Platform For Empowerment Research Articles

Social Media Empowerment: Constructing Maternal Autonomy for New Generation Urban Mothers

With changes in social structures and cultural perceptions, urban new-generation mothers of children with autism face multiple challenges in their maternal practices, including traditional gender norms, economic burdens, and constraints of the healthcare system. From both structural and post-structural perspectives, this study employs netnography to analyze the interactions of mothers on Xiaohongshu and WeChat communities. The findings reveal that under the dual pressures of traditional gender roles and various social structures, these mothers gain significant informational and emotional support through social media. This empowerment enhances their informed decision-making and choices, alleviates feelings of isolation and anxiety in the parenting process, and promotes personalized and diverse expressions of motherhood. Social media functions not only as a support tool but also as an empowerment platform, helping mothers find autonomy and self-expression within societal structures.

Designing a System to Empower Startup Businesses for Evaluating Digital Health Products

Introduction: Given the emergence of startup businesses in digital health and the importance of their products for human well-being, there is a critical need for consistent and continuous evaluation of these products. Therefore, producing high-quality and standard products in the health sector helps maintain the competitive market both nationally and internationally. Due to the lack of an evidence-based system that provides comprehensive educational information and an empowerment platform in health fields, this study aimed to design a system for empowering startup businesses to evaluate digital health products.Material and Methods: This study was conducted in three phases: 1) descriptive, 2) development, and 3) evaluation. In the first phase, data elements and functional and non-functional requirements were identified through a literature review and validation by experts. In the second phase, the system was developed using SQL Server 2019, C# language, and an interface was created using ASP.NET Core in Visual Studio 2022, along with programming languages HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, and Java to design a database. In the evaluation phase, the designed system was assessed based on Nielsen’s questionnaire and usability indicators.Results: Twenty functional and eleven non-functional components were identified for the design of the system, which were confirmed by related experts. The system comprises main modules, including educational resources, empowerment, a network of startups, a discussion forum, experiences, and a library for evaluating digital health products. In the empowerment section, the modules of consultation, webinars, coaching programs, tools, indicators, and evaluation frameworks were developed and implemented. The highest average severity of issues was related to the error prevention section rather than reminders, while the lowest average severity of issues was associated with the consistency and standards principle.Conclusion: The design of empowerment systems in startup businesses can provide a suitable platform for enhancing evidence-based evaluation for their companies.

Innovation and Exploration of Human Resource Management in Pharmaceutical Enterprises of the 21st Century

Purpose - The 21st century marks an era of rapid advancements in digitization, informatization and globalization. Amidst a fast-evolving market economy, the lag in Human Resource Management (HRM) within pharmaceutical companies significantly hampers corporate growth. The primary objective of this paper is to explore the issue of HRM lag.
 Design/Methodology/Approach - Grounded in corporate management theory, this paper conducts a literature review coupled with HRM theory, taking a particular pharmaceutical company as a case study. It identifies six major issues present in pharmaceutical HRM: unclear functional positioning of the HRM department, insufficient staffing in the HR department, be short of effective talent cultivation mechanisms, incomplete salary management system, outdated performance incentive policies, and absence of modern information technology platform support. Therefore, six recommendations are proposed.
 Findings - Engaging professional HRM consultants for HR transformation, redefining the HR department’s functions, enhancing the professionalism of HR practitioners, establishing competitive salary and incentive mechanisms, advancing the application of modern information technology, and developing modern talent management models are innovations that can significantly bolster the comprehensive management capability of the enterprise.
 Research Implications - This study contributes to elevating the strategic positioning and management capability of the HR department, playing a pivotal role in shaping a high-value talent empowerment platform. It also provides a foundation for subsequent research by other scholars in this field.

Actioning usability study findings in the development of the ADLIFE integrated care digital tools.

