Tag: pubmed

Stud Health Technol Inform. 2026 May 7;335:222-229. doi: 10.3233/SHTI260088.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Digital health applications (DiGA) are regulated medical software intended to support prevention and therapy.

OBJECTIVES: To assess acceptance, potential application areas, information needs, and implementation-related criteria and concerns regarding DiGA among registered dietitians in Austria.

METHODS: An anonymous cross-sectional online survey was conducted in 2025.

RESULTS: 105 eligible dietitians provided data (completion rate 88.6 %). Familiarity with the DiGA concept was moderate. DiGA were perceived as very useful or useful across most dietetic practice areas. Usability, seamless integration into patients’ everyday routines, and data protection and security were the most important criteria for recommending DiGA. Respondents expressed a strong interest in profession-specific continuing education and supported a clearly defined role of dietitians in the use of DiGA.

CONCLUSION: Austrian dietitians demonstrate openness towards DiGA while emphasizing a strong interest for competence development. Early involvement of dietitians, alongside clear quality, interoperability, and data protection standards may support the integration of DiGA into routine care.

PMID:42119124 | DOI:10.3233/SHTI260088

Stud Health Technol Inform. 2026 May 7;335:197-202. doi: 10.3233/SHTI260084.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The Austrian Electronic Health Record (ELGA) aims to enhance healthcare coordination and patient empowerment, yet public uptake remains limited.

OBJECTIVE: This study explored citizens’ motivations and barriers toward ELGA use and reflected on the potential of science communication events to foster dialogue on digital health.

METHODS: During the Long Night of Science at UMIT TIROL, 35 participants anonymously shared on a whiteboard their reasons for using or not using ELGA. Statements were thematically analyzed using the Context-Mechanism-Outcome (CMO) framework.

RESULTS: Major barriers were concerns about data security and privacy, login complexity, and perceived lack of necessity. Facilitators included fast access to medical data, reduced paperwork, and improved continuity of care.

CONCLUSION: Participants balanced digital convenience with privacy concerns. Public events such as the Long Night of Science provide valuable opportunities not only to inform citizens about digital health but to let them actively participate in science, exchange perspectives, and learn from their lived experiences.

PMID:42119120 | DOI:10.3233/SHTI260084

Stud Health Technol Inform. 2026 May 7;335:191-196. doi: 10.3233/SHTI260083.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Adherence to movement precautions following sternotomy is essential for sternal healing, but patients often find it difficult to maintain the correct behavior.

METHODS: This study introduces a real-time computer vision-based system to evaluate movement compliance with the post-sternotomy precautions protocol. A YOLOv11 object detection model was trained using a dataset comprising real images and AI-generated images. A secondary monitoring algorithm was developed to use YOLO inference results to classify the whole action rather than a single frame.

RESULTS: The integration of synthetic data significantly enhanced YOLO model performance, achieving a mAP50 of 80.3%. In real-time validation, the monitoring algorithm correctly classified 85% of non-compliant actions without misclassifying any compliant actions.

CONCLUSION: This work demonstrates the feasibility of a low-cost, non-invasive solution for monitoring post-sternotomy precautions. Furthermore, the use of Generative AI proved effective in overcoming data scarcity.

PMID:42119119 | DOI:10.3233/SHTI260083

Stud Health Technol Inform. 2026 May 7;335:163-168. doi: 10.3233/SHTI260077.

ABSTRACT

Standardized care plans are essential for improving care quality, enabling consistent care delivery and seamless data exchange across care settings. However, the extent to which existing care planning tools implement standards, like HL7 FHIR, remains unclear. This study evaluates existing care planning tools through a fit-gap analysis assessing their alignment with standardized, interoperable care plan requirements and identify gaps hindering standardization and system integration. Tools were evaluated based on standard compliance, particularly FHIR, output capabilities, geographical origin, and accessibility patterns. Nine tools demonstrated full FHIR compliance, two partial implementation, and five no explicit FHIR support. Geographic analysis revealed US and Australian tools exhibited higher FHIR implementation rates than European solutions. Only seven tools achieved the “fit” criterion of combining care planning functionality with full FHIR compliance. No tools from Asia, Africa, or South America were identified, suggesting global gaps in access to standardized care planning technologies. These findings highlight geographic disparities in interoperability standards adoption and a need for policy interventions, particularly in Europe and underrepresented regions.

PMID:42119113 | DOI:10.3233/SHTI260077

Stud Health Technol Inform. 2026 May 7;335:153-154. doi: 10.3233/SHTI260074.

ABSTRACT

Recruiting patients for medical research requires a balance between ethical transparency and practical feasibility. We examined a two-stage re-consenting process for patients in the context of biobanks, capturing trends in patient engagement and preferences regarding future data use. Participation declined mainly at the opt-in stage, highlighting early procedural barriers, while among consenting, most participants allowed broad secondary use of their data without additional recontacting. In general, the results obtained support a transparent opt-out solution for data donation and secondary use of health data.

PMID:42119110 | DOI:10.3233/SHTI260074

Stud Health Technol Inform. 2026 May 7;335:131-136. doi: 10.3233/SHTI260069.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Serious games (SGs) with hand-tracking solutions are increasingly adopted in neurological rehabilitation. The Leap Motion Controller (LMC) is widely used in clinical and research contexts, while software-based systems, such as MediaPipe (MP), are emerging.

