Privacy Of Residents Research Articles

AAL for independent aging: Practical guidelines for smart living environment development

Abstract Background Active Assisted Living (AAL) refers to the use of IoT devices to support quality of life, independence, and healthier living for care recipients. AAL-enabled smart homes have particular potential to help older adults reach their health and independent living goals, but there is a dearth of guidance on practical implementation. Additionally, different technology companies have each developed their own practices, leading to confusion and inconsistency. The objective of this work is to explore requirements for use of AAL in smart living environments for older adults, providing suggestions for best practice for AAL use considering their unique circumstances. Methods A review of academic and grey literature was performed to identify existing best practices and gaps for development of AAL-enabled environments. A technology review was also performed on 156 unique devices to understand the AAL tech ecosystem. Results Little guidance exists regarding designing smart living environments for older adults, though it exists for the two elements separately. The distinguishing elements are how AAL may connect the older adult to their care network, how the home may accommodate changing health needs, and older adults’ unique vulnerability. Furthermore, a large issue is a lack of interoperability and communication, which must be addressed in order to make AAL systems as low-effort and aligned with older adults’ preferences as possible. Conclusions As both tech and older adults’ needs evolve, key requirements of AAL-enabled smart living environments are robust data sharing pathways, planning for modifiability, and protecting the privacy of residents. The findings of this work will be used to identify opportunities for AAL standards development. Key messages • AAL-enabled smart homes must be able to accommodate an older adults’ shifting care needs and preferences over time. • It is necessary to establish how AAL smart home data may be shared with and used by care partners and providers.

Creating a softening cultural-landscape to enhance tourist experiencescapes: The case of Lu Village

Tourist destination management involves many resources, including local culture and landscape but rarely are both considered together. To address this deficiency this study focused on the visual softening of a Chinese traditional village to enhance visitor experiences by planting vegetation consistent with cultural and heritage principles. It does so by using empirical data from the case study site of Lu Village in China. The study is directed toward explaining how a fusion of nature possessing cultural values might visually improve a village destination to make it more attractive for tourists. It represents a little explored aspect of the policy of “cultural consumption” currently espoused by the Chinese authorities, yet one that is low cost for Chinese villages. However, application of the policy requires planning of routes, locations, and messaging to provide information for tourists and maintain privacy for residents. The required consultative process may enhance senses of village cohesion.

Urban Chaos: A descriptive study of functional overlap using the city of Babylon (Medhatiya) as a model

Due to the negatives resulting from functional overlap, which caused the detection of urban problems in residential environments and the increasing alerts regarding their contribution to the exacerbation of crowding, chaos, noise, and stressed infrastructure, the necessity of confronting these negatives necessitated that specialist in the field of urban design, including engineers and researchers, have a role in reviewing design concepts and strategies. The precedent related to functional overlap and evaluating the effectiveness of the design of current residential environments, as well as creating and developing more effective design and planning ideas that guarantee the provision of lively and safe environments that achieve satisfaction for residents through the diversity and harmony of functions and their proximity to each other, The research adopted an inductive approach to the knowledge presented in previous literature related to the subject of the research, as it represents an approach The research first builds a cognitive framework and then builds a comprehensive theoretical framework for indicators of chaos Which linked it to the topic of positive and negative functional interference, and the research achieved its own goals by applying the vocabulary of the theoretical framework to a sample elected within the Babylon Governorate with the aim of testing the validity of its hypothetical perceptions and evaluating its actual reality, as the results showed the validity of the hypotheses, as well as determining the levels of evaluation of the elected sample and diagnosing the extent of urban problems. In it, some proposed realistic solutions are presented that suit current requirements and contribute to increasing the effectiveness of the positive chaos of functional overlap by achieving urban vitality. One of the most important findings of the research is that the cause of the negative chaos resulting from the overlap of functions is not related to the essence of functional diversity but rather is related to the manner in which it is achieved. Placing it within the area or street, and vitality is the main indicator of positive chaos within residential environments, which, once achieved, will lead to reducing negative returns on the environment as a result of revitalizing and protecting places and enhancing functional diversity within places with high accessibility, taking into account the privacy of residents within places designated for use. Residential jobs by excluding opposition jobs such as (industrial or service jobs).

