Remote Contact Research Articles

A six-month telerehabilitation programme delivered via readily accessible technology is acceptable to people following stroke: a qualitative study

ObjectiveTo explore the experiences of participants during a six-month, post-stroke telerehabilitation programme. DesignA qualitative descriptive study to investigate participant experiences of ACTIV (Augmented Community Telerehabilitation Intervention), a six-month tailored exercise programme delivered by physiotherapists primarily using readily accessible telecommunication technology. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were used to collect data, which were analysed using thematic analysis. SettingInterviews conducted in participants’ homes or a community facility. ParticipantsParticipants were eligible if they had a stroke in the previous 18 months and had participated in ACTIV. ResultsTwenty-one participants were interviewed. Four key themes were constructed from the data: 1. ‘ACTIV was not what I call physio’ (it differed from participants’ expectations of physiotherapy, but they reported many positive aspects to the programme). 2. ‘There’s somebody there’ (ongoing support from the physiotherapists helped participants find strategies to continue improving). 3. ‘Making progress’ (in the face of barriers, small improvements were valued). 4. ‘What I really want’ (participant goals were frequently more general than therapy goals and involved progress towards getting back to ‘normal’). ConclusionsAlthough ACTIV was not what participants expected from physiotherapy, the majority found contact from a physiotherapist reduced the feeling of being left to struggle alone. Most participants found a programme with minimal face-to-face contact augmented by phone calls and encouraging text messages to be helpful and acceptable. Trial registrationAustralia New Zealand Clinical Trials Registration Number: ACTRN12612000464864 Contribution of the paper•The use of readily accessible technology to augment rehabilitation after stroke was acceptable to people who received a six-month programme.•People found text contact maintained a therapeutic bond with their physiotherapist.•Remote contact decreased the perception of being left to manage alone after discharge from physiotherapy.

A pragmatic lifestyle intervention for overweight and obese women with gestational diabetes mellitus (PAIGE2): A parallel arm, multicenter randomized controlled trial study protocol.

The global epidemic of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and obesity has been translated into pregnancy, with approximately 18% of women being diagnosed worldwide with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM). Whilst preventive strategies have proven effective in the non-pregnant context, attrition rates are high and there is an urgent need to develop a customized, pragmatic lifestyle intervention for women both during and after pregnancy. Diet and exercise modification, behavioral support, and Commercial Weight Management Organizations have been strongly recommended to aid postpartum weight reduction for mothers with previous GDM, subsequently reducing their risk of developing obesity and T2D. This study, informed by a previous pilot study, aims to determine the effectiveness of a pragmatic pregnancy and postpartum lifestyle modification program for overweight women with previous GDM (PAIGE2) to reduce body weight at 12 months postpartum. This paper summarizes the protocol for the PAIGE2 study, which has been developed based on results from a pilot study (PAIGE). A six center, two parallel arm, 12-month, randomized controlled trial will be conducted across Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (3 centers each), involving 340 women with GDM and body mass index ≥25 kg/m2 recruited during pregnancy. The lifestyle intervention involves a one-hour virtual educational program (to take place at 32-36 weeks gestation). Postpartum, the intervention will include monthly phone calls, weekly motivational text messages, weekly step counts, and referral for three months to a Commercial Weight Management Organization (Slimming World). The control arm will receive usual care as offered by the local maternity hospital. The primary outcome is weight loss at 12 months postpartum. Study visits for anthropometric and clinical measurements, fasting blood samples, questionnaires pertaining to health, wellbeing and physical activity will take place at 6 weeks, 6- and 12-months postpartum. Focus groups will be conducted with intervention mothers' post-intervention to determine the acceptability of the study design including utility of a Commercial Weight Management Organization, feasibility of remote patient contact, family involvement and patient satisfaction. The PAIGE2 study will address the gaps in previously conducted research and, if positive, has the potential to have major public health implications for the prevention of future GDM and subsequent T2D. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04579016?term=NCT04579016&draw=2&rank=1, identifier NCT04579016.