Introduction: The ADLIFE project aims to improve the quality of life of older people with advanced chronic diseases by providing integrated intelligent personalised care via a digitally enabled holistic and integrated supportive care ICT Toolbox. The two interlinked user-facing tools are firstly, a Personalised Care Plan Management Platform (PCPMP) used by healthcare professionals; and secondly, a Patient Empowerment Platform (PEP) that patients and their informal caregivers use to promote patient self-management. 
 The impact of the ADLIFE digital tools will be explored in a 12-month pilot study conducted across 7 clinical sites in 6 countries to evaluate their impact on a range of health-related, implementation and socio-economic outcomes.
 The development of digital tools needs to be done in continuous collaboration with target end-users. Feedback from prototype testing with typical user scenarios is crucial to identify any remaining issues to resolve ahead of the deployment of such tools. We present the findings from a pre-deployment usability study conducted on the ADLIFE Toolbox.
 Methods: Pilot sites recruited 3-5 participants for their feedback on the PCPMP and PEP tools. Usability data was collected using a standardised Questionnaire for User Interface Satisfaction (QUIS), administered online, following a training workshop and testing by the participants. One site collected feedback via a Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) approach for the PEP tool as an option for the activity timeline. The questionnaire responses were analysed to identify the key areas of improvement. The analysis includes a standard scoring system giving an indication of users’ satisfaction with each facet of interest. These scores identify specific features of the ADLIFE tools that have lower usability scores, allowing useful improvements to be made before deployment in the main ADLIFE pilot study. Additional free text comments are used to complement the QUIS scores and provide greater depth of understanding around specific usability issues. PPI responses were analysed separately as the group did not test the tool directly.
 Results: 13 responses were received for PCPMP and 18 for PEP. Overall, the study participants (excluding 10 PPI participants) scored both tools above average, with scores over 66% on average in all questionnaire categories (scores of over 6 out of 9, average score on this scale is 4.5). Some areas of usability scored lower, such as task progression and highlighting where input is required. Together with comments elaborating on scores given, those areas are being assessed further for prioritising updates to the tools and also to be considered in the study planning, such as training materials and communication channels. The PPI feedback provided insight into how ADLIFE tools can fit within the wider context of healthcare and technology. 
 Conclusions: The usability studies have provided an opportunity to get feedback from participants similar to the ADLIFE study participants and make improvements to the ADLIFE tools, training and communication ahead of the pilot study start.
 Acknowledgements: ADLIFE has received funding from the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 875209. The authors thank all partners within ADLIFE for their cooperation and valuable contribution.

Model Pendistribusian Dana Zakat Infak Sedekah (Zis) Dalam Pemberdayaan Masyarakat Di Balai Kreatif Laz-da Rizki Jember

The distribution of zakat funds comprises both consumptive and productive zakat in addition to the former. The Lamiga (Family Nutrition Pond) and Seel For Charity projects are examples of effective zakat. Utilizing zakat is a way to make the most of it without diminishing its worth or utility, making it effective for achieving social good. The infaq and alms funds itself are distributed through the Creative Center's community empowerment program. The Creative Center, also known as bakre, is a platform for empowerment that supports the development of a sense of community, character, independence, and responsibility that influences the transformation of the country. There are 15 bakre now dispersed throughout Jember Regency. With the help of this creative hub, the locals will feel more empowered, independent, and creative, which will raise their standard of living. At this bakre, there are various activities, including Roda (empowering potential), Tasya (planting family vegetables), Tasjali (collecting used items and protecting the environment), Supermas (supporting the prosperity of the mosque), Mas Rangga (packing baskets for families), and Dasat (health conscious).

