A Framework for the Human-Centered Design of Service Processes Enabled by Medical Devices: A Case Study of Wearable Devices for Parkinson's Disease.

The successful introduction of medical devices (MDs) in real-world settings hinges on designing service processes that cater to stakeholders' needs. While human-centered design (HCD) approaches have been widely applied to service process innovation, the literature lacks a methodology that leverages MDs' key features to design service processes that meet stakeholders' needs. This study aims to fill this gap by developing a framework for the HCD of service processes enabled by MDs.

A wearable inertial system to evaluate Tai Chi training motor effects in patients with Parkinson's disease.

Physical therapy is strongly recommended for patients with neurological disorders. Tai Chi-based treatments seem to improve physical functions like gait speed and balance. However, assessments after treatment rely on semi-quantitative clinical scales affected by subjectivity with controversial results.

Stay cognitively and socially active with me: a six-month study of a socialization service.

50% of older adults over 60 years old are experiencing social isolation. Assistive technology can provide solutions that promote the connection with their families and other stakeholders. In this context, this paper presents a pilot study of a socialization service with 3 functions tested by 10 older adults and 10 informal caregivers.

Mild cognitive impairment identification based on motor and cognitive dual-task pooled indices.

Objective: This study investigates the possibility of adopting motor and cognitive dual-task (MCDT) approaches to identify subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and subjective cognitive impairment (SCI).

Methods: The upper and lower motor performances of 44 older adults were assessed using the SensHand and SensFoot wearable system during three MCDTs: forefinger tapping (FTAP), toe-tapping heel pin (TTHP), and walking 10 m (GAIT). We developed five pooled indices (PIs) based on these MCDTs, and we included them, along with demographic data (age) and clinical scores (Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB) scores), in five logistic regression models.

Design and Evaluation of Personalized Services to Foster Active Aging: The Experience of Technology Pre-Validation in Italian Pilots.

Assistive devices could promote independent living and support the active and healthy aging of an older population; however, several factors can badly influence the long-term use of new technologies. In this context, this paper presents a two-step methodology called “pre-validation” that aims to identify the factors that can bias the use of new services, thus minimizing the risk of an unsuccessful longer trial. The proposed pre-validation methodology is composed of two main phases that aim to assess the usability and the reliability of the technology assessed in a laboratory environment and the usability, acceptability, user experience, and reliability of the technology in real environments.

A New Motor and Cognitive Dual-Task Approach Based on Foot Tapping for The Identification of Mild Cognitive Impairment.

This study investigates the adoption of innovative Motor and Cognitive Dual-Task (MCDT) based on the combination of increasing motor and cognitive tasks to discern between subjects with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Cognitively Normal Adults (CNA). We aim to adopt new MCDT protocols and to compare their performance against the gold standard (a walking based MCDT, called GAIT). 27 older adults have been assessed through a customized wearable system during 4 MCDTs.

On the Use of Assistive Technology during the COVID-19 Outbreak: Results and Lessons Learned from Pilot Studies.

As a consequence of the COVID-19 emergency, frail citizens felt isolated because of social isolation, suspended and/or strongly reduced home assistance, and limited access to hospitals. In this sense, assistive technology could play a pivotal role in empowering frail older adults reducing their isolation, as well as in reinforcing the work of formal caregivers and professionals. In this context, the goal of this paper is to present four pilot studies-conducted from March 2020 to April 2021-to promptly react to COVID-19 by providing assistive technology solutions, aiming to (1) guarantee high-quality service to older adults in-home or in residential facility contexts, (2) promote social inclusion, and (3) reduce the virus transmission.

User Profiling to Enhance Clinical Assessment and Human-Robot Interaction: A Feasibility Study.

Socially Assistive Robots (SARs) are designed to support us in our daily life as a companion, and assistance but also to support the caregivers' work. SARs should show personalized and human-like behavior to improve their acceptance and, consequently, their use. Additionally, they should be trustworthy by caregivers and professionals to be used as support for their work (e.

Hands-feet wireless devices: Test-retest reliability and discriminant validity of motor measures in Parkinson's disease telemonitoring.

Background: Telemonitoring, a branch of telemedicine, involves the use of technological tools to remotely detect clinical data and evaluate patients. Telemonitoring of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) should be performed using reliable and discriminant motor measures. Furthermore, the method of data collection and transmission, and the type of subjects suitable for telemonitoring must be well defined.

The VISTA datasets, a combination of inertial sensors and depth cameras data for activity recognition.

This paper makes the VISTA database, composed of inertial and visual data, publicly available for gesture and activity recognition. The inertial data were acquired with the SensHand, which can capture the movement of wrist, thumb, index and middle fingers, while the RGB-D visual data were acquired simultaneously from two different points of view, front and side. The VISTA database was acquired in two experimental phases: in the former, the participants have been asked to perform 10 different actions; in the latter, they had to execute five scenes of daily living, which corresponded to a combination of the actions of the selected actions.

International eHealth ecosystems and the quest for the winning value proposition: findings from a survey study.

Background: eHealth ecosystems are becoming increasingly important for national and international healthcare. In such ecosystems, different actors are connected and work together to create mutual value. However, it is important to be aware of the goals that each actor pursues within the ecosystem.