Telepsychology in Europe since COVID-19: How to Foster Social Telepresence?

All over the world, measures were taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Social distancing not only had a strong influence on mental health, but also on the organization of care systems. It changed existing practices, as we had to rapidly move from face-to-face contact to remote contact with patients. These changes have prompted research into the attitudes of mental healthcare professionals towards telepsychology. Several factors affect these attitudes: at the institutional and organizational level, but also the collective and personal experience of practitioners. This paper is based on an original European survey conducted by the EFPA (European Federation of Psychologists' Associations) Project Group on eHealth in 2020, which allowed to observe the variability in perceptions of telepsychology between countries and mental healthcare professionals. This study highlights different variables that contributed to the development of attitudes, such as motivations, acquired experience, or training. We found the "feeling of telepresence"-which consists of forgetting to some extent that we are at a distance, in feeling together-and social telepresence in particular as main determinants of the perception and the practice of telepsychology.

Development of an automatic solar powered honey bee feeding system in a movable multi shelves apiary

Keeping bee colonies is one of the most important sectors of investment in the global agricultural field. Internationally, beekeepers are interested in improving bee feeding methods to maximize the productivity and quality of their products. Whereas the current study aims to develop and evaluate an automatic feeding system that works with solar energy. This technique increases the vertical expansion of beekeeping by designing a multi-shelf mobile apiary for easy transportation as desired. The development process included the inclusion of automated feeders that operate electronically using sensors to provide a nutritional solution for bee colonies without human intervention. Also, the automatic apiary was provided with a sugar solution tank that was equipped with a continuous stirring system that works with a timer. Also, the automatic apiary contains an alarm system and remote mobile contact with the beekeeper in case of depletion of the sugar syrup. The variables under study included three levels of nutritional level volumes of 500, 750, and 1000 ml, respectively, with two stirring periods (3 and 6 times/day) at two concentrations for sugar solution of 50 and 67%. The evaluation process was done during the critical winter period of the year, from December to March. The main results showed that the colonies’ strength had an increment ratio over control hives of 30.23% when using the highest variable levels. Also, the seasonal energy consumption ranged from 1.25–2.81 kWh per season. Therefore, beekeepers can benefit from this novel feeding approach.

Use of Digital Technologies to Maintain Older Adults' Social Ties During Visitation Restrictions in Long-Term Care Facilities: Scoping Review.

Digital technologies were implemented to address the disruption of long-term care facility residents' socialization needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. A literature review regarding this topic is needed to inform public policy, facility managers, family caregivers, and nurses and allied health professionals involved in mediating the use of digital devices for residents' social ties. Our study outlines key concepts, methodologies, results, issues, and gaps in articles published during pandemic-related visitation restrictions. Following the PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews) protocol, a scoping review was conducted by searching 3 database aggregator platforms (EBSCO, ProQuest, and PubMed) for studies published in peer-reviewed journals from early 2020 to the end of June 2021, when the most stringent restrictions were in place. We included qualitative and quantitative studies, reviews, commentaries, viewpoints, and letters to the editors in French or English focusing on digital technologies aiming to support the social contact of residents in long-term care facilities during pandemic-related visitation restrictions. Among 763 screened articles, 29 met our selection criteria. For each study, we characterized the (1) authors, title, and date of the publication; (2) country of the first author; (3) research fields; (4) article type; and (5) type of technology mentioned. The analysis distinguished 3 main themes emerging from the literature: (1) impact and expectations of remote social contact on the physical and mental health and well-being of the residents (n=12), (2) with whom or what the social contact took place (n=17), and (3) limitations and barriers to significant social contact related to digital technologies (n=14). The results first underlined the highly positive impact expected by the authors of the digital technologies on health and quality of life of residents of long-term care facilities. Second, they highlighted the plurality of ties to consider, since social contact takes place not only with family caregivers to maintain contact but also for other purposes (end-of-life videoconferences) and with other types of contact (eg, with staff and robots). Third, they exposed the limitations and barriers to significant contact using digital technologies and outlined the required conditions to enable them. The review demonstrated the opportunities and risks outlined by the literature about the implementation of digital technologies to support remote social contact. It showed the plurality of ties to consider and revealed the need to evaluate the positive impact of remote contact from the residents' perspectives. Therefore, to go beyond the risk of digital solutionism, there is a need for studies considering the holistic impact on health regarding the implementation of digital technologies, including the meaning residents give to interpersonal exchanges and the organizational constraints. OSF Registries osf.io/yhpx3; https://osf.io/yhpx3.

