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Available evidence suggests that digital health solutions have the potential to improve care provision for older people with multiple chronic conditions (multimorbidity). Successful implementation of digital health solutions within ecosystems of health care requires an in-depth understanding of users' needs and clear assessment of the factors that may facilitate the adoption and sustained use of a solution as part of an effective model of coordinated care. In this paper we present the results from a qualitative investigation aimed at testing the transferability of an ICT-based solution for integrated care (the ProACT system), optimised for older people with multimorbidity. In total, 15 participants grouped into three different use-case scenarios were given the possibility to use the ProACT system in their living environments (i.e. private homes, sheltered apartments) for one month. Follow-up focus groups were conducted to assess the participants' experience with the system. Thematic analysis of the focus group transcripts was conducted to identify factors that influence the usability, acceptability and perceived affordability (accessibility) of ProACT in different use contexts. From this analysis, four main factors related to context, user, intervention and technology were identified as potentially influencing adoption and use of ProACT on a daily basis. In addition, 12 sub-themes were identified as providing a comprehensive overview of the users' views on the tested system. Overall, the results from this qualitative investigation point to the need to consider technical as well as psychological factors to ensure that digital health-based solutions are accepted by their end users and are perceived as useful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the main objectives for people with intellectual disability (with or without other disabilities) is the ability to perform multistep activities (e.g. preparing a sandwich) without external help from a caregiver. This paper provides a review of studies that evaluated technology systems to teach or support people with intellectual and other disabilities to carry out multistep functional activities through the presentation of single-step instructions. A literature search was performed for English language articles indexed in PubMed, PsycINFO and Web of Science. A narrative synthesis of the articles selected was provided together with a quantitative estimate of the effectiveness of their technology-aided interventions. The latter was carried out via the Percent of Nonoverlapping Data (PND) method. Twenty-six articles met inclusion criteria, with most studies following a single-subject research design (n = 25). The technologies identified were grouped into three categories (self-operated, automatic, and intelligent). Overall, the results are encouraging in that most of the technology solutions reviewed led to positive outcomes in terms of increasing independence of people with intellectual disability in performing relevant multistep activities (average PND score = 96.3%). This review highlights that technology systems designed to present single-step instructions can be effective in teaching or supporting the independent performance of multistep activities by people with intellectual disability with or without other disabilities. Only minimal research exists on development and use of intelligent systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Metrics utilized within the Medical Science Liaison (MSL) role are plentiful and traditionally quantitative. We sought to understand the current use and value of metrics applied to the MSL role, including the use of qualitative metrics. Methods: We developed a list of 70 MSL leaders working in Canada, spanning 29 companies. Invitations were emailed Jun 16, 2020 and the 25-question online survey was open for 3 weeks. Questions were designed to assess demographics as well as how and why metrics are applied to the MSL role. Data analyses were descriptive. Results: Responses were received from 44 leaders (63%). Of the 42 eligible, 45% had ≤ 2 years of experience as MSL leaders and 86% supported specialty care products over many phases of the product lifecycle. A majority (69%) agreed or strongly agreed that metrics are critical to understanding whether an MSL is delivering value, and 98% had used metrics in the past year. The most common reason to use metrics was 'to show value/impact of MSLs to leadership' (66%). The most frequently used metric was 'number of health-care professional (HCP) interactions', despite this being seen as having moderate value. Quantitative metrics were used more often than qualitative, although qualitative were more often highly valued. Conclusion: The data collected show a lack of agreement between the frequency of use for some metrics and their value in demonstrating the contribution of an MSL. Overall, MSL leaders in our study felt qualitative metrics were a better means of showing the true impact of MSLs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined whether interacting with a humanoid robot influences children's gaze aversion, an effortless strategy that people commonly use to facilitate thinking when asked challenging questions. Following the intentional stance model, we hypothesized that interacting with agents perceived as having a mind would modulate the social relevance assigned by the children to their interlocutor. Accordingly, we expected to observe an increase in children's gaze aversion rates when questioned by an interaction partner believed to have a mind, compared to interaction conditions in which the questioner was believed to be a machine. To test this hypothesis, we involved 94 children in two experiments. In Experiment 1, the children interacted either with a humanoid robot (Human–Robot; n = 22) or with a human (Human–Human; n = 22) questioner. In Experiment 2, all the children interacted with a humanoid robot: one group was told the robot was controlled by a human (Avatar; n = 25), while the other group was told the robot was controlled by a computer algorithm (Machine; n = 25). Our results show that: (1) adopting an intentional stance (Human–Human; Avatar) increases gaze aversion rates; (2) gaze aversion increases and (3) response accuracy decreases as a function of question difficulty; (4) accuracy does not differ between interaction conditions. Based on these findings, we propose that gaze aversion rates might be considered an objective behavioural indicator of mind perception. Implications for robot-mediated education are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]