COMPARING COVID-19 CASES AND MORTALITY RATES: THE GREEN HOUSE VERSUS THE TRADITIONAL NURSING HOME IN THE UNITED STATES

Abstract Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has posed significant challenges to nursing home (NH) care. However, Green Houses (GH), with their small size and unique care model, may offer a solution for infection control and COVID-19 prevention. This study aims to compare COVID-19 case and mortality rates between GHs and traditional NHs in the United States. Methods Secondary data were used to compare COVID-19 case and mortality rates among three groups: GHs (n=19), traditional small NHs (n=266), and traditional large NHs (n=2932) located in 10 US states from June 2020 to September 2022. Poisson regressions using generalized estimating equations (GEE) were utilized to quantify differences in COVID-19 case and mortality rates while controlling for average age, gender, and ADL score. Results The study population had a mean age of 73.38 and was primarily female (57.8%) and white (78.2%). The GEE results indicated that small and large NHs have significantly higher relative risks (RR) of COVID-19 cases (RR = 1.61; 95% CI 1.25-2.08 and RR = 1.75; 95% CI 1.36-2.24, respectively) compared to GHs. For COVID-19 mortality rates, there is an increased risk in large NHs compared to GHs (RR = 1.67; 95% CI 1.01-2.77), but no difference between GHs and small NHs. Conclusion After adjusting for age, gender, and ADL disability, GHs have lower COVID-19 incidence and mortality rates than traditional NHs. These differences may be attributable to GHs having fewer beds, offering more resident privacy, and having a higher certified nursing assistant-to-resident ratio compared to traditional NHs.

A Study on Sense of Community: Case Example of Public Housing Project, Bengaluru, India

Background:In the realm of collective public housing, certain societal segments currently favor low-rise residential blocks due to their affordability and lower number of dwelling units per block, thus affording increased privacy for residents. However, the concept of associating residents’ benefits with social relationships has yet to garner sufficient attention.Objective:This article seeks to understand and examine the impact of public housing on the sense of community (SOC) within a public housing community.Methods:The study was conducted at the Bangalore Development Authority Jnanabharathi Residential Enclave in Kengeri, Bengaluru, Karnataka. This understanding was attained through a comprehensive review of existing literature and an on-site evaluation carried out using questionnaire surveys and photographs for visual interpretations.Findings:The results indicated a relatively deficient sense of ownership within the community. Homeowners exhibited higher levels of community involvement and engagement in various activities compared with tenants.Conclusions:Furthermore, the study recommends that public authorities reevaluate their perspectives on public housing developments and develop a policy-oriented approach for planning, design, and additional amenities to foster a stronger SOC belonging.

Privacy-preserving demand response of aggregated residential load

The randomness, dispersion, and small capacity of residential load make it difficult to participate in incentive-based demand response. Meanwhile, the rapid development of Internet of things makes it possible to sense and regulate power-consuming behavior of most residents. Load aggregator (LA) has become a feasible scheme as an intermediate form in this situation. It improves the bargaining power of residential load in the market, making it change from price-taker to price-maker, to obtain more profit. However, privacy disclosure is the primary concern when residents directly communicate with LA. A distributed demand response (DR) approach for aggregated residential load is proposed to maximize the benefit of LA while preserving the privacy of residents. Based on a mixed-integer model, a two-layer framework between LA and residents is developed to solve the model above based on the sharing alternating direction method of multipliers. The privacy of residents is preserved by interacting insensitive information between the two layers. The proposed approach is deployed and tested in a real-world residential building with 27 apartments. The results demonstrate that this scheme can realize effective participation of large scale residential load in incentive-based DR on the premise of preserving privacy, which verifies the feasibility and effectiveness of the scheme.

Privacy, the Housing Research Unit at the University of Edinburgh and the Courtyard House, 1959–70

ABSTRACTWith a focus on post-war Britain (and Scotland in particular), this article contributes to the literature on the history of ’community’ by examining its apparent inverse, namely privacy. In particular, it explores the interest that emerged in 1960s Britain in a type of housing that was considered to provide enhanced privacy for residents — the courtyard house. The article begins by looking at the ways in which privacy was considered in official documentation on homes and housing in the post-war period in both England and Wales, and Scotland. It then turns to the work of the University of Edinburgh’s Housing Research Unit in the 1960s, which included not just the design and construction of housing schemes, but also social investigation of the built results. The article examines the ’urban’ housing designed in Cumbernauld and the ’rural’ counterpart in Prestonpans, both of which were intended to provide enhanced privacy for residents. It then looks at the unit’s evaluation of the completed courtyard housing built at Prestonpans as well as another survey undertaken in Dundee, both of which explored the residents’ experience of privacy. Overall, the article argues that the idea of privacy, as understood by designers and experienced by residents, played an important role in post-war housing, as part of the ambition not just to improve standards, but also to provide new choices.