Online infant observation – reflections from ‘behind the screen’

ABSTRACT This paper explores the experience of an online infant observation. The building blocks of infant observations are discussed as well as how they are impacted upon when setting out online, and then moving to face-to-face. The writer considers what can be learnt, including whether modifications might be necessary and if so which. The paper describes the paradoxical and contradictory experiences of the remote contact and investigates the transition to in-person observation. There is some reflection on the possibility of psychic three-dimensionality.

Digital Transformation of Polish micro-enterprises: Lessons from the COVID-19 Era

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted businesses worldwide, and small companies have been particularly affected. However, many small businesses have been able to adapt to the challenges posed by the pandemic by embracing digital transformation.The aim of the study was to identify how micro-enterprises perceive the role of digital transformation, taking into account the experience related to the pandemic. The survey was conducted post-pandemic from January 2022 to April 2022. The study took a closer look at micro-enterprises to identify the companies’ strategies related to digital transformation. In particular, we focused on recognizing the areas of innovations implemented in connection with the difficult economic and social situation. The study found that most Polish micro-enterprises believe that digitization is necessary for business development, and they highly value the impact of IT solutions on the quality and value of managerial decisions. The implementation of solutions that improve remote contact with customers prevailed during the pandemic, while the impact of cloud computing on business processes was rated low. Lack of funds and time to identify new solutions were identified as the main barriers to implementing innovative IT solutions. Micro-enterprises widely use social media for business purposes, and a significant association was found between digital transformation and the need for remote work. The results suggest the need for better matching information materials, training plans, and support for digitizing small businesses. In this study, we tried to fill the research gap regarding micro-enterprises. This group is often overlooked in studies and reports focusing on the SME sector.

Numerical optimization of non-equilibrium plasma source for surface processing of materials

Over the years, non-equilibrium plasma sources have emerged as a promising technology in surface processing of materials. Various strategies have been employed to make significant advancement in the technology. However, the process optimization is found to depend on different factors like power supply frequency, gas species and gas pressure. In order to control material processing outcome, it is necessary to control plasma parameters as per requirement. In the present work, a surface microwave generated non-equilibrium plasma source is proposed for material processing applications. The source comprises of rectangular waveguide system and a quartz tube, whose dimensions are optimized based on the electric field profile obtained within the plasma tube in the presence of the microwave (f = 2.45 GHz). Argon gas is allowed to flow through the discharge tube at a velocity of 10 m/s keeping its pressure at 1 torr. The microwave electric field within the discharge tube ionizes the argon gas medium resulting into plasma state whose properties are investigated using commercially available COMSOL Multiphysics® software. The inner surface of the discharge tube is then filled with dielectric beads (radius = 2 mm) and the effect of the dielectric constant on the plasma properties are studied. An investigation of ion flux at different positions in the plasma tube suggests that in the absence of dielectric beads, remote contact mode of operation can be preferred while in the presence of dielectric beads, direct contact mode of operation can be implemented. These results are of significance for direct as well as remote mode of surface processing of materials.

