| 1. |
- Ahlin, Karin, 1963-, et al.
(author)
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Determining Testbed Requirements for Technology Enhanced Speech Rehabilitation after Stroke -the Informed Co-workers’ View Point
- 2019
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In: GLOBAL HEALTH 2019. - : International Academy, Research and Industry Association (IARIA). - 9781612087429 ; , s. 20-27
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper analyses and discusses the identified requirements for technology enhanced systems for speech rehabilitation after a stroke. To stroke patients, a speech injury can be devastating, impacting their abilities to speak, listen, read, and write. Therefore, speech therapy is recommended as early as possible. To address the challenge with a growing percentage of older adults, therapy should include a variety of Technology Enhanced Systems (TES) to support the idea of independent living. These systems must be adapted to the patients’ needs and speech therapy requirements. Based on a design science approach, requirements were determined from an analysis of ten semi-structured interviews with knowledgeable informants. Findings indicate several important requirements, such as: TES should be motivating, joyful, individualised and built on patients’ needs and on speech therapists’ professional knowledge. Furthermore, TES services must be user-friendly and provide training in each patient’s mother tongue. Added to these requirements are ease of including close relatives as supporting persons, as well as accessibility through portable devices.
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| 2. |
- Ahmad, Awais, 1981-, et al.
(author)
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Critical Factors for Human Computer Interaction of eHealth for Older Adult
- 2019
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In: Proceedings of the 2019 the 5th International Conference on e-Society, e-Learning and e-Technologies. - Vienna : Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). - 9781450362351 ; , s. 58-62
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The percentage of older adults increases globally with an increased need for medical care. To support the idea of successful active aging, e-health seems to be an interesting concept. This study was conducted as a systematic literature study, with the aim to identify and discuss determinant factors in the Human computer interaction of eHealth for older adults. The important main research question to answer was: What are the critical challenges to address for an improved human computer interaction in technology enhanced health care systems for older adults? Findings show that there are several critical factors to consider, with trust, personal integrity, technological acceptance, e-health literacy and accessibility of ICT as the most determinant. If the found challenges are addressed, it might be possible to achieve the identified aim of independent living. The recommendation is a human computer interaction that is elderly centred, and involves the elderly users in the design process. However, no ICT enhanced system will be user-friendly enough to take away the need for social and technological support.
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| 3. |
- Ahmad, Awais, 1981-, et al.
(author)
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Exploring the Medical Caregivers' Perceptions of Technology Acceptance for an Online Speech and Language Assessment Application Among Stroke Patients
- 2023
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In: International Journal on Advances in Life Sciences. - : International Academy, Research and Industry Association (IARIA). - 1942-2660. ; 15:1-2, s. 1-10
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Stroke is a globally increasing disease and speech and language deficiencies are common in stroke survivors. To facilitate medical caregivers in their professional work and to improve patients’ quality of life, technology can play an important role. However, the use and acceptance of technology are uncertain and more research is needed in this direction. This study evaluates the technology acceptance and adoption of an online speech and language assessment application. The evaluation-focused Design Science Research strategy was adopted for that purpose. Two physiotherapists, one occupational therapist and three speech therapists participated in the study. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) was used as the theoretical base for interview questions formation and data analysis. The study findings show that the suggested application is useful and easy to use; however, it should be better synchronised with speech therapists’ daily work routines. The speech therapists stressed that the functionalities of the application should be designed in close collaboration with them, and it should be compatible with the already existing systems and services in place. Due to impairments after stroke, the patients have some specific preferences for software and hardware; such as a tablet with a touch pen is the preferred hardware. Additionally, the interface should have bigger text fonts and pictures, and highly contrastive colours in the graphics should be used for patients’ convenience. The user’s privacy and security, the patient’s current health, and their previous knowledge and experience with technology were also found important determinants for the intention to use the given technology.
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| 4. |
- Ahmad, Awais, 1981-, et al.