Pelatihan Dan Pedampingan Pembuatan Pupuk Kompos BumDes Manik Mandiri Desa Gunungmanik

Background: BUMDes is a rural economic empowerment platform that cultivates various village potentials. Under the coordination of BUMDes, it is expected that all economic empowerment will be carried out following the needs of rural communities to increase the economy and income of the community and village. This mentoring activity aims to enable farmers to utilize cow dung in compost as organic fertilizer for agricultural commodity crops in Gunungmanik Village. Method: The exercises provided are counseling and assistance in making compost. The target of this activity is members of BumDes Manik Mandiri Desa Gunungmanik. Results: The activities carried out are as follows: 1) Giving presentations and discussing with the participants, 2) Conduct field practice of making compost. The action will be held on Friday and Saturday, September 25-26, 2021, at 10.00 - 16.00 WIB. Conclusion: The benefits of this PPM activity are that participants know and understand how to make and use compost and make plans to make compost as a BUMDES business unit.

A New Paradigm on Language Imperialism: Student-Teachers Voice on English Language Learning

Background: 
 The current language policy in Indonesia removed English language programs from the elementary school curricula for fear of constraining children’s first language ability. Many are worried about the impact of the policy. Such policy sparks a debate among scholars and educators. The policy results in worry among those who believe in the importance of learning English, such as parents and English teachers.
 Methodology: 
 The current study aims to investigate the English student teachers’ belief in the notion of Language Imperialism (LI). Using the descriptive qualitative method, the data were taken from six of the student-teachers interview.
 Findings: 
 The current research shows that English is not part of imperialism, but rather a form of empowerment and that their future job as an English teacher is not to promote the language but as a way to help their future students in facing a more globalized and competitive world.
 Conclusion: 
 In the context of English language learning student-teachers see their profession as a platform for empowerment for future generations. They believe that teaching English as a way to promote local cultures and languages to the outside world by using local content in the classroom, contrary to the popular belief that English dominates local languages
 Originality: 
 The concept of language imperialism recognizes as colonialism. Little attention is given to the perception of student-teachers as a future generation in criticizing the government policy for better feedback. The positive views found, hopefully, will give fruitful decision for the government.

Exploration and Analysis of Collaborative Matching Algorithm Empowering Large Data Fiscal Budget

At present, many budget companies have realized high-level computerized accounting and have high-speed and advanced database management systems. In order to adapt to the growth of budget entity informatization, the financial department must improve its own financial budget level. Introduce information technology, and develop corresponding financial budget software to better perform its own financial calculation function. This paper explores and analyzes the full collaborative matching algorithm of enabling big data financial budget and builds a financial big data financial budget platform through offline and online data collection. Combined with the matching algorithm and linear regression prediction algorithm in data analysis, the financial data is analyzed in depth. Finally, the PSO-SA algorithm runs 10 rounds on the datasets with matching scales d = 10 and 30, respectively. It is found that the fluctuation is large when d = 10 and relatively stable when d = 30 . When d = 10 , the maximum value is 7.2354, and the minimum value is 6.9969. When d = 10 , the maximum value is 26.6403, and the minimum value is 23.9599. It can be concluded that when d = 0 , PSO-SA can obtain a relatively good matching scheme, but it is easy to fall into a local optimal solution. The superposition effect of “data + computing power + algorithm + scenario” can help enterprises make better decisions. Embed complex analysis into daily management and trading scenarios to build a financial empowerment platform. Make the increasingly complex work more automated and intelligent, and improve financial efficiency.

Photovoice as a platform for empowerment of women with disability

Photovoice is documented as an inclusive and empowering research method that amplifies the voice of marginalised groups. However, in feminist photovoice projects with women, many studies make claims about empowerment, but the claims are seldom evaluated or evidenced. Our photovoice research focused on identity and inclusion of women with physical disability. In this paper, we pose the question: how do the women describe or illustrate personal meanings and examples of empowerment that occurred through the project? Photographs, words, discussions and interviews were thematically analysed through Kieffer’s three dimensions of empowerment framework. We determined that photovoice provides a process and a platform to increase self-awareness, consciousness of shared experiences and agency to act. Photovoice creates a space for photographers to exercise power, shape images and convey ideas about their lived experiences. Their photographs, words and actions add knowledge that can inform and influence social change in the community, including disability practice, research and health promotion.