Involving Older Adults During COVID-19 Restrictions in Developing an Ecosystem Supporting Active Aging: Overview of Alternative Elicitation Methods and Common Requirements From Five European Countries.

Background: Information and communication technology solutions have the potential to support active and healthy aging and improve monitoring and treatment outcomes. To make such solutions acceptable, all stakeholders must be involved in the requirements elicitation process. Due to the COVID-19 situation, alternative approaches to commonly used face-to-face methods must often be used.

Pilots for Healthy and Active Ageing (PHArA-ON) Project: Definition of New Technological Solutions for Older People in Italian Pilot Sites Based on Elicited User Needs.

Background: The Pilots for Healthy and Active Ageing (PHArA-ON) project aimsto ensure reality smart and active living for Europe's ageing population by creating a set of integrated and highly customizable interoperable open platforms with advanced services, devices, and technologies and tools. The aim of the present study was to determine the needs and preferences of older people and their caregivers for improving healthy and active aging and guiding the technological development of thePHArA-ON system.

Methods: A pre-structured interview was administered to older adults, informal caregivers and professional caregivers (including social operators) taking part in the piloting sessions.

A wearable ring-shaped inertial system to identify action planning impairments during reach-to-grasp sequences: a pilot study.

Background: The progressive ageing of the population is leading to an increasing number of people affected by cognitive decline, including disorders in executive functions (EFs), such as action planning. Current procedures to evaluate cognitive decline are based on neuropsychological tests, but novel methods and approaches start to be investigated. Reach-to-grasp (RG) protocols have shown that intentions can influence the EFs of action planning.

Grasping Social Apathy: The Role of Reach-To-Grasp Action Kinematics for the Assessment of Social Apathy in Mild Neurocognitive Disorders.

Background: Social apathy, a reduction in initiative in proposing or engaging in social activities or interactions, is common in mild neurocognitive disorders (MND). Current apathy assessment relies on self-reports or clinical scales, but growing attention is devoted to defining more objective, measurable and non-invasive apathy proxies.

Objective: In the present study we investigated the interest of recording action kinematics in a social reach-to-grasp task for the assessment of social apathy.

Innovative motor and cognitive dual-task approaches combining upper and lower limbs may improve dementia early detection.

Motor and Cognitive Dual-Task (MCDT) represents an innovative chance to assess Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). We compare two novel MCDTs, fore-finger tapping (FTAP), toe-tapping (TTHP), to gold standards for cognitive screening (Mini-Mental State Examination-MMSE), and to a well-established MCDT (GAIT). We administered the aforementioned MCDTs to 44 subjects (MCIs and controls).

The use of Motor and Cognitive Dual-Task quantitative assessment on subjects with mild cognitive impairment: A systematic review.

Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease (AD) represent a health emergency. The identification of valid and noninvasive markers to identify people with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is profoundly advocated. This review outlines the use of quantitative Motor and Cognitive Dual-Task (MCDT) on MCI, by technologies aid.

A Wearable System to Objectify Assessment of Motor Tasks for Supporting Parkinson's Disease Diagnosis.

Objective assessment of the motor evaluation test for Parkinson's disease (PD) diagnosis is an open issue both for clinical and technical experts since it could improve current clinical practice with benefits both for patients and healthcare systems. In this work, a wearable system composed of four inertial devices (two SensHand and two SensFoot), and related processing algorithms for extracting parameters from limbs motion was tested on 40 healthy subjects and 40 PD patients. Seventy-eight and 96 kinematic parameters were measured from lower and upper limbs, respectively.

How proprioception changes before and after total knee arthroplasty: A systematic review.

Background: Proprioception is one of the most significant factors in balance, joint stability, graceful movement, coordination, and injury prevention. It involves a wide set of receptors located within joints, muscles, and tendons. Given the neurophysiological processes involved in proprioception response are multiple and complex, there is not one single method to measure it.

Objective assessment of blinking and facial expressions in Parkinson's disease using a vertical electro-oculogram and facial surface electromyography.

Objective: Hypomimia is a common and early symptom of Parkinson's disease (PD), which reduces the ability of PD patients to manifest emotions. Currently, it is visually evaluated by the neurologist during neurological examinations for PD diagnosis, as described in task 3.2 of the Movement Disorder Society-Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS).

Upper limb motor pre-clinical assessment in Parkinson's disease using machine learning.

Introduction: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder characterized by disabling motor and non-motor symptoms. For example, idiopathic hyposmia (IH), which is a reduced olfactory sensitivity, is typical in >95% of PD patients and is a preclinical marker for the pathology.

Methods: In this work, a wearable inertial device, named SensHand V1, was used to acquire motion data from the upper limbs during the performance of six tasks selected by MDS-UPDRS III.

Comparative Motor Pre-clinical Assessment in Parkinson's Disease Using Supervised Machine Learning Approaches.

Millions of people worldwide are affected by Parkinson's disease (PD), which significantly worsens their quality of life. Currently, the diagnosis is based on assessment of motor symptoms, but interest toward non-motor symptoms is increasing, as well. Among them, idiopathic hyposmia (IH) is associated with an increased risk of developing PD in healthy adults.