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Application of Internet of Things in Health Care
Get PDFThe paper focuses on the continuously growing area of Internet of Things and its application to health care. We discuss several important aspects, namely quality, and relevance of data acquired. We illustrate IoT by a case study of diabetes mellitus personalised treatment. Modern type 1 diabetes mellitus therapy is now unimaginable without intensive glycaemia monitoring. In the last decade the possibility of real time continuous glucose monitoring (RT-CGMS) was realised along with integration to some types of insulin pump. Currently the research focuses on continuous glucose monitoring systems that have following advantages: non-invasiveness, high customer acceptance; comfort in use; ease in use; accuracy; long-term measurement up to 4 weeks; calibrating unit integrated; alerts for low or highs of glucose level; enabling higher lifestyle flexibility, e.g. physical activity, food, medication; wireless data and energy transmission; infection risk is minimised. Obviously several sensors are necessary to acquire the contextual data, in particular vital parameters, physical activity, and stress. All measured data must be collected and evaluated in parallel. The aim is to identify the mutual relations in measured parameters, the differences among patients and finally the most important parameters for development of personalised data models
Telegerontology: Knowledge Exchange Related to Elderly Healthcare Between Brazilian and Portuguese Universities
Get PDFTelegerontology (TeleGero) is one of the educational activities promoted by the eHealth Lab/MicroG, in co-operation with the Postgraduate Course in Gerontology and Geriatrics at PUCRS. This initiative began more than 10 years ago through videoconference connections, aimed at publicising the activities of different Brazilian teaching and research centres in the area of geriatrics and gerontology. A total of 6 Brazilian states (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Amazonas, Rio Grande do Sul, Pernambuco, Paraná) and Portuguese educational institutions participate in TeleGero, all linked through a server. The thirteen representative members, doctors/professors and other collaborators promote interaction between the Brazilian and Portuguese universities. This work occurs on a monthly basis, from January to November, with lectures focused on topics related to care of the elderly, and based on scientific projects and clinical experiences. A mediator guides group discussions in the videoconferences and time is set-aside during the presentations for questions to the speaker, resulting in greater interaction between the Brazilian and Portuguese participants. Researchers from the engineering area, who are part of the eHealth Lab/MicroG, provide specialised technical support for the videoconferences. The communication system consists of a computer connected to the internal network of PUCRS (intranet) and Teleport Software, connected to peripherals (microphones, sound system and video camera), which guarantees a secure and dynamic connection between the research groups
Developing a Model of Community of Practice Among Health Informatics Professionals in South and Southeast Asia
Get PDFThere is still debate on whether communities of practice (COP) can be formed or created. Many have claimed that they provide a venue to share knowledge which translates to action. In South and Southeast Asia, international development partners have invested in many capacity building initiatives to set-up and/or improve eHealth implementations in countries. While interest and resources for this increase, many challenges are still left unresolved due to repeated mistakes and undocumented experiences. The Asia eHealth Information Network (AeHIN) is a community of health informatics professionals organised to share knowledge and improve the use of ICT in health systems strengthening. Objectives: This study examined how AeHIN emerged as a knowledge sharing platform, identified best practices it adopted, and developed a model that could sustain itself as a COP. Methods: A sociometric survey was used to map knowledge sharing connections of pioneer members with interviews to substantiate findings and a 20-hour participant observation to triangulate data. UCINET 6.0 was used to analyse social network data while qualitative data were coded. Results: Defining roles of health informatics professionals inside the COP influences the type of information, resources, and capacities that can enter a network. The nature of its subgroups determines potentials and barriers to the network. Twelve best practices were identified to sustain a health informatics COP. It is recommended that a learning network is an appropriate model for this type of COP and an understanding of country-specific political structure is important to support participation. Conclusion: AeHIN is a COP model whose activities have a life of their own. While some prove successful, others die down or are discontinued. This unique design proved to be fitting for a group of health informatics professionals as it accommodates success and failures crucial for project implementations
Guide and Federate the Telemedicine Actors for the Development of Sustainable Projects Consistent With French Recommendations
Get PDFTelemedicine is facing many public health challenges which makes benchmarking essential. In this perspective, the association Agir Pour La Telemedicine wanted to develop a collaborative web platform for the provision of resources for telemedicine projects. The platform makes it possible through a dynamic inventory to find an existing project, access its identity card and compare it to other projects. This tool is intended for project holders, administrations of the healthcare system and companies who are working in the telehealth industry. By facilitating feedback from telemedicine stakeholders, this interface will enable them to federate and support them efficiently through the provision of project management tools. By creating a single database this platform could allow a harmonisation of telemedicine projects in France
Heart Institute Telemedicine and Telehealth Initiatives and Perspectives
