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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences

Designing A Mobile Application To Support The Indicated Prevention And Early Intervention Of Childhood Anxiety, Mandar Patwardhan, Ashish Amresh, Ryan Stoll, Kevin A. Gary, Derek B. Hamel, Armando Pina Apr 2018

Designing A Mobile Application To Support The Indicated Prevention And Early Intervention Of Childhood Anxiety, Mandar Patwardhan, Ashish Amresh, Ryan Stoll, Kevin A. Gary, Derek B. Hamel, Armando Pina

Ashish Amresh

This paper presents the design of an mHealth application for prevention and early intervention of childhood anxiety. The application is based on REACH, a preventative-early intervention protocol for childhood anxiety. This paper describes the multidisciplinary design process, sharing lessons learned in developing an effective mHealth application. This mHealth application is unique due to participant age, preventive-early intervention focus, and utilization of mobile technology in a situated manner. A design process inspired by user-centered leveraging key informant interviews was used to identify application features, including game based strategies and an animated motivational avatar. Validation was performed through external review and a …


Make Your Garden Grow: Designing A Physical Activity Estimation Improvement Game, Ashish Amresh, Leigh Small Apr 2018

Make Your Garden Grow: Designing A Physical Activity Estimation Improvement Game, Ashish Amresh, Leigh Small

Ashish Amresh

We present a novel game and virtual world based application that is aimed at improving the physical activity estimation skills of parents. It has been well established that lack of proper estimation of preschool children’s activity levels may be one of the main causes for childhood obesity. Childhood obesity has several long term health effects ranging from cardio-vascular disease to type II diabetes and obese preschool children are at risk for later life. We have developed an application that caters to both the parent and the child and uses a virtual garden as a fledgling ecosystem controlled both by the …


Interactive Cause And Effect Comic-Book Storytelling For Improving Nutrition Outcomes In Children, Ashish Amresh, Madhumita Sinha, Rebecca Birr, Rahul Salla Apr 2018

Interactive Cause And Effect Comic-Book Storytelling For Improving Nutrition Outcomes In Children, Ashish Amresh, Madhumita Sinha, Rebecca Birr, Rahul Salla

Ashish Amresh

Obesity among children and adolescents is increasingly becoming a major public health problem. Poverty and lower socio-economic status as well as lack of parental awareness regarding a balanced diet and adequate exercise all contribute towards childhood obesity. Unfortunately minority children have been especially vulnerable, among them inner-city Latino children continue to have the highest incidence rates of overweight and obesity; hence targeted intervention for this population group is of paramount importance. Access and affordability of smartphones and mobile internet devices provide an opportunity to create nutrition education interventions that can significantly impact and change attitude and knowledge regarding healthy diet …


Developing A Bilingual, Computer-Tailored, Hpv Vaccination Promotion Intervention Targeting Latino Parents, Angela Chia-Chen Chen, Ashish Amresh Apr 2018

Developing A Bilingual, Computer-Tailored, Hpv Vaccination Promotion Intervention Targeting Latino Parents, Angela Chia-Chen Chen, Ashish Amresh

Ashish Amresh

In this paper we present an innovative, computer-tailored application aimed at increasing Latino parents' intention to vaccinate their adolescent children against Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). HPV infection is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States. Latinas have the highest age-adjusted incidence rate for HPV-associated cervical cancer compared with their counterparts in other racial/ethnic groups. HPV vaccines offer hope against HPV-associated diseases. Because parental consent is required for children under age 18 to receive t h e HPV vaccination in most U. S. states, parents' attitudes and intention to have their children vaccinated are keys for promoting HPV …


A Complex Systems Framework Approach Towards Multidisciplinary Tumor Boards, Rahul Salla, Robert Pahle, Ashish Amresh Apr 2018

A Complex Systems Framework Approach Towards Multidisciplinary Tumor Boards, Rahul Salla, Robert Pahle, Ashish Amresh

Ashish Amresh

Multidisciplinary tumor boards (MTBs) are universally recommended and have been used in treatment of late stage cancers. Tumor boards have the advantage of including all the stakeholders in the decision making process and improving quality of care, however several studies have pointed to their lack of efficiency and tend to be lackluster while not producing the desired benefits for the participants. In this paper we present the design of a web based immersive framework for collaborative decision making that has the potential to improve several inefficiencies in conducting tumor boards and improve overall clinical outcomes. We present the design of …


Mhealth Games As Rewards: Incentive Or Distraction?, Kevin Gary, Ryan Stoll, Pooja Rallabhandi, Mandar Patwardhan, Derek Hamel, Ashish Amresh, Armando Pina, Kevin Cleary, Zenaide Quezado Jun 2017

Mhealth Games As Rewards: Incentive Or Distraction?, Kevin Gary, Ryan Stoll, Pooja Rallabhandi, Mandar Patwardhan, Derek Hamel, Ashish Amresh, Armando Pina, Kevin Cleary, Zenaide Quezado

Ashish Amresh

Games may be employed for delivery of a clinical protocol, or as an incentive for protocol tasks. We focus on serious games in mHealth apps for pediatric patients with a chronic disease as an incentive for behavior modification. A patient is rewarded with enhanced gameplay in proportion to her/his compliance with a clinical protocol. The game-as-reward prevents fatigue and sustains patient engagement as the mHealth apps are used on a frequent basis when the affliction is a chronic disease. However, our experience shows a fine line between games that encourage engagement and ones that distract patients from protocol tasks.


Aspira: Employing A Serious Game In An Mhealth App To Improve Asthma Outcomes, Jamie Thomson, Chris Hass, Ivor Horn, Elizabeth Kleine, Stephanie Mitchell, Kevin Gary, Ishrat Ahmed, Derek Hamel, Ashish Amresh Mar 2017

Aspira: Employing A Serious Game In An Mhealth App To Improve Asthma Outcomes, Jamie Thomson, Chris Hass, Ivor Horn, Elizabeth Kleine, Stephanie Mitchell, Kevin Gary, Ishrat Ahmed, Derek Hamel, Ashish Amresh

Ashish Amresh

This paper presents the design, implementation and evaluation of a home based intervention targeting economically disadvantaged children to improve asthma clinical outcomes. The monitoring and intervention activities were delivered within an embedded astronaut-themed game to promote user acceptance and compliance to the clinical protocol. An iterative, user-centered design process was used to prototype the asthma home monitoring system (ASPIRA) involving a tablet application, digital spirometer and a particulate monitor linked to a data management server. Children of low socio-economic demographic populations were the main target group for this study as they have significantly high asthma rates and lack of condition …