspec/Referex, IEEEXplore, ACMDigital Library,
CiteSeerx and CAB abstracts via Web of Knowledge. We also searched registers of current and ongoing trials and the grey literature.
We checked the reference lists of all primary studies and review articles for additional references. We searched for studies published
from 2000 onwards. The latest search was run in June 2013. Selection criteria We included parallel randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that compared self management interventions for patients with cliniciandiagnosed
asthma delivered via smartphone apps to self management interventions delivered via traditional methods (e.g. paper-based
asthma diaries). Data collection and analysis 
We used standard methods expected by the Cochrane Collaboration. Our primary outcomes were symptom scores; frequency of
healthcare visits due to asthma exacerbations or complications and health-related quality of life. Main results We included two RCTs with a total of 408 participants. We found no cluster RCTs, controlled before and after studies or interrupted
time series studies that met the inclusion criteria for this systematic review. Both RCTs evaluated the effect of a mobile phone-based
asthma self management intervention on asthma control by comparing it to traditional, paper-based asthma self management. One
study allowed participants to keep daily entries of their asthma symptoms, asthma medication usage, peak flow readings and peak flow
variability on their mobile phone, from which their level of asthma control was calculated remotely and displayed together with the
corresponding asthma self management recommendations. In the other study, participants recorded the same readings twice daily, and
they received immediate selfmanagement feedback in the form of a three-colour traffic light display on their phones. Participants falling
into the amber zone of their action plan twice, or into the red zone once, received a phone call from an asthma nurse who enquired
about the reasons for their uncontrolled asthma.
We did not conduct a meta-analysis of the data extracted due to the considerable degree of heterogeneity between these studies. Instead
we adopted a narrative synthesis approach. Overall, the results were inconclusive and we judged the evidence to have a GRADE rating
of low quality because further evidence is very likely to have an important impact on our confidence in the estimate of effect and is
likely to change the estimate. In addition, there was not enough information in one of the included studies to assess the risk of bias for
themajority of the domains. Although the other included study was methodologically rigorous, it was not possible to blind participants
or personnel in the study. Moreover, there are concerns in both studies in relation to attrition bias and other sources of bias.
One study showed that the use of a smartphone app for the delivery of an asthma self management programme had no statistically
significant effect on asthma symptom scores (mean difference (MD) 0.01, 95% confidence interval (CI) -0.23 to 0.25), asthma-related
quality of life (MD of mean scores 0.02, 95% CI -0.35 to 0.39), unscheduled visits to the emergency department (OR 7.20, 95% CI
0.37 to 140.76) or frequency of hospital admissions (odds ratio (OR) 3.07, 95% CI 0.32 to 29.83). The other included study found
that the use of a smartphone app resulted in higher asthma-related quality of life scores at six-month follow-up (MD5.50, 95%CI 1.48
to 9.52 for the physical component score of the SF-12 questionnaire; MD 6.00, 95% CI 2.51 to 9.49 for the mental component score
of the SF-12 questionnaire), improved lung function (PEFR) at four (MD 27.80, 95% CI 4.51 to 51.09), five (MD 31.40, 95% CI
8.51 to 54.29) and six months (MD 39.20, 95% CI 16.58 to 61.82), and reduced visits to the emergency department due to asthmarelated
complications (OR 0.20, 95% CI 0.04 to 0.99). Both studies failed to find any statistical differences in terms of adherence to
the intervention and occurrence of other asthma-related complications. Authors’ conclusions The current evidence base is not sufficient to advise clinical practitioners, policy-makers and the general public with regards to the use
of smartphone and tablet computer apps for the delivery of asthma selfmanagement programmes. In order to understand the efficacy of
apps as standalone interventions, future research should attempt to minimise the differential clinical management of patients between
control and intervention groups. Those studies evaluating apps as part of complex, multicomponent interventions, should attempt
to tease out the relative contribution of each intervention component. Consideration of the theoretical constructs used to inform the
development of the intervention would help to achieve this goal. Finally, researchers should also take into account: the role of ancillary
components in moderating the observed effects, the seasonal nature of asthma and long-term adherence to self management practices.