Get PDFThis is a brief report of the telemedicine and telehealth initiatives developed at the Heart Institute (InCor HC FMUSP) since 2009. The challenges to develop, implement and make the service operational are described. Support was received from the Telemedicine University Network of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, the National Health Fund of Ministry of Health and a private donor to establish this Telemedicine and Telehealth Centre, making it possible for our students, professors and professionals to participate in activities at a distance, such as videoconferences, transmission of surgical procedures, web conferences and online courses. The Centre is also responsible for coordinating all local audio-visual resources available in our classrooms and amphitheatre, as well as producing videos. Although the main focus of the Centre is education, the Centre provides support for the management of tele-ecg contracts, second opinion services and other opportunities for innovation in the field of telemedicine and telehealth. The current infrastructure has extended integration with other Services of the Institute, leading the acquisition of skills by health professionals, but the challenge remains of raising the awareness of collaborative work at a distance, implementing innovative healthcare services for remote monitoring of our patients with chronic conditions, and assessing their impact. It is mandatory to acquire and use new technologies to add value to patient care and, at the same time, get good return on investment
Reconfiguring educational relationality in education: the educator as pregnant stingray
Get PDFIn my paper, I discuss student, teacher-centred and ‘post-postmodern’ educational relationality and use Karen Barad’s posthuman methodology of diffraction to produce an intra-active relationality by reading three familiar figurations through one another: the midwife, the stingray, and the pregnant body. The new educational theory and practice that is produced is the ‘superposition’ of the pregnant stingray – a reconfiguration of the educator that disrupts power producing binaries, such as teacher/learner, adult/child, individual/society. The reconfiguration of the pregnant stingray makes us think differently about difference, the knowing subject (as in/determinate and unbounded), and creates a more egalitarian intra-relationality ‘between’ learner and educator through the shift in subjectivit
The role of museums in learning to teach with a critical lens
Get PDFThe role of museums in learning to teach with a critical lens
Sarita Ramsaroop
(Received 19 August 2016; accepted 8 May 2017)
Abstract
This study set out to explore the potential of student teachers learning to teach apartheid era
history to learners in the primary school when learning in apartheid museums is blended
with coursework. Using qualitative methods of inquiry, the findings show that student
teachers learning in museums that dovetail with coursework at the university strengthens
their ability to ‘know, think, feel and act like a teacher’. The multiple narratives contributed
towards addressing misconceptions, strengthened citizenship and pedagogic content
knowledge, fundamentals that can equip student teachers to teach apartheid era history with
an informed lens. The study highlights the importance of developing in student teachers
investigative skills before and after museum visits so as to ensure that they are not merely
consumers but are able to interrogate multiple narratives, resulting in them being active
producers of knowledge
Inclusive education in initial teacher education in South Africa: practical or professional knowledge?
Get PDFInclusive education in initial teacher education in South Africa: practical or professional knowledge?
Elizabeth Walton
(Received 25 May 2016; accepted 22 February 2017)
Abstract
Inclusive education is embedded in South African policy with the expectation that teacher
education will equip pre-service teachers to teach inclusively. As a result, courses in inclusive
education are offered in most Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes and research interest in
teacher education for inclusion has grown. This paper contributes to this body of knowledge by
using Legitimation Code Theory to engage critically with concepts and assessment tasks from three
inclusive education courses. This meant identifying where theoretical, context independent
knowledge is privileged (semantic density), and where the knowledge is derived from practice or
experience and designed to be implemented within specific contexts (semantic gravity). Using
examples as reference points, I discuss how inclusive education comes to emphasise practical
knowledge, to be enacted in particular contexts, or with particular groups of learners. An
alternative is to position inclusive education as professional knowledge where theoretically
informed judgments are made in response to the complexity of learner diversity. This will require
strengthening the disciplinary foundation of concepts presented in ITE courses in inclusive
education
Editorial: 21st Century Geo-political Discourses on India’s Diaspora: Global Perspectives
Get PDFDiaspora studies endeavours to understand and describe transnational experiences of migration within an inter-disciplinary perspective among fields as diverse as literature and cultural studies, economics, anthropology, and sociology. Scholarly studies of migrations, as is present in diaspora criticism, are not, and cannot be, a system of ordered and forced rules or critical regulations. The fluctuating nature of the material, and the constantly changing quality of international evidence and private awareness, mean there cannot be and should not be any single, coherently determined method of diaspora inquiry. This means that diaspora studies, is, by its very nature, quite diverse, theoretically, as well as methodologically. As such, diaspora criticism is by its historic, literary, media and legal nature a delta of interrelated critical streams that flow out from the multiple impressions, experiences, sufferings and memories of displaced persons, willing migrants and emigrants, and often, desperate refugees. From within the Indian diaspora legacy in particular, there is a wide array and multiplicity of documented empirical experiences, literary representations, and critical scholarly analyses, interpretations and reflections available in a plethora of published materials such as books and academic journals. The first part of this journal issue of Alternation makes an addition to this constantly growing corpus of materials, especially from a number of South African perspectives