SmartHypnos eXpert: A MATLAB toolbox for sleep experts supporting sleep staging and respiratory event detection.

Background And Objective: Sleep is a biological process of fundamental importance to physical and mental health. Sleep staging and respiratory event detection are lengthy, error prone and tiresome procedures conducted by sleep experts. Computerized tools would potentially reduce the time needed for sleep staging.

Comparative Evaluation of Setup Errors Using Planar Imaging and Cone Beam Computed Tomography: Feasibility of Asymmetric Planning Margins.

Background Accurate patient positioning in radiotherapy is critical to ensure adequate dose delivery to tumors and minimize radiation dose to normal tissues. Two image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) techniques, planar and cone beam computed tomography (CBCT), are commonly used to measure patient setup deviations. Objective This study aims to compare the mean setup errors between planar and CBCT procedures in various irradiated areas, across the three orthogonal axes and at different times of day (morning-afternoon), and to evaluate whether the use of asymmetric planning margins between CTV and PTV is statistically justified.

Economic Evaluation of Artificially Intelligent (AI) Diagnostic Systems: Cost Consequence Analysis of Clinician-Friendly Interpretable Computer-Aided Diagnosis (ICADX) Tested in Cardiology, Obstetrics, and Gastroenterology, from the HosmartAI Horizon 2020 Project.

: This study evaluates the economic impact of digital health interventions (DHIs) developed under the HosmartAI EU-funded program, focusing on obstetrics, cardiology, and gastroenterology. : A Cost Consequence Analysis (CCA) was chosen in order to be able to examine the costs and consequences of AI technologies in early diagnosis of preterm births, echocardiography, coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA), and capsule endoscopy (CE). : The results show that in obstetrics and CCTA, the AI technologies are cost-saving, with the AI-based preterm birth detection leading to savings of 99,840 EUR due to reduced severity of prematurity.

The use of low-density EEG for the classification of PPA and MCI.

Objective: Dissociating Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) from Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is an important, yet challenging task. Given the need for low-cost and time-efficient classification, we used low-density electroencephalography (EEG) recordings to automatically classify PPA, MCI and healthy control (HC) individuals. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to classify individuals from these three populations at the same time.

European Federation of Organisations for medical physics (EFOMP) policy statement no 20: The role of medical physicists and medical physics experts in physiological measurement and related therapies.

The role of medical physics professionals (MPPs) (medical physicists and medical physics experts) in physiological measurement and related therapies (PM&T) applied in e.g., critical care, neurophysiology, neurology, physiology, audiology, and neurotology has long been acknowledged.

SmartHypnos: An Android application for low-cost sleep self-monitoring and personalized recommendation generation.

Background And Objective: Sleep is an essential biological function that is critical for a healthy and fulfilling life. Available sleep quality assessment tools contain long questionnaires covering a long period of time, not taking into account daily physical activity patterns and individual lifestyles.

Methods: In this paper we present SmartHypnos, an Android application that supports low-end devices.

Identifying the Health Educational Needs of Refugees: Empirical Evidence from a Delphi Study.

Refugees experience poorer health outcomes especially which can be exacerbated by or can be a result of low health literacy of refugee populations. To address poor health outcomes, health literacy, and health usage in refugee populations, it is essential to develop health educational interventions for refugees' healthcare integration. To do so, learning objectives must be identified based on refugees' health knowledge gaps.

Sparing the Hippocampus in Prophylactic Cranial Irradiation Using Three Different Linear Accelerators: A Comparative Study.

Hippocampus protection, as an organ at risk in brain radiotherapy, might protect patients' quality of life. Prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) has been used traditionally in small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients as it increases survival. This study aimed to discover the contributing parameters for a successful PCI with simultaneous protection of the hippocampus by using three different treatment machines.

Masked emotions: does children's affective state influence emotion recognition?

Introduction: Facial emotion recognition abilities of children have been the focus of attention across various fields, with implications for communication, social interaction, and human behavior. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, wearing a face mask in public became mandatory in many countries, hindering social information perception and emotion recognition. Given the importance of visual communication for children's social-emotional development, concerns have been raised on whether face masks could impair their ability to recognize emotions and thereby possibly impact their social-emotional development.

Neurological Examination via Telemedicine: An Updated Review Focusing on Movement Disorders.

Patients with movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease (PD) living in remote and underserved areas often have limited access to specialized healthcare, while the feasibility and reliability of the video-based examination remains unclear. The aim of this narrative review is to examine which parts of remote neurological assessment are feasible and reliable in movement disorders. Clinical studies have demonstrated that most parts of the video-based neurological examination are feasible, even in the absence of a third party, including stance and gait-if an assistive device is not required-bradykinesia, tremor, dystonia, some ocular mobility parts, coordination, and gross muscle power and sensation assessment.

Thematic analysis of stakeholder perceptions for co-creative healthcare XR resource design and development; traversing a minefield of opportunities.

Introduction: The expansive curricular volume of healthcare education makes a necessity the incorporation of innovative methods and immersive media in it. The core challenge in such approaches is the timely development of relevant immersive content such as Virtual, Augmented or Mixed Reality (VR/AR/MR) resources for healthcare topics. There is currently significant interest in the use of co-creative methods for streamlining immersive content development.

Medical Doctors Approaches and Understanding of Health Literacy: A Systematic Literature Review.

A physician's role is critical in fostering patient health literacy (HL) and influencing various aspects, including patient-physician communication and treatment effectiveness. The purpose of this systematic literature review is to analyze physicians' perspectives, comprehension, and management of HL. The focus of this review is on physicians' views, opinions, experiences, and strategies related to HL.