Smartphone and tablet self management apps for asthma

Urban spaces have a great impact on how people’s emotion and behaviour. There are number of factors that impact our brain responses to a space. This paper presents a novel urban place recommendation approach, that is based on modelling in-situ EEG data. The research investigations leverages on newly affordable Electroencephalogram (EEG) headsets, which has the capability to sense mental states such as meditation and attention levels. These emerging devices have been utilized in understanding how human brains are affected by the surrounding built environments and natural spaces. In this paper, mobile EEG headsets have been used to detect mental states at different types of urban places. By analysing and modelling brain activity data, we were able to classify three different places according to the mental state signature of the users, and create an association map to guide and recommend people to therapeutic places that lessen brain fatigue and increase mental rejuvenation. Our mental states classifier has achieved accuracy of (%90.8). NeuroPlace breaks new ground not only as a mobile ubiquitous brain monitoring system for urban computing, but also as a system that can advise urban planners on the impact of specific urban planning policies and structures. We present and discuss the challenges in making our initial prototype more practical, robust, and reliable as part of our on-going research. In addition, we present some enabling applications using the proposed architecture.

/pdf/neuroplace-categorizing-urban-places-according-to-mental-40bqr4cqjs.pdf

NeuroPlace: Categorizing urban places according to mental states

Due to recent and growing interest in e-health initiatives in Saudi Arabia, improving the state of knowledge pertaining to current e-health programs, initiatives, and efforts is of critical importance to academics, clinicians, and policy makers. In this research review the literature on specific applications of e-health in Saudi Arabia is considered, including studies investigating Electronic Health Records (EHR), Electronic Medical Records (EMR), studies investigating Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) and Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS). Moreover, this paper explores studies on telemedicine, mobile health, and other e-health applications. The findings reveal evidence that e-health in Saudi Arabia is growing as many organizational and individual initiatives have implemented e-health applications. However, the number of studies available about e-health in Saudi Arabia remains low. Data is limited to a few organizations and does not necessarily reflect the breadth and depth of the current and potential use of e-health for healthcare organizations in the region.

E-Health status in Saudi Arabia: a review of current literature

Pervasive mobile healthcare system has the potential to improve healthcare and the quality of life of chronic disease patients through continuous monitoring. Recently, many articles related to pervasive mobile healthcare system focusing on health monitoring using wireless technologies have been published. The main aim of this review is to evaluate the state-of-the-art pervasive mobile healthcare systems to identify major technical requirements and design challenges associated with the realization of a pervasive mobile healthcare system. A systematic literature review was conducted over IEEE Xplore Digital Library to evaluate 20 pervasive mobile healthcare systems out of 683 articles from 2011 to 2016. The classification of the pervasive mobile healthcare systems and other important factors are discussed. Potential opportunities and challenges are pointed out for the further deployment of effective pervasive mobile healthcare systems. This article helps researchers in health informatics to have a holistic view toward understanding pervasive mobile healthcare systems and points out new technological trends and design challenges that researchers have to consider when designing such systems for better adoption, usability, and seamless integration.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1460458217704250

Pervasive mobile healthcare systems for chronic disease monitoring.

Pervasive healthcare is an emerging technology that aims to provide round-the-clock monitoring of several vital signs of patients using various health sensors, specialized communication protocols, and intelligent context-aware applications. Pervasive healthcare applications proactively contact the caregiver provided any abnormality arises in the health condition of a monitored patient. It has been a boon to the patients suffering from different diseases and requiring continuous monitoring and care, such as, disabled individuals, elderly and weak persons living alone, children of different ages, and adults who are susceptible to near-fatal falls or sudden increases in blood pressure, heart rates, stress level, etc. Existing surveys on pervasive healthcare cover generic techniques or a particular application, like fall detection. In this paper, we carry out a comprehensive coverage of several common disorders addressed by pervasive healthcare in recent years. We roughly classify different diseases by age groups of patients and then discuss various hardware and software tools and techniques to detect or treat them. We have also included detailed tabular classification of a large selection of significant research articles in pervasive healthcare.

Pervasive Healthcare-A Comprehensive Survey of Tools and Techniques.

Prevalence of asthma, especially in air polluted areas, has dramatically increased. As a result, the demand for a system that is able to predict asthma attacks and monitor a patient's condition is becoming increasingly important. This paper presents a prototype system that allow asthma's patients to self-monitor their symptoms condition and manage their conditions accurately, as well as informing the medics in the case of emergency.

Nouf al-Jwiser

Papers

Mbreath: Asthma monitoring system on the go