Interoperability Architecture of the ADLIFE Patient Empowerment Platform.

Chronic diseases introduce challenges for the patients to manage the changing requirements of the disease. Patient empowerment activities are a critical component to assist patients in their long-term care journey. In order to be effective, patient empowerment tools need to be well-integrated with the chronic disease management tools used at the clinical sites. This paper explores and analyzes the exploitation of HL7 FHIR to design and implement an interoperable patient empowerment platform that can be seamlessly integrated with external chronic disease management and Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems.

10 STARTUPS TO WATCH 2021: Early-stage companies advance precision medicine by applying AI, clinical genomics, and other new technologies

10 STARTUPS TO WATCH 2021: Early-stage companies advance precision medicine by applying AI, clinical genomics, and other new technologies

Assessing socio-economic profile of U-Reporters: Towards establishing a pool for equity analysis of future crowdsourced surveys.

BackgroundCrowdsourcing was recognized as having the potential to collect information rapidly, inexpensively and accurately. U-Report is a mobile empowerment platform that connects young people all over the world to information that will change their lives and influence decisions. Previous studies of U-Report’s effectiveness highlight strengths in the timeliness, low cost and high credibility for collecting and sending information, however they also highlight areas to improve on concerning data representation. EquityTool has developed a simpler approach to assess the wealth quintiles of respondents based on fewer questions derived from large household surveys such as Multiple Indicators Cluster Surveys (MICS) and Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS).MethodsThe methodology of Equity Tool was adopted to assess the socio-economic profile of U-Reporters (ie, enrolled participants of U-Report) in Bangladesh. The RapidPro flow collected the survey responses and scored them against the DHS national wealth index using the EquityTool methodology. This helped placing each U-Reporter who completed all questions into the appropriate wealth quintile.ResultsWith 19% of the respondents completing all questions, the respondents fell into all 5 wealth quintiles, with 79% in the top-two quintiles and only 21% in the lower-three resulting in an Equity Index of 53/100 where 100 is completely in line with Bangladesh equity distribution and 1 is the least in line. An equitable random sample of 1828 U-Reporters from among the regular and frequent respondents was subsequently created for future surveys and the sample has an Equity Index of 98/100.ConclusionsU-Report in Bangladesh does reach the poorest quintiles while the initial recruitment skews to respondents towards better off families. It is possible to create an equitable random sub-sample of respondents from all five wealth quintiles and thus process information and data for future surveys. Moving forward, U-Reporters from the poorly represented quintiles may be incentivized to recruit peers to increase equity and representation. In times of COVID-19, U-Report in combination with the EquityTool has the potential to enhance the quality of crowdsourced data for statistical analysis.

The Role of ICT in Intergenerational Learning between Immigrant Youth and Non-related Older Adults: Experiences from Sweden

ABSTRACT This paper seeks to extend discussion on ICT and intergenerational learning by examining the experiences of unrelated older adults and immigrant youths participating in the community-based “ICT Guides” project in Gothenburg, Sweden. I claim that ICT-supported learning between unrelated older adults and immigrant youths eliminates intergenerational and cultural distances and supports functional intergenerational solidarity. It is also a significant platform for empowerment and reciprocal learning. ICT within intergenerational learning facilitates better interaction and understanding between older adults and immigrant youths, despite language difficulties and different cultural backgrounds, changing it from a catalyst and for intergenerational learning to a means of facilitating intercultural support.

Patient empowerment for cancer patients through a novel ICT infrastructure.