Formation of Remote Quantum Point Contact Inside Dielectric Medium of an AlO x /SiO x ReRAM

Remote quantum point contact (QPC) far from the metal electrodes was observed in forming free aluminum oxide (AlOx)/silicon oxide (SiOx) resistive random access memory (ReRAM) cell, which was resolved at low bias. QPC behavior of the cell was attributed to confined oxygen vacancies across uncorrelated narrow grain boundaries of intermediate O3 treated thin AlOx layer of the stack, which was designed to restrict vacancy channeling between the two immediate reservoirs; i.e., from beneath SiOx to the top as-deposited AlOx layer. From time dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) characteristics of the cell while assessed under low stress biases, we found one to one correspondence between TDDB and its bias dependent QPC. Furthermore, we found that, under steady state and especially at low biases progressive breakdown (PBD) of the dielectric exhibited two-level random telegraph noise (RTN) like conductance fluctuations, which occurred in the magnitude of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${G}_{{0}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> or in its multiples depending on applied bias to the cell, that demonstrated a correlation between electron trapping and maximum QPC instability during filament growth. Low voltage QPC-based switching under dc bias sweep, its correlation with TDDB and RTN under the steady state thus provided us a framework to analyze the evolution of QPC well before reaching the SET state in an AlOx/SiOx cell, which is different from the usual QPC evolution as found near contact regions in a conventional SiOx cell without accompanying engineered AlOx barrier.

Retrospective serological and molecular survey of myxoma or antigenically related virus in the Iberian hare, Lepus granatensis.

The 2018 outbreak of myxomatosis in the Iberian hare (Lepus granatensis) has been hypothesized to originate from a species jump of the rabbit-associated myxoma virus (MYXV), after natural recombination with an unknown poxvirus. Iberian hares were long considered resistant to myxomatosis as no prior outbreaks were reported. To provide insights into the emergence of this recombinant virus (ha-MYXV), we investigated serum samples from 451 Iberian hares collected over two time periods almost two decades apart, 1994-1999 and 2017-2019 for the presence of antibodies and MYXV-DNA. First, we screened all serum samples using a rabbit commercial indirect ELISA (iELISA) and then tested a subset of these samples in parallel using indirect immunofluorescence test (IFT), competitive ELISA (cELISA) and qPCR targeting M000.5L/R gene conserved in MYXV and ha-MYXV. The cut-off of iELISA relative index 10=6.1 was selected from a semiparametric finite mixture analysis aiming to minimize the probability of false positive results. Overall, MYXV related-antibodies were detected in 57 hares (12.6%) including 38 apparently healthy hares (n=10, sampled in 1994-1999, none MYXV-DNA positive, and n=28 sampled in 2017-2019 of which four were also ha-MYXV-DNA positive) and 19 found-dead and ha-MYXV-DNA-positive sampled in 2018-2019. Interestingly, four seronegative hares sampled in 1997 were MYXV-DNA positive by qPCR, the result being confirmed by sequencing of three of them. For the Iberian hares hunted or live trapped (both apparently health), seroprevalence was significantly higher in 2017-2019 (13.0%, CI95% 9.2-18.2%) than in 1994-1999 (5.4%, CI95% 3.0-9.6%) (p=.009). Within the second period, seroprevalence was significantly higher in 2019 compared to 2017 (24.7vs 1.7% considering all the sample, p=.007), and lower during the winter than the autumn (p<.001). While our molecular and serological results show that Iberian hares have been in contact with MYXV or an antigenically similar virus at least since 1996, they also show an increase in seroprevalence in 2018-2019. The remote contact with MYXV may have occurred with strains that circulated in rabbits, or with unnoticed strains already circulating in Iberian hare populations. This work strongly suggests the infection of Iberian hares with MYXV or an antigenically related virus, at least 20 years before the severe virus outbreaks were registered in 2018.

Exploring Thailand’s Probationary Practices Since COVID-19: Changes in Strategies with Regards to Probation Supervision

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic had a critical impact on the Thai criminal justice system. The goal of this study is to explore policies and practices of Thailand’s Department of Probation as it responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study surveyed probation officers in Thailand (N = 534) from March to April 2021, focusing on probation practices and case management issues prior- and post- COVID-19. Data reveals that, overall, the frequency of officer-offender contacts remained steady even though the type of contact changed after COVID-19. In-person contact was replaced by remote contact strategies, specifically telephone calls, which increased significantly following the onset of the pandemic.

