LOS ALAMITOS, Calif., 8 November 2018 —While the current healthcare paradigm focuses on diseases and keeping people disease-free, the November 2019 issue of Computer magazine, the IEEE Computer Society’s flagship publication, examines the concept of health navigation, a variety of emerging digital health technologies designed to encourage good habits and a healthy lifestyle to increase the length and quality of life.
In this special issue of Computer, the authors consider how we should use computer technology to track our health. “Just as a GPS navigator warns us of upcoming traffic and wrong turns, a health navigator will warn us of the consequences of poor lifestyle habits, behaviors, and choices that, when combined, account for approximately 50% of the determinants of health,” write guest editors Sumi Helal of Lancaster University and Ramesh Jain of the University of California, Irvine. “Through effective, supportive, assistive, and persuasive empowerments, it will lead us to better choices, decisive behavior alternatives, and a generally more active and healthy lifestyle.”
A core focus of this special issue is how we should be using computer technology to track our health. The issue presents four thought-provoking articles by top researchers, including the following, as summarized from the Guest Editors’ Introduction.
In “On the Effectiveness of Deep Representation Learning: The Atrial Fibrillation Case,” Matteo Gadaleta, Michele Rossi, Eric J. Topol, Steven R. Steinhubl, and Giorgio Quer explore advanced AI techniques reliably detecting atrial fibrillation (AFib) from short and noisy electrocardiography traces, that is, the ones available from smartwatches today. (You can also read our exclusive interview on digital health with one of the authors, Giorgio Quer of Scripps Institute.)
In “Agitation Monitoring and Prevention System for Dementia Caregiver Empowerment,” Nutta Homdee, Ridwan Alam, James A. Hayes, Tamanna Hamid, John Park, Sean Wolfe, Hilda Goins, Nykesha Fyffe, Temple Newbold, Tonya Smith-Jackson, Azziza Bankole, Martha S. Anderson, and John Lach address the caregiver burden associated with managing patient agitation for persons with dementia. The article describes an unobtrusive monitoring system designed to detect early signs of agitation in patients by sensing information about the patient and his/her environment. They present a validation study to show that notifying the caregiver in a timely manner reduces the risk of agitation escalation.
In “Cloud-Based Artificial Intelligence System for Large-Scale Arrhythmia Screening,” Chi-Ho Tseng, Chen Lin, Hsiang-Chih Chang, Cyuan-Cin Liu, Bess Ma F. Serafico, Li-Ching Wu, Chih-Ting Lin, Tien Hsu, Chun-Yao Huang, and Men-Tzung Lo address the under-diagnosis problem in AFib and propose a system and method that can be used to identify accurate city-scale prevalence data of AFib. Having accurate prevalence data helps health authorities plan and budget resources, which should directly lead to better outcomes in treating and coping with this condition.
The aim of “Artificial Intelligence of Things in Sports Science: Weight Training as an Example,” by William Cheng-Chung Chu, Chihhsiong Shih, Wen-Yi Chou, Sheikh Iqbal Ahamed, and Pao-Ann Hsiung, is to keep healthy people healthy. The authors address the challenges of using the Internet of Things (IoT) and AI technology in sports medicine, a concept they refer to as the artificial intelligence of things (AIoT). They applied their AIoT approach to weight training in sports, specifically to a well-known training set, beginning movement load training. By modeling and analyzing the labor index, they were able to quantify its utility and effectiveness in preventing sports injuries and fatigue.
For more information, visit Computer magazine here.
Computer explores new cutting-edge technologies, discoveries, and innovations. With a readership that includes over 100,000 technology professionals, it covers all aspects of computer science, computer engineering, computing technology, and applications. For more than 40 years, developers, researchers, and managers have relied on Computer for timely, peer-reviewed information about research, trends, best practices, and changes in the profession. Offering feature-rich multimedia—including videos, podcasts, and additional Web content—the extraordinary reputation and popularity of Computer magazine make it a sought-after source of peer-reviewed publications for researchers and technologists.
