Introduction Of Assistive Technology Research Articles

Mortality in the Burn Intensive Care Unit (2017-2023) at Mohammed VI University Hospital, Department of Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery, Marrakech

This internal audit aims to evaluate the management of burn patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) of Mohammed VI University Hospital in Marrakech, a specialized burn treatment center in Morocco. The retrospective study spans from 2017 to 2023, analyzing the deaths of 27 patients admitted to the ICU, with an average age of 62. The primary causes of death identified were septic shock (54%) and acute respiratory distress syndrome (18%). Key challenges emerged, including nursing staff shortages, inadequate stock management of dressing materials, and the absence of care assistants, all of which impacted the quality of care provided. The study also underscores the importance of improved care organization, drawing from international best practices. The report proposes several solutions, such as increasing nursing staff, optimizing workflows, and improving sanitary infrastructure to minimize infection risks. A crucial recommendation involves reassessing admission criteria to ensure that critically ill patients are redirected to appropriate units, particularly by strengthening the presence of full-time intensivists in the burn ICU. Furthermore, the report highlights the need for continuous training of medical personnel and interdisciplinary collaboration to enhance the quality of care. The introduction of assistive technologies and companion programs for isolated patients would also improve their nutritional and psychological support. These initiatives could alleviate the burden on medical staff and improve patient outcomes. By implementing these recommendations, the burn ICU could be transformed into a model of excellence, providing optimal, safe, and respectful care tailored to the individual needs of burn patients. This audit serves as a foundation for ongoing improvement, emphasizing patient safety and well-being as the core priorities in burn patient management.

Building Policies and Initiatives for Inclusive Educational Contexts: The GLIC Italian Experience.

Inclusive education has emerged as a global priority, and the integration of assistive technology (AT) is recognized as a crucial component for creating inclusive educational environments. However, the successful implementation of AT hinges on supportive policies and initiatives. This article delves into the experience of the GLIC Association in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of Education, exploring their efforts in developing policies and initiatives to facilitate the introduction of AT in educational contexts. The GLIC Association has devised a service provisioning model in state schools that ensures adequate support for the integration of AT, thus promoting inclusive education.

Smart Nursing: The Use of Technology to Support Homecare Nurses with Their Care of the Elderly.

The demand for homecare services is on the rise, while simultaneously there is a shortage of homecare nurses who are burdened with increasingly heavier workloads. The introduction of assistive technologies has the potential to assist elderly individuals as well as (informal) caregivers. This study aims to facilitate nursing care with technology, within the framework of a proper daily structure for elderly people. Initially, a needs assessment was performed with homecare nurses to identify the most relevant daily structure patterns. Subsequently, a prototype comprising of a test setup and a mobile application was developed, followed by a case study involving participation from homecare nurses, informal caregivers, and patients. Both subjective experiences and standardized outcome measures (System Usability Scale, Usefulness Satisfaction and Ease of Use Scale and User Experience Questionnaire) revealed highly positive attitudes towards the test setup and application. Future research endeavours should focus on scaling up the technology and expanding its availability to other caregivers.

Introducing Assistive Technology (AT) to Pre-Service Teachers: Observations and Experiences

Assistive technology (AT) can help students with special needs with their learning, and the importance of AT is on the rise with the development of new technologies and the diversification of student body. However, it is observed that pre-service teachers need to be better prepared for the use of AT in their teaching, including awareness, creative and innovative ways of problem solving, and pedagogical use of “low-tech” “mid-tech” and “high-tech” AT. Based on the observation and experience of the author in his teaching of an ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) course in a teacher education program at a middle-sized university in Ontario, Canada, this paper intends to broaden educators’ understanding of AT including hardware and software, emphasize the necessity of the introduction of AT in teacher education programs, and discuss the pedagogical uses of various types of AT tools. By sharing our observations and experiences, it is hoped that educators can be inspired to use various methods to expand the understanding of AT in pre-service teacher education and in-service teacher professional development programs.