OBJECTIVES: This study compared the usability of MP- and LMC-based SGs.

METHODS: Seven SGs were developed to evaluate Grasp and Pinch gestures and tested with fifty healthy volunteers. Usability was assessed with the System Usability Scale (SUS) after each device, and an ad-hoc comparative questionnaire (LMC, MP, Neutral) collected preferences on several aspects.

RESULTS: Both systems achieved excellent SUS scores (MP: 88/100; LMC: 90/100), with no statistical difference in usability. The comparative questionnaire showed a stronger preference for LMC (63%) versus MP (17%), with 20% neutral.

CONCLUSION: Although both solutions demonstrated high usability, LMC was more frequently preferred in direct comparison. The SUS results of MP encourage further investigation, including large-scale tests with neurological patients.

PMID:42119105 | DOI:10.3233/SHTI260069

Stud Health Technol Inform. 2026 May 7;335:96-101. doi: 10.3233/SHTI260062.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Primary health care forms the backbone of comprehensive and patient-centered healthcare in Austria and Germany. Particularly in rural areas, there are increasing gaps in local patient care.

OBJECTIVES: Hybrid health care services should ensure multidisciplinary primary health care at the community level.

METHODS: A mixed-methods approach consisting of a semi-structured literature review and an online survey of mayors and heads of administration in municipalities in Upper Austria and Upper Bavaria (12/2025, N=757, n=78, rr=10.3%) was conducted.

RESULTS: An average level of digital maturity was identified in municipalities of Upper Austria and Upper Bavaria. Furthermore, the future establishment and expansion of digital health care services was identified as a key lever.

CONCLUSION: In the future, primary health care at the community level will be characterized by hybrid healthcare services.

PMID:42119098 | DOI:10.3233/SHTI260062

Stud Health Technol Inform. 2026 May 7;335:69-77. doi: 10.3233/SHTI260057.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Digitalization in healthcare promises efficiency gains, in the present case particularly addressing medication management. In mobile care, staff often spend substantial time traveling to collect patients’ health insurance cards, visit physicians to obtain prescriptions, pick up medication at pharmacies, and deliver it to patients. The Linked Care project developed an integrated IT solution to streamline medication reordering in mobile care settings.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate whether an electronic system improves the efficiency and quality of the medication reordering process compared to usual care.

METHODS: A non-randomized controlled trial allocated nurses and caregivers to intervention (Linked Care) or control groups. Standardized and project-specific self-reported outcomes on workload (psychological stress), time expenditure, errors & information loss, and usability were obtained via online questionnaires. Data was analyzed using mixed-effects models as well as repeated measures ANOVA for trend analyses.

RESULTS: Workload was consistently lower in the intervention group, whereas time expenditure showed no significant differences. Errors and information loss improved significantly in the 6-month follow-up. Usability ratings ranged from “excellent” to “good”.

CONCLUSION: Using Linked Care was associated with reduced self-perceived workload (psychological stress) and improved error prevention, with high usability; however, self-perceived time savings were negligible.

PMID:42119093 | DOI:10.3233/SHTI260057

Stud Health Technol Inform. 2026 May 7;335:53-54. doi: 10.3233/SHTI260054.

ABSTRACT

While health technology assessment (HTA) aims to quantify the quality of digital health apps, app stores offer unstructured information on app quality to users like patients. This provides barriers for people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) to identify high-quality apps. This study explores the discoverability of AD/PD-related apps and their quality information in app stores. We applied descriptive statistics and text mining such as large language models (LLMs) and topic modelling to analyze app descriptions and user reviews of 1237 apps. Only ∼2% of apps were discoverable as holding a CE-mark. Most apps were “Care Support”, followed by “Health & Wellness” and “Patient Monitoring” patient-facing categories. User reviews addressed “user experience”, “health improvement”, and “costs”. To help patients identify high-quality apps, quality information should be presented in a structured and trustworthy way. The use of user feedback for patient-reported measures should be explored in future work.

PMID:42119090 | DOI:10.3233/SHTI260054

Stud Health Technol Inform. 2026 May 7;335:14-21. doi: 10.3233/SHTI260048.

ABSTRACT

Misinformation increasingly undermines trust in childhood immunization among both the public and healthcare workers. Innovative, scalable educational approaches are needed to strengthen vaccine confidence across diverse settings. Objectives: To describe and evaluate a global initiative delivering asynchronous online vaccination courses, focusing on participant reach, completion, and qualitative experiences. We conducted a pilot evaluation using descriptive analysis of enrollment and completion data, combined with qualitative content analysis of voluntarily submitted open-text feedback. Courses were fully online, self-paced, accredited for continuing professional development, and implemented through international, local, and institutional partnerships. Between April 2024 and December 2025, seven courses were delivered. A total of 3,018 participants from 75 countries completed at least one course, with an overall completion rate of 31.5%. Sixty feedback entries from low-, middle-, and high-income settings were analyzed. Nine themes emerged, with differing emphases across contexts. Asynchronous online vaccination education can decentralize knowledge at scale, support trust-building and empowerment, and complement traditional immunization communication strategies.

PMID:42119084 | DOI:10.3233/SHTI260048