(author)
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Factors Influencing Acceptance of Technology-enhanced Speech and Language Relearning for Stroke Survivors – A Systematic Review
- 2021
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In: ICSLT 2021: Proceedings of the 2021 7th International Conference on e-Society, e-Learning and e-Technologies. - New York, NY, USA : Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). - 9781450376846 ; , s. 86-91
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Speech and language loss is the most common disease for stroke survivors. The process of relearning communication skills is difficult and a time taking process. Technology-enhanced systems (TES) can be useful in speech and language relearning, however, the acceptance and usability of TES for stroke patients have been a matter of concern and more research is needed in this area. This study is therefore aimed to explore the factors that might influence the acceptance of technology-enhanced speech and language relearning after stroke. A systematic literature review was conducted to determine the technology acceptance factors. To ensure the state of the art in the given field, 97 articles written from 2016 to April 2021 were retrieved with a search string aligned to the research question. After applying the exclusion criteria and quality assurance, 13 articles were selected for inclusion. An overview of selected articles, their chosen methodology, and main findings from the articles was presented in a pre-defined table. The results show that patients’ physical and cognitive condition, the intensity of relearning exercises, native language, the involvement of friends and family, technical assistance and training, selection of hardware and usability of the graphical interface are important factors for acceptance of TES. Stroke patients tend to use TES. Independent living, treatment in the home environment, and improved quality of life are the major motivations for use of TES. However, TES should be tailor-made and a user-centre approach should be adopted. Finally, proper education and training are essential not only for the patients but for the speech therapists and patients’ relatives and friends as well.
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| 5. |
- Ahmad, Awais, 1981-, et al.
(author)
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On the Importance of Tailor-made Speech Relearning Software for Stroke Rehabilitation
- 2020
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In: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health - Volume 1: ICT4AWE. - : SciTePress. - 9789897584206 ; , s. 176-179
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Post stroke rehabilitation is a global issue with increasing challenges today when the percentage of older adults is increasing. There is a need for new solutions to better assist stroke survivors' normally long way back to a good and independent life. The various post stroke impairments can be divided into the categories of cognitive, motoric and speech impairment, and the three also have their interrelations. This position paper has a focus on rehabilitation of stroke survivors' speech impairments, and the use of technology-enhanced systems to assist the speech relearning. The current reuse of language learning software for primary school students is doubtful, and should better be replaced by tailor-made and adaptable tools that fit the target group. Finally, the recommendation is a long-term strategy where some initial costs should fund the design, development and evaluation of new digital tools for speech relearning. This should be conducted in a collaboration between researchers, speech therapists, stroke patients. The approach should be iterative and user-centred, with both speech therapists and stroke patients as the end-users.
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| 6. |
- Ahmad, Awais, 1981-, et al.
(author)
-
Speech and Language Relearning for Stroke Patients- Understanding User Needs for Technology Enhancement
- 2021
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Speech and language relearning are challenging for stroke survivors, as well as medical caregivers. After a stroke, patient’s ability to read, write, speak, and listen is decreased to different degrees, which results in a compromised independent life and a decreased quality of life for the patients. Technology-Enhanced Systems (TES) can play a vital role in this context. However, the available software are not explicitly built for recovering stroke patients’ needs but often for children’s learning needs. This paper is, therefore, aimed at gathering requirements to support the design of speech and language relearning software applications for stroke survivors. A design science approach was adopted, where different stakeholders such as medical caregivers and information technology consultants were involved in the process. Deductive thematic analysis was conducted to analyze the main findings according to adult learning theory. The software requirements vary from patient to patient where the intensity of speech and language impairments, general medical condition, age, prior experience, and knowledge about the previous health record, and social setup of the patient are playing an important role. The speech therapists should have management functionality in the software to adjust the relearning exercises according to the patient’s needs. Since, stroke is most common in adults who learn differently than children, andragogy principles were useful in recognizing patients’ health conditions. Adults are interested to be involved in the development of their relearning process. Software for speech and language assessment will be helpful to establish relearning objectives for patients.
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| 7. |
- Ahmad, Awais, 1981-, et al.
