Browsing by Author "Martinho, Ricardo"
Now showing 1 - 10 of 36
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- 2ARTs: A Platform for Exercise Prescriptions in Cardiac Recovery PatientsPublication . Pereira, Andreia; Martinho, Ricardo; Pinto, Rui; Rijo, Rui; Grilo, CarlosDue to limited access, increasing costs and an ageing population, the global healthcare system faces significant coverage problems that call for innovative approaches. Health professionals are actively seeking alternative methods to provide care to an increasingly needy population, without increasing human effort and associated costs. eHealth platforms, which use technology to provide patient care, are emerging as transformative solutions for addressing these problems. This study is centered on the demand for a Decision Support System (DSS) in cardiology to enable doctors to prescribe individualized care inside Cardiac Rehabilitation Programmes (CRPs). The 2ARTs project’s main objective is to include a cardiac rehabilitation platform with a DSS within the hospital infrastructure. This DSS uses models to classify patients into different groups, delivering crucial information to assist with decisions regarding treatment. Regarding the DSS, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) emerged as a standout technique for dimensionality reduction, due to its interoperability with clustering algorithms and superior evaluation metrics. The most appropriate clustering technique was determined to be the K-means algorithm, which was supported by the experts analysis. In accordance with the goals of the 2ARTs project, this integration of PCA and K-means provides meaningful insights that improve reasoned decision-making.
- Ad-hoc changes in IoT-aware business processesPublication . Domingos, Dulce; Martins, Francisco; Martinho, Ricardo; Silva, MárioThe Internet of Things makes it possible to adapt the behaviour of business processes in response to real-time context updates. In addition, physical items can run and validate parts of the business processes and optimise their execution, while reducing message transmissions. State-of-the-art event-driven, service-oriented architecture approaches contribute to enabling inter-organisational collaboration and interoperability of heterogeneous hardware, but their applicability is limited to preplanned, well-structured processes. We take a step forward by supporting ad-hoc changes within business processes, considering changes in the state of the Things; likewise, whenever needed, the software controlling the behaviour of sensors may be dynamically reconfigured as a result of changes in the functional specifications of business processes.
- BPFlexTemplate: A Business Process template generation tool based on similarity and flexibilityPublication . Ilahi, Latifa; Ghannouchi, Sonia Ayachi; Martinho, RicardoIn large organizations with multiple organizational units, process variants emerge due to many aspects, including local management policies, resources or socio-technical limitations. Organizations then struggle to improve a business process which has no longer a single process model to redesign, implement and adjust. In this paper, we propose an approach to tackle these two challenges: decrease the proliferation of process variants in these organizations, and foresee, at the same time, the need of having flexible business processes that allow for a certain degree of adjustment. To validate our approach, we first conducted case studies where we collected six real-world business process variants from two organizational units of the same healthcare organization. We then proposed an algorithm to derive a template process model from all the variants, which includes common and flexible process elements. We implemented our approach in a software tool called BPFlexTemplate, and tested it with the elicited variants.
- BPFlexTemplate: a software tool to derive flexible process model templatesPublication . Ilahi, Latifa; Martinho, Ricardo; Ghannouchi, Sonia AyachiMost organizations have difficulties in enforcing the same procedures/business processes across their multiple organizational units. For instance, we can find different activities, activity orders or even subprocesses in student enrollment procedures across several faculties of the same belonging University. This happens due to the need of these organizational units to adjust and adapt their business processes to different and evolving contexts, lack of resources or even cultural aspects. On the other hand, handling a significant number of these process variants becomes hard for an organization that seeks to manage and optimize time and resources allocated to these business processes. In this paper we present a web-based software tool that is able to compare several process variants and derive a flexible template process model. The template foresees not only the inclusion of process elements that are common to all compared variants, but also non-common (flexible) elements which result from adjustments made in each variant. These flexible elements can or cannot be later executed by each organizational unit. This process model template will allow process engineers to: 1) enforce a similar process model across all the organization, and therefore control process variants proliferation and manage business processes more efficiently; and 2) allow organizational units to benefit from adjustments made throughout time, based on each organizational unit’s experience and knowledge.
- Building Bridges for “Palliative Care-in-Place”: Development of a mHealth Intervention for Informal Home CarePublication . Laranjeira, Carlos; Dixe, Maria dos Anjos; Martinho, Ricardo; Rijo, Rui; Querido, AnaIn Palliative Care (PC), family and close people are an essential part of provision of care. They assume highly complex tasks for which they are not prepared, with considerable physical, psychological, social and economic impact. Informal Caregivers (ICs) often falter in the final stage of life and develop distress, enhancing emotional burden and complicated grief. The lack of available and accessible in-person counselling resources is often reported by ICs. Online resources can promote early access to help and support for patient-IC dyads in palliative care. The primary aim of this research is to co-design, develop and test the feasibility of the Help2Care-PAL mHealth app that addresses the needs of ICs of palliative patients cared for at home. This Digital Health Intervention (DHI) in palliative care will be used for education, symptom management, communication and decision-making, to enhance Quality of Life (QoL) of patients and ICs, fostering anticipatory grief and the reach and efficiency of services.