The Development of the New Urbanism Theory and Reflections on its Application at Florida’s Seaside

This article reviews the background, preparation, development and birth stage, and the main content and framework of the new urbanism theory, then understands new urbanism from a historical perspective and then discusses how the seaside project in Florida developed a smalltown community with a strong community atmosphere and a beautiful environment, guided by the theory of New Urbanism. This is followed by an in-depth analysis of the high construction and maintenance costs of New Urbanism in practice, the impact on the privacy of residents’ lives, the relative reduction of community ties, and other problems, and finally, it gives opinions on the sustainable development of the New Urbanism theory in the future.

Multi-agent System for Management of Data from Electrical Smart Meters

The smart meter can process sensor data in a residential grid. These sensors transmit different parameters or measurement data (index, power, temperature, fluctuation of voltage and electricity, etc.) to the smart meter. All of these measurement data can come in different ways at the smart meter. The sensors transmit each measurement data to the smart meter. In addition, the collection of this data to a central system is a significant concern to ensure data integrity and protect the privacy of residents. The complexity of these data management also lies in their volume, frequency, and scheduling. This work presents a scheduling and a collection mechanism in private power consumption data between both sensors and smart meters on one hand and between smart meters and the central data collection system on other hand. We have found several approaches to intelligent meter data management in scientific researches. We propose another approach in response to this concern for the scheduling and collection of measurement data to a central system from residential areas of sensors’ network connected to smart meters. This work is also an example of a link between data collection and data scheduling in intelligent information management,ransmission, and protection. We also propose a modeling of the measurement objects of smart grid and highlight the changes made to these objects throughout the process of data processing. It should be noted that this smart grid system consists of three main active systems namely sensors, smart meters and central system. In addition to these three systems, there are other systems that communicate with the smart meters and the central system. We have identified three implementation models for the smart metering system. We also present an intelligent architecture based on multi-agent systems for the smart grid. Most current electricity management systems are not adapted to the new challenges imposed by social and economic development in Africa. The objectives of this study are to initiate the design of a smart grid system for the management of electricity data.

Factors Affecting the Implementation, Use, and Adoption of Real-Time Location System Technology for Persons Living With Cognitive Disabilities in Long-term Care Homes: Systematic Review.

BackgroundAs the aging population continues to grow, the number of adults living with dementia or other cognitive disabilities in residential long-term care homes is expected to increase. Technologies such as real-time locating systems (RTLS) are being investigated for their potential to improve the health and safety of residents and the quality of care and efficiency of long-term care facilities.ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to identify factors that affect the implementation, adoption, and use of RTLS for use with persons living with dementia or other cognitive disabilities in long-term care homes.MethodsWe conducted a systematic review of the peer-reviewed English language literature indexed in MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, and CINAHL from inception up to and including May 5, 2020. Search strategies included keywords and subject headings related to cognitive disability, residential long-term care settings, and RTLS. Study characteristics, methodologies, and data were extracted and analyzed using constant comparative techniques.ResultsA total of 12 publications were included in the review. Most studies were conducted in the Netherlands (7/12, 58%) and used a descriptive qualitative study design. We identified 3 themes from our analysis of the studies: barriers to implementation, enablers of implementation, and agency and context. Barriers to implementation included lack of motivation for engagement; technology ecosystem and infrastructure challenges; and myths, stories, and shared understanding. Enablers of implementation included understanding local workflows, policies, and technologies; usability and user-centered design; communication with providers; and establishing policies, frameworks, governance, and evaluation. Agency and context were examined from the perspective of residents, family members, care providers, and the long-term care organizations.ConclusionsThere is a striking lack of evidence to justify the use of RTLS to improve the lives of residents and care providers in long-term care settings. More research related to RTLS use with cognitively impaired residents is required; this research should include longitudinal evaluation of end-to-end implementations that are developed using scientific theory and rigorous analysis of the functionality, efficiency, and effectiveness of these systems. Future research is required on the ethics of monitoring residents using RTLS and its impact on the privacy of residents and health care workers.

