Recently, remote healthcare systems have received increasing attention in the last decade, explaining why intelligent systems with physiology signal monitoring for e-health care are an emerging area of development. Therefore, this study adopts a system which includes continuous collection and evaluation of multiple vital signs, long-term healthcare, and a cellular connection to a medical center in emergency case and it transfers all acquired raw data by the internet in normal case. The proposed system can continuously acquire four different physiological signs, for example, ECG, SpO2, temperature, and blood pressure and further relayed them to an intelligent data analysis scheme to diagnose abnormal pulses for exploring potential chronic diseases. The proposed system also has a friendly web-based interface for medical staff to observe immediate pulse signals for remote treatment. Once abnormal event happened or the request to real-time display vital signs is confirmed, all physiological signs will be immediately transmitted to remote medical server through both cellular networks and internet. Also data can be transmitted to a family member&#x2019;s mobile phone or doctor&#x2019;s phone through GPRS. A prototype of such system has been successfully developed and implemented, which will offer high standard of healthcare with a major reduction in cost for our society.

M. Abo-Zahhad

Sabah M. Ahmed

O. Elnahas

A Wireless Emergency Telemedicine System for Patients Monitoring and Diagnosis

<i>Background</i>. A steady rise in the prevalence of depression among college students has negatively affected student quality of life. This study investigates the feasibility and acceptability of a Web-based model, including Skype, to screen and provide psychiatric consultation to depressed college students. <i>Methods</i>. Students completed the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) online; those who screened positive (PHQ-9&#x2009;&#x2265;&#x2009;10) or endorsed any level of suicidal ideation were offered Web-based psychiatric consultation using Skype. After the consultation, students filled out a 7-item satisfaction questionnaire to report on the acceptability of this Web-based method. <i>Results</i>. A total of 972 students consented to the online depression screening and 285 screened positive. Of those, 69 students consented and 17 students successfully completed the psychiatric consultation via Skype. Thirteen (76.4&#x25;) students found the interview useful in helping them understand their depression. Fifteen (88.2&#x25;) students thought that psychologists and psychiatrists could successfully see patients via videoconferencing. <i>Conclusions</i>. Current online technologies can provide depression screening and psychiatric consultation to college students; those who participated reported a positive experience. Future studies will need to address the low levels of participation among college students and attract students who are underserved, as well as use a videoconferencing platform that adequately protects data confidentiality.

Aya Williams

Rachel LaRocca

Trina Chang

Nhi-Ha Trinh

Maurizio Fava

Joseph Kvedar

Albert Yeung

Web-Based Depression Screening and Psychiatric Consultation for College Students: A Feasibility and Acceptability Study

This study investigated effect of a 6-week telephysiotherapy programme on quality of life (QoL) of patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA). Fifty patients with knee OA were randomly and equally assigned into two treatment groups: clinic group (CG) and telephysiotherapy group (TG). The CG received physiotherapist-administered osteoarthritis-specific exercises in the clinic thrice weekly for 6 weeks while the TG received structured telephone monitoring with self-administered osteoarthritis-specific exercises for the same duration at home. Participants&#x2019; QoL was assessed using WHOQoL-Bref at baseline, second, fourth, and sixth week of intervention. Data were analyzed using ANOVA and independent Student&#x2019;s <svg     style="vertical-align:-0.11285pt;width:5.9250002px;" id="M1" height="10.3875" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 5.9250002 10.3875" width="5.9250002"  xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
	
		
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</svg>-test. Within-group comparison showed significant improvements in physical health domain (<svg     style="vertical-align:-0.17555pt;width:66.324997px;" id="M2" height="13.95" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 66.324997 13.95" width="66.324997"  xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
	
		
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</svg> for TG and CG) and psychological domain (<svg     style="vertical-align:-0.17555pt;width:66.324997px;" id="M3" height="13.95" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 66.324997 13.95" width="66.324997"  xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
	
		
			<g transform="matrix(.017,-0,0,-.017,.062,13.688)"><use xlink:href="#x1D443"/></g><g transform="matrix(.017,-0,0,-.017,15.582,13.688)"><use xlink:href="#x3D"/></g><g transform="matrix(.017,-0,0,-.017,30.286,13.688)"><use xlink:href="#x30"/></g><g transform="matrix(.017,-0,0,-.017,38.446,13.688)"><use xlink:href="#x2E"/></g><g transform="matrix(.017,-0,0,-.017,42.321,13.688)"><use xlink:href="#x30"/></g><g transform="matrix(.017,-0,0,-.017,50.481,13.688)"><path id="x32" d="M412 140l28 -9q0 -2 -35 -131h-373v23q112 112 161 170q59 70 92 127t33 115q0 63 -31 98t-86 35q-75 0 -137 -93l-22 20l57 81q55 59 135 59q69 0 118.5 -46.5t49.5 -122.5q0 -62 -29.5 -114t-102.5 -130l-141 -149h186q42 0 58.5 10.5t38.5 56.5z" /></g>

			<g transform="matrix(.012,-0,0,-.012,58.65,5.525)"><use xlink:href="#x2217"/></g>

		
	
</svg> for TG; <svg     style="vertical-align:-0.17555pt;width:66.324997px;" id="M4" height="13.95" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 66.324997 13.95" width="66.324997"  xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
	