As a result of recent advances in cancer research and "precision medicine" approaches, i.e. the idea of treating each patient with the right drug at the right time, more and more cancer patients are being cured, or might have to cope with a life with cancer. For many people, cancer survival today means living with a complex and chronic condition. Surviving and living with or beyond cancer requires the long-term management of the disease, leading to a significant need for active rehabilitation of the patients. In this paper, we present a novel methodology employed in the iManageCancer project for cancer patient empowerment in which personal health systems, serious games, psychoemotional monitoring and other novel decision-support tools are combined into an integrated patient empowerment platform. We present in detail the ICT infrastructure developed and our evaluation with the involvement of cancer patients on two sites, a large-scale pilot for adults and a small-scale test for children. The evaluation showed mixed evidences on the improvement of patient empowerment, while ability to cope with cancer, including improvement in mood and resilience to cancer, increased for the participants of the adults' pilot.

Interactive Web Platform for EmPOWERment in Early Multiple Sclerosis

Interactive Web Platform for EmPOWERment in Early Multiple Sclerosis

Management of personalised guideline-driven care plans addressing the needs of multi-morbidity via clinical decision support services

Introduction: The clinical management of patients suffering from multiple chronic conditions is very complex, disconnected and time-consuming with the traditional care settings. C3-Cloud project aims to build an integrated care platform for addressing the growing demand for improved health outcomes of multimorbid and long-term care patients. Theory/Methods: C3-Cloud has established an ICT infrastructure enabling continuous coordination of patient-centred care activities by a multidisciplinary care team MDT and patients/informal care givers. The Coordinated Care and Cure Delivery Platform C3DP allows, collaborative creation and execution of personalised care plans for multi-morbid patients through systematic and semi-automatic reconciliation of clinical guidelines. Clinical decision support CDS systems implementing flowcharts from evidence based clinical guidelines are integrated to present suggestions for treatment goal and activities e.g. medications, follow-up appointments, diet, exercise, lab tests. Pilot site local care systems are integrated with the C3DP via the technical and semantic interoperability platform to facilitate informed decision making. Active patient involvement is realized through a Patient Empowerment Platform presenting personalized care plan to the patient and establishing a continuous bi-way communication with the patient to collect patient observations, questionnaire responses, symptoms and feedback about care plan goals and activities. Results: The following research results have been achieved to enable guideline enabled personalised care plan management for addressing the needs of multi-morbidity: 43 logical flowcharts were designed out of 4 disease guidelines Type 2 Diabetes, Heart Failure, Renal Failure and Depression. 181 CDS rules assessing 166 patient criteria and recommending 154 goal/activity suggestions were implemented as CDS services in GDL covering T2D and RF. 52 reconciliation rules were designed for eliminating contradicting guideline recommendations due to multi-morbidity. 23 HL7 FHIR profiles were defined for representing care plan and patient data. C3DP has been integrated with these CDS services via CDS-Hooks specification to recommend personalised care plan goals and activities. Discussions: In this research, we have successfully implemented an ICT infrastructure enabling guideline-driven integrated care for multi-morbid patients. Although our ICT solution covers all the technical requirements identified by clinical partners, effective implementation of integrated care in real-life care setting requires major changes in organisational responsibilities and care pathways. Conclusions: User-centred design and usability testing have successfully been completed. C3-Cloud pilot application will now be operated in 3 European pilot sites with the participation of 62 MDT members and 1200 multi-morbid patients for 15 months. Lessons learned: There are two main research lines for reconciliation of contradicting guideline recommendations: 1 fully-automated reconciliation via ontology reasoning, 2 manually-crafted reconciliation rules by clinical expert groups. Although first approach is more dynamic, research results are still for very primitive cases and not clinically validated. As we are targeting an industry-ready solution after piloting in real-life settings, we have opted for the second option. Limitations: When a new chronic disease is to be addressed within our platform, reconciliation rules covering all disease combinations have to be re-assessed by the clinical expert group. Suggestions for future research: Fully-automated reconciliation approaches need to be further studied and validated in real-life settings.