Honesty Is the Best Policy

Honesty Is the Best Policy

IFed: A novel federated learning framework for local differential privacy in Power Internet of Things

Nowadays, wireless sensor network technology is being increasingly popular which is applied to a wide range of Internet of Things. Especially, Power Internet of Things is an important and rapidly growing section in Internet of Thing systems, which benefited from the application of wireless sensor networks to achieve fine-grained information collection. Meanwhile, the privacy risk is gradually exposed, which is the widespread concern for electricity power consumers. Non-intrusive load monitoring, in particular, is a technique to recover state of appliances from only the energy consumption data, which enables adversary inferring the behavior privacy of residents. There can be no doubt that applying local differential privacy to achieve privacy preserving in the local setting is more trustworthy than centralized approach for electricity customers. Although it is hard to control the risk and achieve the trade-off between privacy and utility by traditional local differential privacy obfuscation mechanisms, some existing obfuscation mechanisms based on artificial intelligence, called advanced obfuscation mechanisms, can achieve it. However, the large computing resource consumption to train the machine learning model is not affordable for most Power Internet of Thing terminal. In this article, to solve this problem, IFed was proposed—a novel federated learning framework that let electric provider who normally is adequate in computing resources to help Power Internet of Thing users. First, the optimized framework was proposed in which the trade-off between local differential privacy, data utility, and resource consumption was incorporated. Concurrently, the following problem of privacy preserving on the machine learning model transport between electricity provider and customers was noted and resolved. Last, users were categorized based on different levels of privacy requirements, and stronger privacy guarantee was provided for sensitive users. The formal local differential privacy analysis and the experiments demonstrated that IFed can fulfill the privacy requirements for Power Internet of Thing users.

EVERYDAY ETHICS AND THE UNSEEN MORAL LANDSCAPE OF ASSISTED LIVING

Assisted living (AL) communities are increasingly popular long-term care settings where people live, work and visit, and where social relationships and care, including end-of-life care, are negotiated. In the context of daily life, residents, their family members and friends, AL care workers and other staff, external care providers, and volunteers, continually encounter one another and make choices about a range of matters. AL is fraught with uncertainty and conflict about values, especially given residents’ cognitive and physical frailty. These value-laden issues have important implications for both resident and care partners’ quality of life. Yet, almost no research has examined ethics in this dynamic and complex care environment. We seek to address this important knowledge gap by examining AL through an ethical lens. Drawing on our research and practice experiences, we present a conceptual model that situates everyday ethics within multiple multi-levels of moral decision-making factors and systems involving individuals, the care setting and surrounding community, social norms, and the broader regulatory context. We provide an overview of AL’s moral landscape and present examples of three everyday ethical issues. We first examine informed consent as it pertains to sexual encounters involving residents with dementia. Next, we consider boundary and role issues inherent in care process and relationships. Finally, we discuss resident privacy as an area for value uncertainty in everyday life within AL. We conclude by emphasizing the need for in-depth and systematic identification of ethical issues in AL and development of management strategies for applied practice.

Conducting Clinical Research in Post-acute and Long-term Nursing Home Care Settings: Regulatory Challenges

Despite multiple initiatives in post-acute and long-term nursing home care settings (NHs) to improve the quality of care while reducing health care costs, research in NHs can prove challenging. Extensive regulation for both research and NHs is designed to protect a highly vulnerable population but can be a deterrent to conducting research. This article outlines regulatory challenges faced by NHs and researchers, such as protecting resident privacy as well as health information and obtaining informed consent. The article provides lessons learned to help form mutually beneficial partnerships between researchers and NHs to conduct studies that grow and advance NH research initiatives and clinical care.

The Use of Social Media in Graduate Medical Education: A Systematic Review.

Despite the growing presence of social media in graduate medical education (GME), few studies have attempted to characterize their effect on residents and their training. The authors conducted a systematic review of the peer-reviewed literature to understand the effect of social media on resident (1) education, (2) recruitment, and (3) professionalism. The authors identified English-language peer-reviewed articles published through November 2015 using Medline, Embase, Cochrane, PubMed, Scopus, and ERIC. They extracted and synthesized data from articles that met inclusion criteria. They assessed study quality for quantitative and qualitative studies through, respectively, the Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument and the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Studies. Twenty-nine studies met inclusion criteria. Thirteen (44.8%) pertained to residency education. Twitter, podcasts, and blogs were frequently used to engage learners and enhance education. YouTube and wikis were more commonly used to teach technical skills and promote self-efficacy. Six studies (20.7%) pertained to the recruitment process; these suggest that GME programs are transitioning information to social media to attract applicants. Ten studies (34.5%) pertained to resident professionalism. Most were exploratory, highlighting patient and resident privacy, particularly with respect to Facebook. Four of these studies surveyed residents about their social network behavior with respect to their patients, while the rest explored how program directors use it to monitor residents' unprofessional online behavior. The effect of social media platforms on residency education, recruitment, and professionalism is mixed, and the quality of existing studies is modest at best.