Education of Patients With Atrial Fibrillation and Evaluation of the Efficacy of a Mobile Virtual Patient Environment: Protocol for a Multicenter Pseudorandomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia and is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity. Patient knowledge about AF and its management is paramount but often limited. Patients need to be appropriately informed about treatment options, medicinal adherence, and potential consequences of nonadherence, while also understanding treatment goals and expectations from it.

The Pre-Interictal Network State in Idiopathic Generalized Epilepsies.

Generalized spike wave discharges (GSWDs) are the typical electroencephalographic findings of Idiopathic Generalized Epilepsies (IGEs). These discharges are either interictal or ictal and recent evidence suggests differences in their pathogenesis. The aim of this study is to investigate, through functional connectivity analysis, the pre-interictal network state in IGEs, which precedes the formation of the interictal GSWDs.

Animacy Processing in Autism: Event-Related Potentials Reflect Social Functioning Skills.

Though previous studies with autistic individuals have provided behavioral evidence of animacy perception difficulties, the spatio-temporal dynamics of animacy processing in autism remain underexplored. This study investigated how animacy is neurally encoded in autistic adults, and whether potential deficits in animacy processing have cascading deleterious effects on their social functioning skills. We employed a picture naming paradigm that recorded accuracy and response latencies to animate and inanimate pictures in young autistic adults and age- and IQ-matched healthy individuals, while also employing high-density EEG analysis to map the spatio-temporal dynamics of animacy processing.

A hackathon as a tool to enhance research and practice on electronic health record systems' interoperability for chronic disease management and prevention.

Objectives: The development of a standardized technical framework for exchanging electronic health records is widely recognized as a challenging endeavor that necessitates appropriate technological, semantic, organizational, and legal interventions to support the continuity of health and care. In this context, this study delineates a pan-European hackathon aimed at evaluating the efforts undertaken by member states of the European Union to develop a European electronic health record exchange format. This format is intended to facilitate secure cross-border healthcare and optimize service delivery to citizens, paving the way toward a unified European health data space.

Sensorized T-Shirt with Intarsia-Knitted Conductive Textile Integrated Interconnections: Performance Assessment of Cardiac Measurements during Daily Living Activities.

The development of smart wearable solutions for monitoring daily life health status is increasingly popular, with chest straps and wristbands being predominant. This study introduces a novel sensorized T-shirt design with textile electrodes connected via a knitting technique to a Movesense device. We aimed to investigate the impact of stationary and movement actions on electrocardiography (ECG) and heart rate (HR) measurements using our sensorized T-shirt.

Greek medical professionals approaches and understanding of health literacy: a qualitative study.

Background: Health literacy holds significant importance for medical professionals, as it is widely acknowledged as a key element in enhancing health promotion and overall well-being. The primary objective of this study is to explore Greek physicians' comprehension of health literacy, the significance they attribute to it, their strategies for addressing patients with low health literacy, and the potential barriers they face while striving to enhance a patient's health literacy. In this context, we examine the communication methods employed by physicians as an integral part of their approach to improving a patient's health literacy.

ClinApp: A Microservices-Based Platform for Efficient Medical Visit Scheduling.

Clin App is a platform streamlining medical appointment management and patient data collection using a conversational agent. Focused on healthcare professionals and patients, it offers appointment automation, questionnaire creation, and medical data management. This work showcases ClinApp's microservices-based architecture and its user-centered design.

Towards an Explainable AI-Based Tool to Predict Preterm Birth.

Preterm birth (PTB) is defined as delivery occurring before 37 weeks of gestation. In this paper, Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based predictive models are adapted to accurately estimate the probability of PTB. In doing so, pregnant women' objective results and variables extracted from the screening procedure in combination with demographics, medical history, social history, and other medical data are used.

Towards the Definition of an Intelligent System for Organizing Medical Visits and Collecting Medical Data.

Appointment Scheduling (AS), typically serves as the basis for the majority of non-urgent healthcare services and is a fundamental healthcare-related procedure which, if done correctly and effectively, can lead to significant benefits for the healthcare facility. The main objective of this work is to present ClinApp, an intelligent system able to schedule and manage medical appointments and collect medical data directly from patients.

A Smart Digital Health Platform to Enable Monitoring of Quality of Life and Frailty in Older Patients with Cancer: A Mixed-Methods, Feasibility Study Protocol.

Objectives: LifeChamps is an EU Horizon 2020 project that aims to create a digital platform to enable monitoring of health-related quality of life and frailty in patients with cancer over the age of 65. Our primary objective is to assess feasibility, usability, acceptability, fidelity, adherence, and safety parameters when implementing LifeChamps in routine cancer care. Secondary objectives involve evaluating preliminary signals of efficacy and cost-effectiveness indicators.

Digital Transformation of Cancer Care in the Era of Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Data-Driven Interventions: Navigating the Field.

Objectives: To navigate the field of digital cancer care and define and discuss key aspects and applications of big data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and data-driven interventions.

Data Sources: Peer-reviewed scientific publications and expert opinion.

Conclusion: The digital transformation of cancer care, enabled by big data analytics, AI, and data-driven interventions, presents a significant opportunity to revolutionize the field.

NeuroSuitUp: System Architecture and Validation of a Motor Rehabilitation Wearable Robotics and Serious Game Platform.

Background: This article presents the system architecture and validation of the NeuroSuitUp body-machine interface (BMI). The platform consists of wearable robotics jacket and gloves in combination with a serious game application for self-paced neurorehabilitation in spinal cord injury and chronic stroke.

Methods: The wearable robotics implement a sensor layer, to approximate kinematic chain segment orientation, and an actuation layer.