A Controlled Pilot Trial of PainTracker Self-Manager, a Web-Based Platform Combined With Patient Coaching, to Support Patients' Self-Management of Chronic Pain

The objective of this study was to develop and pilot test a chronic pain empowerment and self-management platform, derived from acceptance and commitment therapy, in a pain specialty setting. A controlled, sequential, nonrandomized study design was used to accommodate intervention development and to test the efficacy of the PainTracker Self-Manager (PTSM) intervention (Web-based educational modules and outcome tracking combined with tailored patient coaching sessions and provider guidance). Generalized estimating equations evaluated changes over time (baseline, 3 months, 6 months) in pain self-efficacy (primary outcome), chronic pain acceptance (activity engagement and pain willingness), perceived efficacy in patient–provider interactions, pain intensity and interference, and overall satisfaction with pain treatment (secondary outcomes) between intervention (n = 48) and usual care control groups (n = 51). The full study sample (N = 99) showed greater improvements over time (significant Group × Time interactions) in pain self-efficacy and satisfaction with pain treatment. Among study completers (n = 82), greater improvement in activity engagement as well as pain intensity and interference were also observed. These preliminary findings support the efficacy of the PTSM intervention in a pain specialty setting. Further research is needed to refine and expand the PTSM intervention and to test it in a randomized trial in primary care settings. PerspectiveWe developed a Web-based patient empowerment platform that combined acceptance and commitment therapy-based educational modules and tailored coaching sessions with longitudinal tracking of treatments and patient-reported outcomes, named PTSM. Pilot controlled trial results provide preliminary support for its efficacy in improving pain self-efficacy, activity engagement, pain intensity and interference, and satisfaction with pain treatment.

A federated collaborative care cure cloud architecture for addressing the needs of multi-morbidity and managing poly-pharmacy (c3-cloud project)

A federated collaborative care cure cloud architecture for addressing the needs of multi-morbidity and managing poly-pharmacy (c3-cloud project)

Improbable frequency? Advocating queer–feminist pedagogic alliances within Irish and European higher education contexts

Heterosexist ideology underpins education policy and practice almost universally. It has the effect of rendering invisible and disrespecting practitioners and students of other sexual and non-gender conforming identities. Much explicitly queer work has challenged this normalising and frequently oppressive higher education terrain. To maximise this queer potential this article proposes re-positioning queer within and through a practice and pedagogy of feminism. The broad-based identity politics of feminism and the anti-identitarian politic of queer may appear a slightly improbable alliance. The article argues, however, that intersectional approaches which reinforce queer integrity, challenge oppressive social norms and simultaneously re-emphasise the importance of the political through an identity politics heavily influenced by feminism, are not just possible but necessary. In seeking to explore what unites feminism and queer educationally, the article makes three observations relating to history, pedagogy and activism. It references two particular LGTBQ Irish and European educational programmes, which it argues highlight this sense of the probable in terms of queer–feminist educational alliances. Such alliances can continue to challenge in material ways sustained educational constructions of heterosexuality as normal, natural and moral and in so doing provide a platform for empowerment and change.

Addressing drug-drug and drug-food interactions through personalized empowerment services for healthcare.

Personalized healthcare systems support the provision of timely and appropriate information regarding healthcare options and treatment alternatives. Especially for patients that receive multi-drug treatments a key issue is the minimization of the risk of adverse effects due to drug-drug interactions (DDIs). DDIs may be the result of doctor prescribed drugs but also due to self-medication of conventional drugs, alternative medicines, food habits, alcohol or smoking. It is therefore crucial for personalized health systems, apart from assisting physicians for optimal prescription practices, to also provide appropriate information for individual users for drug-drug interactions or similar information regarding risks for modulation of the ensuing treatment. In this manuscript we describe a DDI service including drug-food, drug-herb and other lifestyle-related factors, developed in the context of a personalized patient empowerment platform. The solution enables guidance to patients for their medication on how to reduce the risk of unwanted drug interactions and side effects in a seamless and transparent way. We present and analyze the implemented services and provide examples on using an alerting service to identify potential DDIs in two different chronic diseases, congestive heart failure and osteoarthritis.