		
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			<g transform="matrix(.012,-0,0,-.012,58.65,5.525)"><use xlink:href="#x2217"/></g>

		
	
</svg> for CG) of WHOQoL following six-week intervention. However, there were no significant differences (<svg     style="vertical-align:-0.30096pt;width:58.712502px;" id="M5" height="11.375" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 58.712502 11.375" width="58.712502"  xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
	
		
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</svg>) in TG and CG&#x2019;s social relationship and environment domains. Between-group comparison showed no significant differences (<svg     style="vertical-align:-0.30096pt;width:58.712502px;" id="M6" height="11.375" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 58.712502 11.375" width="58.712502"  xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
	
		
			<g transform="matrix(.017,-0,0,-.017,.062,11.112)"><use xlink:href="#x1D443"/></g><g transform="matrix(.017,-0,0,-.017,15.582,11.112)"><use xlink:href="#x3E"/></g><g transform="matrix(.017,-0,0,-.017,30.286,11.112)"><use xlink:href="#x30"/></g><g transform="matrix(.017,-0,0,-.017,38.446,11.112)"><use xlink:href="#x2E"/></g><g transform="matrix(.017,-0,0,-.017,42.321,11.112)"><use xlink:href="#x30"/></g><g transform="matrix(.017,-0,0,-.017,50.481,11.112)"><use xlink:href="#x35"/></g>

		
	
</svg>) between CG and TG&#x2019;s physical health, psychological, and social relationships domains of WHOQoL following 6-week intervention. However, there was significant difference in the environment domain (<svg     style="vertical-align:-0.30096pt;width:58.712502px;" id="M7" height="11.375" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 58.712502 11.375" width="58.712502"  xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
	
		
			<g transform="matrix(.017,-0,0,-.017,.062,11.112)"><use xlink:href="#x1D443"/></g><g transform="matrix(.017,-0,0,-.017,15.582,11.112)"><path id="x3C" d="M512 -3l-437 233v51l437 233v-58l-378 -200v-2l378 -199v-58z" /></g><g transform="matrix(.017,-0,0,-.017,30.286,11.112)"><use xlink:href="#x30"/></g><g transform="matrix(.017,-0,0,-.017,38.446,11.112)"><use xlink:href="#x2E"/></g><g transform="matrix(.017,-0,0,-.017,42.321,11.112)"><use xlink:href="#x30"/></g><g transform="matrix(.017,-0,0,-.017,50.481,11.112)"><use xlink:href="#x35"/></g>

		
	
</svg>). Telephysiotherapy using telephone medium improved QoL in patients with knee OA comparable to clinic based treatment.

Adesola C. Odole

Oluwatobi D. Ojo

Is Telephysiotherapy an Option for Improved Quality of Life in Patients with Osteoarthritis of the Knee?

This paper aims to study the performance of support vector machine (SVM) classification in detecting asthma attacks in a wireless remote monitoring scenario.  The effect of wireless channels on decision making of the SVM classifier is studied in order to determine the channel conditions under which transmission is not recommended from a clinical point of view. The simulation results show that the performance of the SVM classification algorithm in detecting asthma attacks is highly influenced by the mobility of the user where Doppler effects are manifested. The results also show that SVM classifiers outperform other methods used for classification of cough signals such as the hidden markov model (HMM) based classifier specially when wireless channel impairments are considered.

Orobah Al-Momani

Khaled M. Gharaibeh

Effect of Wireless Channels on Detection and Classification of Asthma Attacks in Wireless Remote Health Monitoring Systems

Obesity has become a worldwide epidemic. Qatar, a rapidly developing country in the Middle East, has seen a sharp increase in the prevalence of obesity. The increase can be attributed to several reasons, including sedentary lifestyles imposed by a harsh climate and the introduction of Western fast food. Mobile technologies have been used and studied as a technology to support individuals&#x2019; weight loss. The authors have developed a mobile application that implements three strategies drawn from proven theories of behavioral change. The application is localized to the cultural context of its proposed users. The objective of this paper is to present a method through which we adapted the messaging content of a weight loss application to the context of its users while retaining an effective degree of automation. The adaptation addressed body image, eating and physical exercise habits, and regional/cultural needs. The paper discusses how surveying potential users can be used to build a profile of a target population, find common patterns, and then develop a database of text messages. The text messages are automated and sent to the users at specific times of day, as suggested by the survey results.

Selma Limam Mansar

Shashank Jariwala

Nawal Behih

Maahd Shahzad

Aysha Anggraini

Adapting a Database of Text Messages to a Mobile-Based Weight Loss Program: The Case of the Middle East

About this journal

<p><em>International Journal of Telemedicine and Applications</em> focuses on the applications of medical practice and care at a distance and their supporting technologies such as, computing, communications, and networking technologies.</p>


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International Journal of Telemedicine and Applications - Table of contents 2014

International Journal of Telemedicine and Applications | Hindawi

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International Journal of Telemedicine and Applications focuses on the applications of medical practice and care at a distance and their supporting technologies such as, computing, communications, and networking technologies.

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International Journal of Telemedicine and Applications

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International Journal of Telemedicine and Applications