Information Technology as Catalyst for Value Re-Engineering Implementation in the Nigerian Construction Industry

Technological development has placed pressure on construction industry. Reviewing its activities due to an increase in a globally competitive market has manifested from the construction environment’s changing need to meet customer satisfaction. These pose challenges to many construction industries in developing countries to improve the quality of the product produced to meet the customer’s needs. The study aims to examine the impact of information technology (IT) application on value re-engineering (VRE) implementation that gives rise to customer value addition, through enhanced profitability performance and cost reduction for the construction industry to offer benefits for customers to achieve satisfaction. Using purposive sampling techniques, the subjectivist methodology was utilised to establish critical success factors in 40 purposefully sampled building construction operators within Abuja, Nigeria. The result further revealed that quality design and collaborative working among the VRE practitioners help the customer to derive the benefit of waste reduction by achieving a value-added perspective using high technology that influences both design and construction operations for the project. Early dissemination of information and design adequacy reduces pressure on both materials and labour scarcity. Finally, there is a significant need for the construction process to be re-engineered through the utility of change enablers and the introduction of assistive technologies like IT as drivers of VRE implementation on value addition that give rise to customer-derived benefits.

Factors Militating against Implementation of Value Reengineering in the Construction Industry

Production improvement techniques in use by the Construction Industry (CI) in developing countries like Nigerian are yielding sub-optimal value for customers. This necessitated the investigation of techniques to engender maximum efficiency gains. Hence, continuous improvements on new techniques that will give customer satisfaction are required to be implemented to improve the development of the sector. The adoption of Value Reengineering (VRE) could result in a breakthrough solution in resolving the challenges of customer dissatisfaction in the industry. The subjectivist methodology was utilised to establish critical success factors in thirty-four purposefully sampled building construction operators within Abuja using purposive sampling techniques. The deductive/thematic technique was used to analyse the recorded, transcribed, and interpreted interview data after it had been sorted and coded to develop information about any common pattern among the interviewees' evidence on causes militating against VRE deployment in the CI. The results revealed a significant need for the process to be reengineered through the utility of change enablers and the introduction of assistive technologies. The study further reveals that inadequate employee training to implement VRE, lack of understanding of the implementation requirements, top management commitment, quality standards of contractor’s work, and lack of employee consensus to see the implementation through is the key planning, technical and organisational related factors identified. The research concluded that VRE implementation would be achieved if adequate attention is given to the level of awareness of the operator of the technique through training and retraining of operatives in the industry. The study recommends that VRE implementation in all construction projects be encouraged, as it has the potential for the customer to achieve its desired satisfaction on value offering.

Decision support model for implementing assistive technologies in assembly activities: a case study

ABSTRACT The use of assistive technologies, such as digital instructions (DIs) and collaborative robots (cobots), can improve the productivity of assembly system. However, their implementation remains arbitrary. In this study, a decision support system based on tactical-level variables (i.e. throughput, operator and equipment cost, operation time and type) was proposed with the aim of suggesting when the introduction of assistive technologies becomes profitable. Four different assembly system configurations (i.e. manual assembly, manual assembly with the implementation of DIs, manual assembly with the implementation of cobots and manual assembly with the implementation of both DIs and cobots) were modelled by means of four different cost models and analysed in depth with a parametric analysis carried out by varying the tactical-level variables. The results suggested that, when the throughput is low, the introduction of cobots should be considered only in cases of high operation times, while the introduction of DIs and/or cobots is the best alternative when the throughput is high. Finally, the validity of the approach is proved by comparing the results suggested by the decision support system with those obtained from a case study.

Eficácia de mobiliário escolar adaptado de baixo custo no desempenho funcional de criança com paralisia cerebral

http://dx.doi.org/10.5902/1984686X7289 Indivíduos com Paralisia Cerebral apresentam desenvolvimento motor atípico, caracterizado por alterações posturais, de coordenação motora e de tônus muscular, que resulta em limitações no desempenho de atividades funcionais. Neste contexto destaca-se a prescrição e confecção de recursos de tecnologia assistiva com objetivo de maximizar as habilidades funcionais destas pessoas e prover sua inclusão social. Os indivíduos com paralisia cerebral, muitas vezes, têm dificuldade para a manutenção da dinâmica corporal, principalmente na postura sentada. O objetivo deste estudo foi o de confeccionar uma cadeira e mesa escolar adaptadas com material de baixo custo e verificar sua eficácia no desempenho grafomotor de uma criança com paralisia cerebral. O participante foi uma criança com diagnóstico de paralisia cerebral diplégica, do gênero masculino. A coleta e registro dos dados foram feitos em três momentos, com a criança posicionada no mobiliário adaptado, no mobiliário escolar comum e novamente no mobiliário adaptado, para se estabelecer a comparação. A análise de dados se deu por meio de testes estatísticos não paramétricos. Não houve significância estatística e foi verificada uma inconstância nos dados apresentados, já que não se pode afirmar ao certo qual mobiliário foi mais eficaz na realização da atividade proposta e nem se houve aprendizado motor com a sua repetição. Esse fato não invalida a adequação de mobiliário escolar ao aluno com paralisia cerebral, visto que este é um fator importante para favorecer o controle e estabilidade postural ao individuo, o que interfere na coordenação motora fina destes indivíduos, influenciando no seu desempenho em atividades escolares. Palavras - chave: Educação especial. Tecnologia assistiva. Mobiliário escolar.