- CAPÍTULO III - PROMOVENDO COMPORTAMENTOS SAUDÁVEIS NA ADOLESCÊNCIA COM UMA APLICAÇÃO MÓVEL: O PROCESSO DE ILUSTRAÇÃO, DESIGN E GAMIFICAÇÃO.Publication . Reis, Catarina; Pernencar, Cláudia; Carvalho, Marta; Fragata, Nuno; Martinho, Ricardo; Alves, Rodrigo; Morais, Teresao Projeto TeenPower adotou um conjunto de estratégias com o intuito de promover a solução de mHealth especialmente concebida para adolescentes. No sentido de divulgar, promover e envolver os adolescentes na utilização desta aplicação móvel foi necessário definir e seguir orientações de promoção que viabilizassem a utilização da aplicação. A imagem da marca TeenPower e o seu logotipo customizado foram utilizados em operações de marketing e divulgação junto dos adolescentes, numa perspetiva de gerar afinidade e identificação/reconhecimento com o projeto. Foram criadas ilustrações e grafismos específicos para adolescentes, no sentido de promover hábitos de vida saudáveis através de cartazes para impressão ou digitais especialmente concebidos para adolescentes. Este processo decorreu no âmbito de uma unidade curricular uC de Design e Composição Gráfica do curso de Ilustração e Produção Gráfica e envolveu todos os estudantes no sentido de lhes permitir experimentar com um caso real a temática da uC. Toda a experiência de utilização da aplicação móvel foi cuidadosamente concebida, validada e implementada, de forma incremental e continuada. A geração desta experiência de utilização foi merecedora de um estudo em 3 fases que apostou fortemente na realimentação do sistema recorrendo ao feedback obtido pelos utilizadores/avaliadores num determinado momento. o envolvimento de estudantes das áreas de design, enfermagem e engenharia permitiu tirar partido de uma equipa multidisciplinar que, conjuntamente com utilizadores adolescentes, concebeu a base de trabalho para a implementação descrita posteriormente na secção 3 do presente capítulo. Finalmente, e diretamente relacionado com o envolvimento continuado dos adolescentes surge a aposta na utilização de uma aplicação móvel. A gamificação foi uma das técnicas utilizadas, tanto na fase de conceção e desenho, como posteriormente, na fase de implementação. o grande objetivo foi conseguir manter os utilizadores envolvidos e dar uma resposta efetiva à redução da taxa de retenção dos utilizadores, da plataforma de mHealth TeenPower
- A Cardiac Rehabilitation Program Supported by mHealth Technology: The MOVIDA.eros PlatformPublication . Silva, Emanuel; Rijo, Rui Pedro Charters Lopes; Martinho, Ricardo; Assunção, Pedro; Abreu Henriques Seco, Maria Alexandra; Fonseca-Pinto, RuiThe cardiac rehabilitation backdrop in Portugal is lacking much-needed improvements in order to better serve patients with different heart conditions. Although the beneficial results of cardiac rehabilitation are widely acknowledged, it is not being implemented in an optimal way, with few rehabilitation centers irregularly distributed throughout the country. In this context, the opportunity arose to develop a project that would help to fill in this gap. MOVIDA.eros is an ongoing project aims to bring more people into cardiac rehabilitation programs and help physicians monitor their health anywhere they are. By using a mobile app and a web platform, the MOVIDA.eros project allows healthcare providers to be constantly connected to their patients and see whether they are following their recommendations and adhering to the program. In this paper, an overview will be provided on the current situation of cardiac rehabilitation programs in Portugal, including the main weaknesses and issues that should be addressed. The main features of both the mobile app and the web platform will also be discussed, as well as any challenges that might have come up during the development process.
- CF4BPMN: A BPMN Extension for Controlled Flexibility in Business ProcessesPublication . Martinho, Ricardo; Domingos, Dulce; Varajão, JoãoThe need for flexibility in business process languages and tools has evolved over the past few decades, from totally rigid approaches, to totally flexible ones. The need to allow process designers to control this flexibility has risen due to the fact that, in the everyday practice, people do not wish for total flexibility. They rather prefer to be guided, even when they feel the need to change some part of business process. In this paper we propose CF4BPMN, a BPMN language extension to allow modeling and execution of controlled flexibility in business processes. Using this extension, process designers can express how a certain process element can or cannot be changed in execution time, taking into account their experience or other organizational restriction. Then, other process participants can visually learn and follow the advised changes onto a business process in a controlled manner.
- A Clinical Decision Support System for Remote Monitoring of Cardiovascular Disease Patients: A Clinical Study ProtocolPublication . Ventura, Filipa; Sousa, Pedro; Dixe, Maria dos Anjos; Ferreira, Paulo; Martinho, Ricardo; Dias, Sara Simões; Morais, João; Gonçalves, