Medicines Adherence: Supporting Patients with their Treatment. How can healthcare professionals help patients to improve their health through medicines adherence?
More about the virtual nurse, optimizing treatment adherence.
VIH-TAVIE™ – computer sessions – was created in order to enable people living with HIV to incorporate the therapeutic regimen into their daily routine, to cope with the side effects of medication, to handle situations or circumstances that might interfere with medication intake, to interact with health professionals, and to mobilize social support. The VIH-TAVIE™ intervention consists of four computer sessions each 20-30 minutes long, in which the user interacts with an animated “virtual” nurse (in French or English). The nurse guides the individual through a process of learning about the aptitudes required to optimize treatment adherence.
In 2012 VIH-TAVIE participated in Care Challenge and was selected by Connecting Nurses for a promotional support. More details on the Care Challenge website. A year later it was also selected by the WeObservatory for a partnership : thus a promotional collaboration is established and the WeObservatory is engaging in adapting the videos and interactive sessions for French-speaking communities, especially in Africa , to facilitate the monitoring of HIV patients undergoing HAART. More information on the WeO website.
The official website and the blog for the TAVIE projects: www.tavieadherence.com
The Virtual Nurse for HIV patients
Meet William Price, HIV patient and participant in the TAVIE-HIV program. Through his interactions with the TAVIE virtual nurse, William could learn the necessary skills and attitude.
Back to basics : internet access and electricity
To many of us this is not an issue, but it is important that we understand how important is basic access to electricity.
“In third world countries, the more people that have access to electricity, the greater demand will be for using the Internet and other related technologies. It is fruitless, they say, to discuss a digital divide where electricity does not exist”. Read the full article on electricity and internet in third world countries in pdf here.
Dialogue series on Women’s health
This past May, 2014, a round table on Innovation , and especially innovation and Women’s health, took place in Geneva.
The overall objective of the WeObservatory is to serve as a unique Resource Center to promote women’s empowerment through the access and use of advanced technologies for health, combined with innovative integrated collaborative leadership programs. As such, the WeObservatory invited speakers to make presentations on the subject of eHealth.
“Digital Health” : the basics
Telehealth usability amongst elderly, a WeObservatory selected project
If you are interested in learning about technology acceptance in general, we highly recommend that you take a look at this project.
A key objective of a WeObservatory project “Telehealth and Elderly” by Michael Dino, Assistant Research Director at Our Lady of Fatima University, Valenzuela City, Philippines, is to understand technology-acceptance among the elderly and help them gain independence within the healthcare system.
This project was firstly published online on the Care Challenge platform and gained visibility through the video made by Connected Nurses as means to support the project. Consequently “Telehealth and Elderly” was chosen by the WeObservatory and continues to evolve through this partnership. Not only does Michael Dino get the opportunity to present his project at many international conferences – one of the latest was during the Digital Health Care Week in Singapore in October 2013 – but he is also planning to expand his research to specific populations, starting an “Elderly Women and TeleHealth” research project, in liaison with the WeObservatory’s special focus: improving the use of telemedicine services for women.
For more details, check out the research abstract here.
Take a look at Michael Dino’s initial project as posted on Care Challenge and portraid in the video:
Skype for Veterans
Nurses from Canada have proposed a to reduce social isolation for the residents of a Long Term Care facility via Skype. Their project was shared via Care Challenge and was chosen to receive promotional support – a professional video – from the Connecting Nurses Steering Committee. When accepting this support, nurse Lorraine La France said, “The video seems to be an excellent idea. It would allow nurses immediate access to how we started and applied the program and could be used by any center, virtually anywhere. In other words a video would reach more people and more people who are isolated could benefit from a better quality of life. It could be used by hospitals, long term care centers, communities, libraries, churches, schools, in homes etc. Anywhere that a nurse is involved.”
Reducing maternal mortality through the use of mobile technologies
The “Zero Mothers Die” project is exemplary, according to The Guardian
“With the deadline for the millennium development goals (MDGs) looming, how far will technology help reach its targets?” , The Guardian.
Zero Mothers Die has been mentioned in The Guardian very recently. The article is generally discussing the role of technology in reaching the MDGs. An exemplary project in this disscussion, Zero Mothers Die is looking to improve maternal and infant health by providing vital information via mobile phones to remote communities.
WeObservatory Blog 