Gamification for mHealth - A Review of Playful Mobile Healthcare.

Mobile technology is an everyday companion, which can be utilized to support and even to enable prevention, diagnostics and therapy in healthcare. Repetitive tasks, particularly when managing unwanted circumstances such as coping with chronic diseases, could be exhausting. Nevertheless, the patients' compliance is needed especially in context of these diseases.

A methodological framework for the analysis of highly intensive, multimodal and heterogeneous data in the context of health-enabling technologies and ambient-assisted living.

Background: When applying health-enabling technologies (HET), researchers are faced with analyzing highly intensive, multimodal and heterogeneous data sets. Experience has shown that there is a lack of understanding concerning the relationship of analysis methods suitable for such data sets and their appropriate application.

Objectives: The objective of this paper is to describe the present situation when analyzing data of HET and the main problems in this context, to present a nomenclature suitable for analysis methods in the context of HET, to present an example dealing with geriatric diseases that highlights the problems and the urgent need for results and to explain some steps for future work.

Reflections on 'health care in the information society--a prognosis for the year 2013'.

In the year 2000 a talk was given and later published on how health care could look like in the year 2013. The aim was to "identify priorities in medical informatics research and necessary activities by policymakers in order to ensure an efficient, advanced, and yet affordable future health care system" (Haux R, Ammenwerth E, Herzog W, Knaup P. Health care in the information society.

On determining factors for good research in biomedical and health informatics. Some lessons learned.

Objective: What are the determining factors for good research in medical informatics or, from a broader perspective, in biomedical and health informatics?

Method: From the many lessons learned during my professional career, I tried to identify a fair sampling of such factors. On the occasion of giving the IMIA Award of Excellence lecture during MedInfo 2013, they were presented for discussion.

Results: Sixteen determining factors (df) have been identified: early identification and promotion (df1), appropriate education (df2), stimulating persons and environments (df3), sufficient time and backtracking opportunities (df4), breadth of medical informatics competencies (df5), considering the necessary preconditions for good medical informatics research (df6), easy access to high-quality knowledge (df7), sufficient scientific career opportunities (df8), appropriate conditions for sustainable research (df9), ability to communicate and to solve problems (df10), as well as to convey research results (df11) in a highly inter- and multidisciplinary environment, ability to think for all and, when needed, taking the lead (df12), always staying unbiased (df13), always keeping doubt (df14), but also always trying to provide solutions (df15), and, finally, being aware that life is more (df16).

Home-centered health-enabling technologies and regional health information systems. An integration approach based on international standards.

Introduction: This article is part of the Focus Theme of Methods of Information in Medicine on "Using Data from Ambient Assisted Living and Smart Homes in Electronic Health Records".

Objectives: In this paper, we present a prototype of a Home-Centered Health-Enabling Technology (HET-HC), which is able to capture, store, merge and process data from various sensor systems at people's home. In addition, we present an architecture designed to integrate HET-HC into an exemplary regional Health Information System (rHIS).

A collaboration tool based on SNOCAP-HET.

Health enabling technologies and ambient assisted living are important fields in biomedical informatics. In this context, a huge variety of analysis methods are applied. Neither is a suitable structuring of these methods available, nor is an aid known for selecting appropriate methods for a given set of data specifying a context and a problem.

Development and pilot study of a bed-exit alarm based on a body-worn accelerometer.

Background: Falls are a major problem in hospitals and nursing homes. The consequences of falls can be severe, both for the individual and for the caring institution.

Objective: The aim of the work presented here is to reduce the number of falls on a geriatric ward by monitoring patients more closely.

Sensor-based fall risk assessment - dagger of the mind?

Fall events and their severe consequences represent not only a threatening problem for the affected individual, but also cause a significant burden for health care systems. Our research work aims to elucidate some of the prospects and problems of current sensor-based fall risk assessment approaches. Selected results of a questionnaire-based survey given to experts during topical workshops at international conferences are presented.

High intensity, multimodality and incoherence: grand challenges in the analysis of data for health-enabling technologies.

When working with health-enabling technologies, researchers all over the world usually have to analyze highly intensive, multimodal and incoherent data. We explain that there is a lack of systematization within the set of methods of analysis suitable for these data. As a first step towards a methodology in this context, we present the Systematic Nomenclature for Contexts, Analysis Methods and Problems in Health-Enabling Technologies (SNOCAP-HET).

Design and implementation of an informed consent process for a standardized health information exchange solution on the example of the lower saxony bank of health.

Objective: Multicenter medical treatment requires health related data to be available across institutions. Since health information exchange solutions are emergent, fulfillment of privacy needs, including patients' informed consent, is vital for successful data exchange.

Methods: We designed a software supported consent process for the recently founded Lower Saxony Bank of Health (LSBH) with regard to particularities of German law.

Home monitoring and decision support for international liver transplant children.

Complications may occur after a liver transplantation, therefore proper monitoring and care in the post-operation phase plays a very important role. Sometimes, monitoring and care for patients from abroad is difficult due to a variety of reasons, e.g.

