Virtual Support System Research Articles

Developing a sustainability readiness strategy for health systems: Toolkit, interactive tools, and virtual support system

While the literature strongly supports the need for sustainability of evidence-based interventions (EBIs), we present a review of the literature that indicates only three articles discuss a health-focused sustainability strategy. The aims of our sustainability readiness strategy (SRS) are to increase infrastructure capacity and EBI advocacy to impact the level of sustainability readiness. In this article, we describe the development of an evidence-informed promising practice sustainability readiness strategy (SRS) with three evidence-based components. This strategy: 1) is based on an adaptation of the Getting To Outcomes® (GTO) evidence-based implementation process, 2) includes a logic model with documented evidence of the connection between targeted readiness factors and sustainability outcomes, and 3) describes resources considered necessary to support implementation of the readiness strategy, namely a step-by-step Toolkit, Excel™ Tools, webinar coaching and evaluation guides, and a coaching and evaluation training guide. The national SRS survey results are presented. Lessons learned and future dissemination and implementation plans are described.

A Focus Group Evaluation of Breathe Easier: A Mindfulness-Based mHealth App for Survivors of Lung Cancer and Their Family Members.

To explore attitudes and acceptance (i.e., intent for future adoption) of survivors of lung cancer and their family members toward a dyad-focused mHealth mindfulness-based intervention (MBI). Focus groups. Community hospital setting in South Carolina. Survivors n = 11 (M = 64.6 years; 73% female; 64% African American) of non-small cell lung cancer (stage I-IIIa) and their family members, n = 8 (M = 58.6 years; 38% female; 75% African American). A fully functional prototype mHealth app to deliver a tailored MBI for survivors of lung cancer and their family members. Semi-structured focus groups were conducted and assessed using thematic data analysis to identify the benefits, concerns, needs, and expectations of the app. Convenience and health were the top benefits of using the app, while cost and difficulty of use were the top concerns. Survivors mentioned benefits more than their family members did. Participants felt positively about adding a community network to the app. Finally, participants expected to hear about Breathe Easier from their care provider. Participants perceived a benefit to having credible health information delivered through an mHealth app. Guidance and credible health information regarding lung cancer survivorship should be accessible and convenient for everyone impacted by the disease. Thus, future research should explore platforms for a virtual support system and understanding dissemination of mHealth apps through health care providers.

“Don’t sweat it buddy, it’s OK”: an exploration of the needs of adolescents with disabilities when designing a mobile application for weight management and healthy lifestyles

Purpose: Adolescents with disabilities often demonstrate higher sedentary behaviours, lower physical activity levels, poorer quality diets, and higher rates of overweight and obesity than typically developing youth. This study had two objectives: 1) To understand the needs and priorities of adolescents with disabilities, parents, and the healthcare professionals who work with them around healthy lifestyles and weight management; and 2) To explore whether and how a mobile application could address these needs.Methods: Multiple perspectives were gathered through separate qualitative focus groups with adolescents with disabilities (12–17 years), parents, and rehabilitation healthcare professionals. Data were analysed using descriptive thematic analysis.Results: Parents (n = 6) and healthcare professionals (n = 9) described the complex needs of adolescents with disabilities around weight management and healthy lifestyles, including balancing differing priorities and a lack of appropriate resources. Adolescents (n = 7) endorsed the potential for technology to enhance their health through empowerment and having a virtual support system. All stakeholder groups endorsed taking a holistic, wellness approach.Conclusions: Adolescents with disabilities have a complex lifestyle and weight management needs, but mobile applications have the potential to provide individualized support. It is critical that anyone developing mobile applications engage a range of stakeholders as co-designers.Implications for rehabilitationAdolescents with disabilities have complex support needs and priorities around weight management and healthy lifestyles.Existing resources do not take into account the wide-ranging abilities of adolescents with disabilities.Mobile applications have the potential to empower adolescents and provide tailored support around healthy lifestyles.Including user input when designing technologies is critical.

Interactive Advising with Bots: Improving Academic Excellence in Educational Establishments

Student advising services are often regarded as the mainstream vehicle for promoting relationships, understanding, and performance in academic institutions especially at the tertiary level. However, it is often fraught with challenges in developing countries in respect of insufficient supporting manpower and attendant high cost of running effective services. In institutions where the services exist, not all students benefit from it as a result of some factors such as: the sub-optimal performance of the advising personnel; negative psychological complex in students arising from unusual egocentrism (especially in those students who are regarded as “low performers” and would prefer not to be openly confronted); handicapped students especially those students with visible handicaps e.g. speech problems, etc. This paper is the first part of a study aimed at creating a balance in the foregoing situations by presenting a design of a faceless automated “<i>AdvisorBot</i>” based on the bot framework. The design reflects a virtual support system model which could be adopted to enhance student support and course advising efficiency. Analysis of the existing system in most tertiary institutions in Nigeria reveals that student support services actually exist though not efficient in the sense that there are seldom specialized units/departments dedicated to this function in majority of the Institutions especially the public institutions where student advising is the work of academic staff in the various departments. The design follows a mix of the agent and object-oriented approaches and produces an implementation-ready specification whose full implementation would effectively support students during their studies. The system facilitates the process of advising by providing quick and easy access to valuable information, and giving important feedback on several issues involved in student advisement, which otherwise would take considerable time.

