An ICT strategy to support a patient-centred approach to diabetes care
- Authors: Petratos, Anastasia
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Medical care -- Technological innovations -- Developing countries Health services administration -- Developing countries -- Data processing , Telecommunication in medicine Diabetes -- Treatment
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/14466 , vital:27650
- Description: Factors such as poverty, ethnicity, socio-economic status, poor infrastructure and governance, etc., are some of the reasons that effective and proven prevention and treatment interventions for most of the major causes of mortality and morbidity in the developing world continue to fail. Chronic diseases require complex interventions that these countries simply cannot maintain. Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic disease that is on the rise worldwide. This disease is a lifestyle disease, which means, that it is brought on by poor health habits. Statistics show that 285 million (6.4%) people aged between 20 and 79 years will be affected by Diabetes in 2010 and a staggering 439 million (7.7%) by 2030. This is a projected growth of 69% in developing countries and 20% in developed countries. The findings from studies conducted from 1993 to 2003 in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in South Africa, around the health care services for diabetes highlights many challenges. Sadly, the challenges 10 years after that study, are very similar. The conditions of people with Diabetes can be improved through regular monitoring of patients, improvement and monitoring of health care provided, education on healthy lifestyle, as well as education on the importance of adherence to treatment plans for the successful management of the condition. The diabetes endemic in South Africa is exacerbated by the manual functions that are performed in all aspects of monitoring and management of the disease. With the advancements that have been made in ICT and the many apps that already exist for healthcare, it is sensible to state that ICT can assist in the monitoring and management of diabetes. Another factor that is considered is that of patient-centred care. The huge number of people who need acute care and treatment in hospitals and clinics have forced a previously caring environment, to turn into a cold, almost production line affair. The sick wait in long queues and are ushered in and out of the consulting rooms as fast as possible without even as much as a “hallo”. This has left a void in the healthcare delivery to South Africans which should never have been removed in the first place, namely patient-centred care. This means that the patient is at the centre of the treatment and fully involved in the decisions about his/her health. Every patient deserves to be recognised as a human-being and treated with dignity and respect. Treatment plans for long term chronic care patients such as diabetics, should be thoroughly discussed with the patient and they should believe and comit themselves to the treatment plan. These plans are life-long and require dedication and as it is vital that patients are part of decision making and understand fully what they are expected to do. Bearing this in mind, this study has investigated the needs and care plans for people with diabetes. Specialist in the field of diabetes were interviewed and recognised care plans for diabetes such as those from WHO, IDF and SEMSDA were studied. This study also established, that by practising a patient-centred approach the adherence to a treatment plan is likely to be higher. The strategy developed involves the person with diabetes, the healthcare worker and the support structure in the care plan of the diabetic. The use of ICT as part of the solution must consider the patient-centred requirements for using IT so that the people using the strategy are comfortable and not intimidated by the technology. The need to incorporate e-health into governments’ healthcare plans has been growing over the last decade. The GSMA conducted research into mobile health opportunities in South Africa and found that SA now has a penetration of 98% and that this is the ideal medium to address the inaccessibility and inequality of healthcare in SA. The causes identified as playing a major role in the rise in diabetes were identified and it was determined that through the implementation of an ICT strategy for diabetes care, many of these can be addressed. These include the use of technology for, improved monitoring and management, increased diabetes awareness and education, and promotion of healthy lifestyle. The study focuses on the self-management aspect of diabetes and produces a strategy that incorporates various ICT solutions that would assist in the daily aspects of diabetes care, as well as follow a patient-centred approach to diabetes care. This strategy developed in this study does not need any intervention from government as it is driven by the people who have diabetes and their healthcare workers, with the aid of the technology that they currently have on hand.
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- Date Issued: 2017
A context-aware model to improve usability of information presented on mobile devices
- Authors: Ntawanga, Felix Fred
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Context-aware computing , Online information services
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:10495 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1020768
- Description: Online information access on mobile devices is increasing as a result of the growth in the use of Internet-enabled handheld (or pocket-size) devices. The combined influence of recent enabling technologies such as Web 2.0, mobile app stores and improved wireless networks have driven the increase in online applications that allow users to access various types of information on mobile devices regardless of time and location. Examples of such applications (usually shortened to app) include: social media, such as FacebookTM App and TwitterTM App, banking applications such as (Standard Bank South Africa)TM Mobile Banking App and First National Bank (FNB) BankingTM App, and news application such as news 24TM App and BBCTM News App. Online businesses involved in buying, selling and business transaction processing activities via the Internet have exploited the opportunity to extend electronic commerce (e-commerce) initiatives into mobile commerce (m-commerce). Online businesses that interact with end user customers implement business to consumer (B2C) m-commerce applications that enable customers to access and browse product catalogue information on mobile devices, anytime, anywhere. Customers accessing electronic product catalogue information on a mobile device face a number of challenges such as a long list of products presented on a small screen and a longer information download time. These challenges mainly originate from the limiting and dynamic nature of the mobile apps operating environment, for example, dynamic location, bandwidth fluctuations and, diverse and limited device features, collectively referred to as context. The goal of this research was to design and implement a context-aware model that can be incorporated into an m-commerce application in order to improve the presentation of product catalogue information on m-commerce storefronts. The motivation for selecting product catalogue is prompted by literature which indicates that improved presentation of information in m-commerce (and e-commerce) applications has a positive impact on usability of the websites. Usable m-commerce (and e-commerce) websites improve efficiency in consumer behaviour that impacts sales, profits and business growth. The context-aware model aimed at collecting context information within the user environment and utilising it to determine optimal retrieval and presentation of product catalogue in m-commerce. An integrated logical context sensor and Mathematical algorithms were implemented in the context-aware model. The integrated logical context sensor was responsible for the collection of different types of predetermined context information such as device specification or capabilities, connection bandwidth, location and time of the day as well as the user profile. The algorithms transformed the collected context information into usable formats and enabled optimal retrieval and presentation of product catalogue data on a specific mobile device. Open-source implementation tools were utilised to implement components of the model including: HTML5, PhP, JavaScript and MySQL database. The context-aware model was incorporated into an existing m-commerce application. Two user evaluation studies were conducted during the course of the research. The first evaluation was to evaluate the accuracy of information collected by the context sensor component of the model. This survey was conducted with a sample of 30 users from different countries across the world. In-between the context sensor and main evaluation surveys, a pilot study was conducted with a sample of 19 users with great experience in mobile application development and use from SAP Next Business and Technology, Africa. Finally an overall user evaluation study was conducted with a sample of 30 users from a remote area called Kgautswane in Limpopo Province, South Africa. The results obtained indicate that the context-aware model was able to determine accurate context information in real-time and effectively determine how much product information should be retrieved and how the information should be presented on a mobile device interface. Two main contributions emerged from the research, first the research contributed to the field of mobile Human Computer Interaction. During the research, techniques of evaluating and improving usability of mobile applications were demonstrated. Secondly, the research made a significant contribution to the upcoming field of context-aware computing. The research brought clarity with regard to context-aware computing which is lacking in existing, current research despite the field’s proven impact of improving usability of applications. Researchers can utilise contributions made in this research to develop further techniques and usable context-aware solutions.
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- Date Issued: 2014