(author)
-
Technology Acceptance of an Online Speech and Language Assessment Application for Stroke Patients - the Medical Caregivers’ Viewpoints
- 2021
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Stroke is a globally increasing disease and speech and language deficiencies are common in stroke survivors. To facilitate medical caregivers in their professional work and to improve patients’ quality of life, technology can play an important role. However, the use and acceptance of technology are uncertain and more research is needed in this direction. This study evaluates the technology acceptance and adoption of an online speech and language assessment application. The evaluation focused Design Science Research strategy was adopted for that purpose. Two physiotherapists, one occupational therapist and three speech therapists participated in the study. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) was used as the theoretical base for interview questions formation and data analysis. The study findings show that the suggested application is useful and easy to use; however, it should be more synchronised with speech therapists’ daily work routines. The speech therapists stressed that functionalities of the application should be designed in close collaboration with them, and it should be compatible with the already existing systems and services in place. Due to the impairments after stroke, the patients have some specific preferences for software and hardware such as a tablet with touch pen is the preferred hardware. Additionally, the interface should have bigger text fonts and pictures, and highly contrastive colours in the graphics should be used for patients’ convenience. The user’s privacy and security, patient’s current health, and their previous knowledge and experience about technology were also found important determinants for intention to use the given technology.
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| 8. |
- Ahmad, Awais, 1981-, et al.
(author)
-
Technology-enhanced speech and language relearning for stroke patients : defining requirements for a software application development
- 2020
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Speech and language relearning are challenging for stroke survivors as well as for medical caregiv-ers. After a stroke, a patient’s ability to read, write, speak, and listen is decreased to different degrees, which results in a compromised independent life and a decreased quality of life for the patient. Tech-nology enhances systems can play a vital role in this context. However, the available software are not specifically built for after the stroke patient’s needs. This paper is therefore aimed to gather require-ments for designing a tailor-made speech relearning software application for stroke survivors. A de-sign science approach was adopted, where different stakeholders such as medical caregivers and in-formation technology consultants were involved in the process. The well-informed and experienced participants in their fields highlighted some important requirements such as different types of inter-face for a patient than speech therapist with extra management functionality for speech therapists so that they can adjust the relearning exercises according to the patient’s needs. Software requirements vary from patient to patient where the intensity of speech and language impairments, general medical condition of the patient, age, prior experience, and knowledge about the information of the patient and social setup of the patient plays an important role. Since stroke is most common in adults and adults learn differently than children, adult learning theory might help understand the patients’ needs. There-fore, adult learning principles were involved in the requirement analysis process. The established re-quirements will be used for the development of speech and language relearning software.
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| 9. |
- Ahmad, Awais, 1981-, et al.
(author)
-
Testbed requirements for technology enhanced stroke rehabilitation to support independent living
- 2019
-
In: ICT4AWE 2019 - Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health. - : SCITEPRESS - Science and Technology Publications. ; , s. 174-182
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- An identified global phenomenon is that, as the percentage of older adults increases, new challenges arise for medical care and rehabilitation. Several research studies have presented e-health as a promising concept to support the idea of independent living among patients with chronic diseases. The Mid Sweden region has a relatively old population and is a region where people live with long distances to the nearest hospital or health care centres. This study had a focus on defining testbed requirements for a technology enhanced stroke rehabilitation adapted to the specific region. The focal research question to answer in this study was: What are the requirements and their associated benefits and barriers of using technology-enhanced systems instead of traditional techniques for stroke rehabilitation in the Mid Sweden region? With Design Science as the overall research strategy, data was collected by semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders in the field of stroke rehabilitation. A deductive thematic analysis was conducted where important themes were grouped into the four main requirement categories of: Technical, Human-computer-interaction, Clinic and Sustainability. Beside the more specific requirements, an interesting finding was the division of stroke rehabilitation into the categories motoric, cognitive and speech rehabilitation; also, how technology enhanced solutions might be used in these categories. Each category has a potential for a successful use of technology enhanced services, but as the standard procedure in traditional stroke rehabilitation each patient needs a personalised treatment.
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| 10. |
- Ahmad, Awais, 1981-, et al.
(author)
-
The Technology-Enhanced Requirements for the Three-Fold Stroke Rehabilitation to Support Independent Living
- 2020
-
In: Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health. - Cham : Springer. - 9783030526764 - 9783030526771 ; , s. 142-159
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Stroke is a common and severe disease that can be found in all regions across the globe, and not onlyamong older adults. Result of a stroke can be death, or a variety of disabilities caused by impairments indifferent brain functions. This chapter discusses technology enhanced stroke rehabilitation from a threefoldview of cognitive, motoric and speech rehabilitation. The important research question was: Whatwould be the requirements for technology-enhanced stroke rehabilitation in the areas of cognitive, motoricand speech rehabilitation? The study was carried out with a requirement-focused Design Science approachcollecting data with semi-structured interviews. Informants were selected in a purposive sampling choosingprofessionals with valuable knowledge and skills in stroke rehabilitation. The findings in this study havegenerated useful general requirements for a future implementation and testing of technology enhancedstroke rehabilitation. Within each of the three rehabilitation categories cognitive, motoric and speech, thereseems to be potential for successful use of technology enhanced services. This development ofrehabilitation services must follow the fundamental principle for all forms of stroke rehabilitation: eachpatient needs a personalised treatment. However, in all three rehabilitation categories, there is a need todefine more specific requirements based on feedback from stroke patients testing the rehabilitationservices.