Utilizing electronic health record data to determine the health of the medication process after the relocation of a children's hospital.

Unlabelled: Hospital relocation is a highly complex undertaking, which has the potential to interrupt operations and poses risks for patients, staff, and providers. Little is known how hospital relocation impacts on workflow and communication.

Methods: Using existing Electronic Health Record (EHR) data we determined time from medication ordering to first dose administration as a proxy for well-being of the medication process during a five months window surrounding the relocation of a 205-bed children's hospital.

Disease patterns addressed by mobile health-enabling technologies--a literature review.

Health-enabling technologies can contribute to a better living with diverse disease patterns, especially at home. Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) provides security and convenience at the main place of residence, but usually cannot be taken on the road. Mobile health-enabling technologies could overcome this barrier of immobility and enable its' users to take advantages of assistive technology with them.

Fall prediction with wearable sensors--an empirical study on expert opinions.

Falls represent a considerable problem for many developed societies with a large growth in the elderly population, and they inflict a sizable personal and social cost. Assessment of an individual's risk of falling, facilitated by advanced movement sensing technologies, has been heralded as a potential means to target fall prevention interventions to those most at need. This paper presents the summary of a questionnaire-based survey of expert opinions collected from three major international conference meetings on the topic of fall risk assessment and fall prediction.

Informal education of medical doctors on the Internet.

Physicians achieve parts of their knowledge informally on the Internet. In a first study we analyzed the quality of online content of prenatal screening and diagnosis on elements like Wikipedia, Twitter or YouTube. Furthermore, own content was published on blogs, forums and static pages, and visitor's data was measured.

Performance comparison of accelerometer calibration algorithms based on 3D-ellipsoid fitting methods.

Calibration of accelerometers can be reduced to 3D-ellipsoid fitting problems. Changing extrinsic factors like temperature, pressure or humidity, as well as intrinsic factors like the battery status, demand to calibrate the measurements permanently. Thus, there is a need for fast calibration algorithms, e.

GAL@Home: a feasibility study of sensor-based in-home fall detection.

Background: A considerable proportion of falls occur within the domestic environment. Sensor-based identification of falls in seniors' homes could help them to remain autonomous and self-sufficient in their own homes. The objective of this study was to evaluate fall detection systems within the home environment using optical and accelerometric sensor systems.

ARDEN2BYTECODE: a one-pass Arden Syntax compiler for service-oriented decision support systems based on the OSGi platform.

Patient empowerment might be one key to reduce the pressure on health care systems challenged by the expected demographic changes. Knowledge based systems can, in combination with automated sensor measurements, improve the patients' ability to review their state of health and make informed decisions. The Arden Syntax as a standardized language to represent medical knowledge can be used to express the corresponding decision rules.

A method to align the coordinate system of accelerometers to the axes of a human body: The depitch algorithm.

One of the key problems in accelerometry based gait analyses is that it may not be possible to attach an accelerometer to the lower trunk so that its axes are perfectly aligned to the axes of the subject. In this paper we will present an algorithm that was designed to virtually align the axes of the accelerometer to the axes of the subject during walking sections. This algorithm is based on a physically reasonable approach and built for measurements in unsupervised settings, where the test persons are applying the sensors by themselves.

Health-enabling technologies for the elderly--an overview of services based on a literature review.

Background: Services for the elderly based on health-enabling technologies promise to contribute significantly to the efficiency and effectiveness of future health care. Due to this promise, over the last years the scientific community has designed a complex variety of these valuable innovations. A systematic overview of the developed services would help to better understand their opportunities and limitations.

A Regional health care network: eHealth.Braunschweig. Domain fields and architectural challenges.

Background: Health care network eHealth.Braunschweig has been started in the South-East region of Lower Saxony in Germany in 2009. It composes major health care players, participants from research institutions and important local industry partners.

A nomenclature for the analysis of continuous sensor and other data in the context of health-enabling technologies.

Due to the progress in technology, it is possible to capture continuous sensor data pervasively and ubiquitously. In the area of health-enabling and ambient assisted technologies we are faced with the problem of analyzing these data in order to improve or at least maintain the health status of patients. But due to the interdisciplinarity of this field every discipline makes use of their own analyzing methods.

Increasing physical activity through health-enabling technologies: the project "being strong without violence".

Due to the increasing prevalence of adiposity in children numerous schools are introducing prevention programmes. Among these is "Gewaltlos Starksein" ("Being strong without violence"), a project of Hauptschule Sophienstraße Braunschweig, Germany (a general education secondary school for grades 5-10). This study aims to discover possible increases in activity through "Gewaltlos Starksein" where health-enabling technologies play a major role.

Methods in year 50: preserving the past and preparing for the future.

Background: Founded in 1962 and, therefore, the oldest international journal in medical informatics, Methods of Information in Medicine will publish its 50th volume in 2011. At the start of the journal's sixth decade, a discussion on the journal's profile seems appropriate.

Objectives: To report on the new opportunities for online access to Methods publications as well as on the recent strategic decisions regarding the journal's aims and editorial policies.