Impact and economic assessment of assistive technology in care homes in Norfolk, UK

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine whether new installed assistive technology (AT) systems in care homes for elderly residents, reduced the number of falls and demands for formal health services.Design/methodology/approachThe project collected retrospective data about incidence of falls before and after AT systems were installed from two care homes in the county of Norfolk, UK. Two care homes were selected purposefully because a recent assessment determined the need for upgrading their call system, but with different resident profiles regarding prevalence of dementia. The data were collected from standard incident report forms from ten months before the upgrades to ten months after in Care Home 1 and from six months before the upgrade to six months afterwards in Care Home 2.FindingsIn both care homes there were 314 falls reported during the course of the study. The number of falls overall reduced from 202 falls before the introduction of AT, to 112 after the introduction of AT. The mean health care costs associated with falls in Care Home 1 significantly reduced by more than 50 per cent (p=0.015). In Care Home 2 there was no statistically significant difference in the mean cost.Originality/valueResults showed that installed AT system in residential care homes reduced the number of falls and health care cost in homes with a lower proportion of residents with advanced dementia than those with a higher proportion of residents with advanced dementia. However, larger and more representative studies are required to demonstrate the economic and social impact of AT systems.

Age‐Related Disability and Bathroom Use

Age‐related disability in bathroom use is already a significant problem, and is destined to become even greater. Previous research has focused on how the person can be enabled to cope with the bathroom environment by functional training or introduction of assistive technologies. More recently attention has been drawn to the design of bathroom furniture. This article outlines the work undertaken to establish the views of the bathroom of older people and carers, and how involvement of older people as researchers has given strong direction, support and confidence in identification of issues in need of attention and in product development.

The impact on objective quality of life outcomes of assistive technology in residential services for people with learning disabilities

The UK government is committed to preventative technologies and increasingly they are being incorporated into residential services for people with learning disabilities. This paper describes an evaluation of a sample of settings in which various assistive technology (AT) devices have been installed following the assessment of individual residents' needs. The impact of this on residents' objective quality of life was assessed using a range of quantitative measures and through some qualitative questions. Despite some positive consequences of the AT being reported by staff in response to the qualitative items, there was no significant impact on any of the quantitative measures. In isolation, AT does not appear to be sufficient to significantly improve objective quality of life outcomes for people with learning disabilities in residential services. Equally, AT does not appear to reduce objective quality of life outcomes. The challenge to service providers is to ensure that the introduction of AT and any associated change to staffing levels or support procedures translates into improvements in residents' overall quality of life. To detect such improvements future research might have to broaden the range of quantitative methods used and supplement them with qualitative techniques.

Living at home with acquired cognitive impairment – Can assistive technology help?

This paper describes an ongoing project developing an innovative approach to the introduction of assistive technology to the homes of elderly people with acquired cognitive impairment in Sweden. The project is client driven with the key objective being to assist people to achieve quality of life and empowerment. The emphasis is on the processes involved and inter-agency co-operation which is shown to be of key importance. Preliminary findings are discussed and key issues for future research are identified, indicating that introduction of technology is an interdisciplinary issue.

Enabling Older People to Stay at Home: How Adaptable are Existing Properties?

A multiprofessional research project examined in detail the factors that affect the adaptability of existing housing and explored issues relating to the introduction of assistive technology into the existing homes of older people in order to provide them with the opportunity to ‘stay put’. The research reported here investigated the feasibility of adapting the existing stock of social housing and the resulting costs and outcomes of introducing assistive technology. This paper outlines that part of the project that examined in detail the adaptability of 82 properties representing a variety of property types to accommodate the needs of seven notional users, characterising the most common range of impairments of older people. The factors that affect a property's adaptability include property type and specific design and construction features. The implications for housing providers, clients and occupational therapists are discussed. The research identified the unique expertise of occupational therapists, spanning the areas of housing, older people and assistive technology, and it introduced methods and tools that can help to determine best housing outcomes as well as cost implications. It is crucial that the profession is proactive in contributing to the development of housing policies that address the needs of an ageing population effectively.