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| 11. |
- Dobslaw, Felix, 1983-, et al.
(author)
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The Gap between Higher Education and the Software Industry - A Case Study on Technology Differences
- 2023
-
In: ACM International Conference Proceeding Series. - : Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). - 9781450399562 ; , s. 11-21
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We see an explosive global labour demand in the Software Industry, and higher education institutions play a crucial role in supplying the industry with professionals with relevant education. Existing literature identifies a gap between what software engineering education teaches students and what the software industry demands. Using our open-sourced Job Market AnalyseR (JMAR) text-analysis tool, we compared keywords from higher education course syllabi and job posts to investigate the knowledge gap from a technology-focused departure point. We present a trend analysis of technology in job posts over the past six years in Sweden. We found that demand for cloud and automation technology such as Kubernetes and Docker is rising in job ads but not that much in higher education syllabi. The language used in higher education syllabi and job ads differs where the former emphasizes concepts and the latter technologies more heavily. We discuss possible remedies to bridge this mismatch to draw further conclusions in future work, including calibrating JMAR to other industry-relevant aspects, including soft skills, software concepts, or new demographics.
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| 12. |
- Mozelius, Peter, 1959-, et al.
(author)
-
A game-based approach for motoric stroke rehabilitation : defining the requirements
- 2019
-
In: Proceedings of the European Conference on Games-based Learning. - Reading, UK : Academic publishing, Reading. ; , s. 519-526, s. 519-526
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The global phenomenon with an increased percentage of older adults is clearly identified in the Mid Sweden region. With a population that is older than the average, the need for medical care and rehabilitation is also higher. All diseases have their specialised treatments and rehabilitation requirements, and this study has a focus on defining requirements for game-based motoric stroke rehabilitation. The important research question to answer was: How might a game-based approach to motoric stroke rehabilitation support the idea of independent living? This study was carried out as a Requirement-Focused Design Science project, with the aim to define requirements for a stroke rehabilitation testbed. Requirements have been outlined with the Design science idea of asking the experts to explain their predictions of what they think will produce the effects. Eight domain experts with different professional roles were interviewed to obtain a multi-stakeholder perspective on technology enhanced and game-based stroke rehabilitation. Patterns and themes in the interview answers created categories in a thematic analysis. Furthermore, the concept was discussed with research colleagues with rich experience of e-health. All of the interviewed experts had a surprisingly positive attitude toward the game-based approach, but with the strong recommendation of an individualised rehabilitation schedule. There are large variations in both the rehabilitation needs and the stroke patients’ digital skills. An interesting comment from one of the informants was to involve dancing activities, as a complement to the game-based rehabilitation. Out of the three discussed stroke rehabilitation categories: cognitive, motoric and speech rehabilitation, motoric stroke rehabilitation seems to be the one with the highest potential for a game-based approach to support independent living. The outlined requirements could be an important part in the future implementation of a testbed for stroke rehabilitation
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| 13. |
- Mozelius, Peter, Dr. 1959-, et al.
(author)
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The Use of Virtual Reality Applications in Stroke Rehabilitation for Older Adults : Technology Enhanced Relearning
- 2020
-
In: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health. - : SciTePress. - 9789897584206 ; , s. 145-155
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- After stroke rehabilitation is a long-term relearning process that can be divided into cognitive relearning, speech relearning and motoric relearning. Today with an aging population it it interesting to look at technology enhanced and game-based solutions that can facilitate independent living for older adults. The aim of the study was to identify and categorise recently conducted research in the field of virtual reality applications for older adults’ relearning after stroke. This study was conducted as a systematic literature review with results categorised in a pre-defined framework. Findings indicate that virtual reality-based stroke rehabilitation is an emerging field that can renew after stroke rehabilitation. Most found studies were on stroke patients’ motoric and game-based relearning, and with less studies on speech rehabilitation. The conclusion is that virtual reality systems should not replace the existing stroke rehabilitation, but rather to have the idea of combining and extending the traditional relearning process where human-to-human interaction is essential. Finally, there are no virtual reality applications that can fit all stroke patients’ needs, but a thoughtful selection of exercises that matches each individual user would have a potential to enhance the current relearning therapy for older adults after stroke.