Implementing monitoring technologies in care homes for people with dementia: A qualitative exploration using Normalization Process Theory

BackgroundAgeing societies and a rising prevalence of dementia are associated with increasing demand for care home places. Monitoring technologies (e.g. bed-monitoring systems; wearable location-tracking devices) are appealing to care homes as they may enhance safety, increase resident freedom, and reduce staff burden. However, there are ethical concerns about the use of such technologies, and it is unclear how they might be implemented to deliver their full range of potential benefits. ObjectiveThis study explored facilitators and barriers to the implementation of monitoring technologies in care homes. DesignEmbedded multiple-case study with qualitative methods. SettingThree dementia-specialist care homes in North-West England. ParticipantsPurposive sample of 24 staff (including registered nurses, clinical specialists, senior managers and care workers), 9 relatives and 9 residents. Methods36 semi-structured interviews with staff, relatives and residents; 175h of observation; resident care record review. Data collection informed by Normalization Process Theory, which seeks to account for how novel interventions become routine practice. Data analysed using Framework Analysis. ResultsFindings are presented under three main themes: 1. Reasons for using technologies: The primary reason for using monitoring technologies was to enhance safety. This often seemed to override consideration of other potential benefits (e.g. increased resident freedom) or ethical concerns (e.g. resident privacy); 2. Ways in which technologies were implemented: Some staff, relatives and residents were not involved in discussions and decision-making, which seemed to limit understandings of the potential benefits and challenges from the technologies. Involvement of residents appeared particularly challenging. Staff highlighted the importance of training, but staff training appeared mainly informal which did not seem sufficient to ensure that staff fully understood the technologies; 3. Use of technologies in practice: Technologies generated frequent alarms that placed a burden upon staff, but staff were able to use their contextual knowledge to help to counter some of this burden. Some technologies offered a range of data-gathering capabilities, but were not always perceived as useful complements to practice. ConclusionImplementation of monitoring technologies may be facilitated by the extent to which the technologies are perceived to enhance safety. Implementation may be further facilitated through greater involvement of all stakeholders in discussions and decision-making in order to deepen understandings about the range of potential benefits and challenges from the use of monitoring technologies. Staff training might need to move beyond functional instruction to include deeper exploration of anticipated benefits and the underlying rationale for using monitoring technologies.

CMS guidance on nursing home resident privacy and staff conduct related to photographs and audio/video recordings

CMS guidance on nursing home resident privacy and staff conduct related to photographs and audio/video recordings

Pictures Don’t Tell the Whole Story; Numbers Do

Pictures Don’t Tell the Whole Story; Numbers Do

Chaplains Play Important Part in Integrated Palliative Care

Chaplains Play Important Part in Integrated Palliative Care

Nursing Home Provider Perceptions of Telemedicine for Reducing Potentially Avoidable Hospitalizations

ObjectivePotentially avoidable hospitalizations (PAHs) of nursing home (NH) residents are common, costly, and can have significant economic consequences. Telemedicine has been shown to reduce emergency department and hospitalization of NH residents, yet adoption has been limited and little is known about provider's perceptions and desired functionality for a telemedicine program. The goal of this study was to survey a nationally representative sample of NH physicians and advanced practice providers to quantify provider perceptions and desired functionality of telemedicine in NHs to reduce PAHs. Design/Setting/Participants/MeasurementWe surveyed physicians and advanced practice providers who attended the 2015 AMDA–The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine Annual Conference about their perceptions of telemedicine and desired attributes of a telemedicine program for managing acute changes of condition associated with PAHs. ResultsWe received surveys from 435 of the 947 conference attendees for a 45.9% response rate. Providers indicated strong agreement with the potential for telemedicine to improve timeliness of care and fill existing service gaps, while disagreeing most with the ideas that telemedicine would reduce care effectiveness and jeopardize resident privacy. Responses indicated clear preferences for the technical requirements of such a program, such as high-quality audio and video and inclusion of an electronic stethoscope, but with varying opinions about who should be performing the consults. ConclusionAmong NH providers, there is a high degree of confidence in the potential for a telemedicine solution to PAHs in NHs, as well as concrete views about features of such a solution. Such consensus could be used to drive an approach to telemedicine for PAHs in NHs that retains the theoretical strengths of telemedicine and reflects the needs of facilities, providers, and patients. Further research is needed to objectively study the impact of successful telemedicine implementations on patient, provider, and economic outcomes.