Attachment, loneliness, and social connection as prospective predictors of suicidal ideation during the COVID-19 pandemic: A relational diathesis-stress experience sampling study.

Concerns about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health have led to efforts to understand how pandemic-specific factors, such as decreased social contact during periods of social distancing, may relate to suicide risk. The present study evaluated personality-based risk factors and frequency of social contact as prospective predictors of suicidal ideation (SI) during the pandemic. We tested a relational diathesis-stress model of suicide focusing on insecure attachment, trait loneliness, and social contact as predictors of SI, using twice-weekly survey data collected via smartphone from a community sample (n=184) over 8 weeks. Multilevel modeling showed that both trait loneliness and anxious attachment predicted the prospective development of SI during the study period. Reduced in-person contact, but not remote contact, was proximally associated with increased SI. Participants with high attachment avoidance were more likely to develop SI in the context of reduced daily in-person contact compared to participants without these traits. Findings support a relational diathesis-stress model of suicide risk during the pandemic, showing that dispositional traits related to emotional connection with others predicted the relative salience of reduced social contact as a proximal risk factor for SI.

Protocol for a collaborative randomised effectiveness trial of lay-delivered versus clinician-delivered behavioural activation in senior centres

IntroductionDepression is common among community-dwelling older adults who make use of senior centre services yet remains undertreated due to a lack of acceptable and available treatments. Emerging evidence suggests that...

Mobile Health Applications for Depression in China: A Systematic Review.

Mobile health (mHealth) applications (apps) have the potential to increase access to mental health care. In China, there is growing interest in mHealth apps for depression. Our objective was to systematically review research on mHealth for depression in China to identify benefits and challenges.A systematic literature search was conducted using Chinese and English databases in accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Randomized and nonrandomized clinical studies on mHealth apps and depression in China were included. Study quality was assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool.Seven studies met the inclusion criteria with three randomized trials, two quasi-randomized trials, one clinical trial with an uncertain grouping method, and one study with a single-group design. All studies used the WeChat platform and included activities such as psychoeducation, self-management, supervised group chats, and/or remote contact with a healthcare team, in comparison to usual care. All studies reported significant and large benefits for outcomes, but the risk of bias was high.There are few rigorous evaluations of mHealth apps for depression in China, with all included studies involving WeChat programs and most using WeChat to extend nursing discharge care for inpatients with depression. While these studies showed significant improvement in health outcomes as compared to usual care, the results remain inconclusive because of the high risk of bias. mHealth holds promise for increasing access to mental health care in China, but issues such as efficacy, scalability, patient and clinician acceptability, and data privacy must be addressed.

COVID-19 Prediction With Machine Learning Technique From Extracted Features of Photoplethysmogram Morphology.

At present, COVID-19 is spreading widely around the world. It causes many health problems, namely, respiratory failure and acute respiratory distress syndrome. Wearable devices have gained popularity by allowing remote COVID-19 detection, contact tracing, and monitoring. In this study, the correlation of photoplethysmogram (PPG) morphology between patients with COVID-19 infection and healthy subjects was investigated. Then, machine learning was used to classify the extracted features between 43 cases and 43 control subjects. The PPG data were collected from 86 subjects based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. The systolic-onset amplitude was 3.72% higher for the case group. However, the time interval of systolic-systolic was 7.69% shorter in the case than in control subjects. In addition, 12 out of 20 features exhibited a significant difference. The top three features included dicrotic-systolic time interval, onset-dicrotic amplitude, and systolic-onset time interval. Nine features extracted by heatmap based on the correlation matrix were fed to discriminant analysis, k-nearest neighbor, decision tree, support vector machine, and artificial neural network (ANN). The ANN showed the best performance with 95.45% accuracy, 100% sensitivity, and 90.91% specificity by using six input features. In this study, a COVID-19 prediction model was developed using multiple PPG features extracted using a low-cost pulse oximeter.

A Versatile Affordance Modeling Framework Using Screw Primitives to Increase Autonomy During Manipulation Contact Tasks

Recent studies utilizing Affordance Templates to perform remote contact manipulation tasks with mobile manipulators have demonstrated their usefulness for modeling complex tasks allowing robots to work in uncertain environments. These efforts largely fall into the &#x201C;supervised autonomy&#x201D; paradigm where a user commands high-level actions and supervises the robot&#x2019;s execution, but is not responsible for the low-level execution details such as controlling the endpoint/joints, managing contact forces, or avoiding collisions. In this work, we present a novel formulation for modeling affordances that features the versatility and generality of screw theory. We also propose a generic framework and algorithm for executing manipulation contact tasks. To thoroughly evaluate the performance of the proposed formulation and framework, we performed various sets of experiments using our mobile manipulator. We showed that this framework is generic enough to successfully manipulate a variety of articulated objects. Moreover, by performing a set of manipulation tasks on a wheel valve as our case study, we demonstrated that our approach lowers task duration (about 5 times) and applied forces and torques significantly (about 2.5 and 3 times, respectively) when compared to direct teleoperation. Further, by performing 90 trials, we show robust performance of the proposed screw-based framework even when there is significant error in the estimated position and orientation (i.e., about 10&#x00A0;cm and 0.35&#x00A0;rd) of the task objects.

Internet psychotherapeutic interventions for anxiety disorders – a critical evaluation

BackgroundDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, internet-delivered psychotherapeutic interventions (IPI) move increasingly into the focus of attention.MethodWe reviewed 39 randomized controlled studies of IPIs with 97 study arms (n = 4122 patients) for anxiety disorders (panic disorder/agoraphobia, generalized anxiety disorder, and social anxiety disorder) and performed a meta-analysis. Most studies were conducted with cognitive behavioural approaches (iCBT). Results were compared with a previous meta-analysis examining medications and face-to-face (F2F) psychotherapy.ResultsIn direct comparisons, IPIs were as effective as F2F-CBT and superior to waitlist controls. Programs with more intensive therapist contact yielded higher effect sizes (ES).We compared the obtained ES with a previous comprehensive meta-analysis of 234 studies. In this comparison, iCBT was less effective than individual F2F-CBT and medications, not different from pill placebos, and more effective than psychological placebo and waitlist (p > .0001 for all comparisons).ES of IPIs may be overestimated. Treatments were only compared to waitlist, which is not a sufficient control condition. 97% of the studies were not blinded with regard to the main outcome measure. 32% of the participants received antianxiety drugs during the trials. In 89%, participants were recruited by advertisements rather than from clinical settings, and 63% of the participants had an academic background (students or university employees) which might affect the generalizability of the findings.Remote diagnoses were often made by students without completed training in psychotherapy. In only 15% of the studies, diagnoses were made in personal contact with a psychiatrist or psychologist. In 44% of the studies, the ‘therapists’ maintaining remote contact with the participants were mostly students without completed psychotherapy education.ConclusionsIPIs may be a useful tool when face-to-face psychotherapy is not easily available, or as an add-on to standard psychotherapeutic or psychopharmacological treatments but should perhaps not be used as monotherapy. We have suggested standards for future research and the practical use of IPIs.