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| 14. |
- Sodhro, Ali Hassan, et al.
(author)
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Decentralized Energy Efficient Model for Data Transmission in IoT-based Healthcare System
- 2021
-
In: 2021 IEEE 93RD VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE (VTC2021-SPRING). - : IEEE. - 9781728189642 ; , s. 1-5
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The growing world population is facing challengessuch as increased chronic diseases and medical expenses.Integrate the latest modern technology into healthcare systemcan diminish these issues. Internet of medical things (IoMT) isthe vision to provide the better healthcare system. The IoMTcomprises of different sensor nodes connected together. TheIoMT system incorporated with medical devices (sensors) forgiven the healthcare facilities to the patient and physician canhave capability to monitor the patients very efficiently. Themain challenge for IoMT is the energy consumption, batterycharge consumption and limited battery lifetime in sensor basedmedical devices. During charging the charges that are stored inbattery and these charges are not fully utilized due to nonlinearity of discharging process. The short time period neededto restore these unused charges is referred as recovery effect. Analgorithm exploiting recovery effect to extend the batterylifetime that leads to low consumption of energy. This paperprovides the proposed adaptive Energy efficient (EEA)algorithm that adopts this effect for enhancing energyefficiency, battery lifetime and throughput. The results havebeen simulated on MATLAB by considering the Li-ion battery.The proposed adaptive Energy efficient (EEA) algorithm is alsocompared with other state of the art existing method named,BRLE. The Proposed algorithm increased the lifetime ofbattery, energy consumption and provides the improvedperformance as compared to BRLE algorithm. It consumes lowenergy and supports continuous connectivity of devices withoutany loss/ interruptions.
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| 15. |
- Sodhro, Ali Hassan, et al.
(author)
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Internet of Medical Things for Independent Living and Re-Learning
- 2021
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In: Internet of Medical Things for Independent Living and Re-Learning. ; , s. 1-5
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This position paper gives better insight about the role and importance of Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) for independent living and re-learning for older adults. Sensing Technologies are the paradigm shift for transforming conventional healthcare practices into the smart, and self-assisted activities, which are envisioned for today's medical world. Internet of Things (IoT) and IoMT are the interrelated technologies for promoting independent living and re-learning practices. In this paper, re-learning is defined as the process for adults to recover useful instrumental activities of daily living skills that have been lost after an impairment.
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| 16. |
- Sodhro, Ali Hassan, et al.
(author)
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Towards Cognitive Authentication for Smart Healthcare Applications
- 2022
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In: Sensors. - : MDPI AG. - 1424-8220. ; 22:6
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Secure and reliable sensing plays the key role for cognitive tracking i.e., activity identification and cognitive monitoring of every individual. Over the last years there has been an increasing interest from both academia and industry in cognitive authentication also known as biometric recognition. These are an effect of individuals’ biological and physiological traits. Among various traditional biometric and physiological features, we include cognitive/brainwaves via electroencephalogram (EEG) which function as a unique performance indicator due to its reliable, flexible, and unique trait resulting in why it is hard for an un-authorized entity(ies) to breach the boundaries by stealing or mimicking them. Conventional security and privacy techniques in the medical domain are not the potential candidates to simultaneously provide both security and energy efficiency. Therefore, state-of-the art biometrics methods (i.e., machine learning, deep learning, etc.) their applications with novel solutions are investigated and recommended. The experimental setup considers EEG data analysis and interpretation of BCI. The key purpose of this setup is to reduce the number of electrodes and hence the computational power of the Random Forest (RF) classifier while testing EEG data. The performance of the random forest classifier was based on EEG datasets for 20 subjects. We found that the total number of occurred events revealed 96.1% precision in terms of chosen events.
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