Virtual Business Support Infrastructure for Entrepreneurs

In the knowledge economy nowadays, a physical working space is less valuable than virtual networks and business clusters. Science technology parks and innovation centers, virtual incubators and business information centers could be a far more convenient way to support start-ups in the process of transferring business ideas, challenges and innovative technologies into competitive profitable businesses that create wealth. Presence and cognition technologies play an important role in the knowledge management process, helping entrepreneurs learn and solve lots of different problems more effectively. In this regard, it is very important to figure out the most effective technological solutions and principal directions for implementing work-based learning strategies in the learning process. The work with knowledge implies creation of content: generation of a new knowledge in order to stimulate the development of innovative processes. The goal of the paper is to get a new perspective view and understanding of the development of virtual business support infrastructure is facilitated in order to develop a network of innovative SMEs, foster communication, collaboration, individual's motivation and exchange of experiences of SMEs. This paper describes the theoretical principles of information flow modelling in network of collaborative and innovative SMEs with a practical example of a virtual business support infrastructure. The research idea is to describe the principles of virtual support system for entrepreneurs, cognition technologies that influence development in each individual to ensure sustainable entrepreneurship. WBL is used as a tool to achieve the goal of internalizing knowledge by experience in the workplace. For an employee, it is an opportunity to learn and possibly obtain a higher degree and collaboration with colleagues, while for an employer a way to increase the power of the company thanks to better-qualified staff and business partners. The result of the research is the analysis of the virtual business support infrastructure, improved quality of knowledge flow, and recommendations for developing work-based learning with regard to the encouragement of efficient knowledge management in entrepreneurship for common aims.

Design on Support Training System of High-Speed Wheel Engineering Equipment Based on Virtual Reality

Based on the analysis of the structure characteristics of high-speed wheel engineering equipment, a design method for virtual support training systems was presented, founded on virtual reality (VR), software engineering, process simulation technology. According to the function requirements, the system software and hardware platform were established. Combined with practical teaching needs, virtual support system of high-speed wheel engineering equipment was developed. The practice demonstrates that the system has high practical value and guiding significance on the aspects of talents cultivation, the teaching application, science research, etc.

A Review of Web-Assisted Tobacco Interventions (WATIs)

Background The Internet has great potential to provide assistance to millions of smokers who seek help with quitting smoking.Objective The goals of this study were to assess the content and the quality of smoking cessation treatments most likely to be encountered by smokers seeking treatment on the Internet and to examine differences in quality between current websites and those reviewed in 2004.Methods Internet searches for smoking cessation were designed to mimic the search patterns of most Internet users. PhD-level specialists in tobacco cessation treatments used standardized procedures to review the content of each website, assess the degree to which each site covered key components of evidence-based treatment as described in US national guidelines, determine the accuracy of information presented, and evaluate the use of website interactivity. Results of the current study were compared to results obtained in a prior review.Results Most websites retrieved in the search met exclusion criteria and were not included in the final analyses in both the current (74%, 65/88) and the prior study (77%, 156/202). In both studies, the majority of websites were excluded because they sold cessation-related products but did not provide treatment recommended by the Public Health Service guidelines. Of the 23 websites included in the current study, 26% (n = 6) provided only minimal coverage (brief mention) of key components of tobacco treatment. However, compared to the earlier study, websites included in the present study scored significantly higher in quality ratings in four areas: providing advice to quit (P = .05), practical counseling (P = .02), and enhancing motivation to quit smoking through personal relevance (P = .05) and risks (P < .001). Most Web-assisted tobacco intervention (WATI) sites (69%, 16/23) contained no inaccurate information. When observed, inaccuracies primarily occurred in content related to pharmacotherapy. The percentage of sites offering at least one interactive feature increased from 39% (18/46) in 2004 to 56% (13/23) in the present study. Despite this improvement, there was a notable underutilization of the interactive capabilities of the Internet to personalize treatment, to connect users with a virtual support system, and to provide follow-up treatment contacts.Conclusions While the quality of treatment offered in WATIs has improved since our previous review in 2004, there is substantial room for further improvement to ensure that smokers are offered high-quality, evidence-based treatments. It is not clear what degree of informational detail and interactivity is optimal for Web-based smoking cessation treatments. Additional research is needed to understand how to maximize the interactive capabilities of the Internet to produce and sustain population-based health behavior change.