Telemedicine for medical abortion service provision in Mexico: A safety, feasibility, and acceptability study

ObjectiveWe aimed to obtain evidence about the safety, acceptability, and feasibility of a direct-to-patient telemedicine medical abortion service in Mexico's private health sector. Study DesignA prospective observational one-group study to evaluate a telemedicine abortion service, referred to as TeleAborto, was conducted at three private clinics and one nonclinician community-based provider. Information about the study was provided by phone, websites, and social media. Abortion seekers were screened for eligibility and underwent any pre-abortion tests requested by the study site at services close to home. Eligible participants received packages with abortion medication, analgesics, and instructions and a remote follow-up contact was scheduled for 7 to 14 days later. Primary outcomes include abortion outcome, management of adverse events, acceptability, and feasibility measures such as package reception and follow-up contact, and challenges to get pre- and post-abortion tests. ResultsWe conducted 581 screenings and sent 378 study packages, all successfully received, reaching abortion seekers in all 32 states. All participants took medications before 70 days gestational age as per study protocol. Abortion outcome was determined for 87% of participants (330/378); 93% (306/330) had a successful abortion without intervention and 18 with intervention; 6 individuals decided to continue the pregnancy. Participants reported high satisfaction with TeleAborto, citing convenience as their most valued aspect (85%; 264/311). ConclusionsThis study showed that guided self-managed telemedicine abortion is safe, acceptable, and feasible in Mexico. The model has the potential to close the access gap for indigenous and rural populations, and those that rely on public sector services. ImplicationsThe findings contribute evidence in support of telemedicine models for early medical abortion, demonstrating the feasibility of a self-management protocol implemented with supportive health care providers and the potential for a broad geographical reach in Mexico.

Optimizing the Provision of Public Services By Local Administration as a Component of the Smart City Concept on the Example of Zabrze

Abstract Surveys performed among the residents of Zabrze indicate that in 2021 the majority of respondents (67%), wishing to use public services provided by the local government, still preferred to visit the office in person. Residents noticed negative aspects of direct service, such as queues of people waiting for the case to be completed (26%), excessive bureaucracy (24%) or lack of parking spaces (18%). However, they counted on help in completing the necessary formalities by officials who should be: professional (20%), communicative (18%) and kind (17%). The use of the digital platform (ePUAP) dedicated to customer service was reported by 32% of respondents. At the same time, as much as 40% of the respondents, in order to save time and to simplify procedures, declared their will to use innovative methods of remote contact with public administration (e.g. via social media). The COVID-19 pandemic showed that it was possible to increase (even by 250%) the number of cases handled remotely, which with over 90% of households in Poland with access to a computer network creates opportunities for integrated development as part of the Smart City idea. The aim of the paper was to identify the residents’ expectations related to the provision of public services by local administration. Precise determination of the ways of perception of both direct and remote customer service has not only an application value. It also allows for further research study on the management of local government, including the organization of management control, as well as social communication of local governments.

Telemedicine for international travelers through a Smartphone-based monitoring platform (Trip Doctor®)

BackgroundOverall, more than 50% of international travelers develop symptoms while traveling and 55% of them seek medical assistance during the trip. We conducted a study to evaluate the usefulness of a Smartphone app called TRIP Doctor® to provide telemedicine to international travelers. MethodsParticipants over 18 years old attending our travel clinic at Hospital Clinic in Barcelona were invited to participate during 2017–2019. After downloading the app, the health status of the traveler was monitored on a daily basis, providing specific medical advice and offering remote contact with specialized physicians through an integrated chat, if needed. ResultsFrom 449 users, 59 (13%) contacted for medical assistance through the app during the trip. Main reasons for telemedicine were diarrhea (25.7%), skin conditions (19.7%) and fever (12.1%). Among patients who contacted, 90% of the travelers did not require to be referred to a local doctor. Symptomatic treatment was the main treatment prescribed (38%). In a 14.7% of the cases a follow-up was not required, a 63.2% recovered and 22.1% were loss of follow-up. After a multivariate analysis, duration of trip >14 days was found to be the only factor associated with the use of telemedicine (OR 2.2, CI 95% 1.1–4.5, p = 0.03). ConclusionIn conclusion, travelers using telemedicine travelled for longer periods of time and mostly contacted for mild symptoms which could be solved successfully by remote assistance with our specialized doctors.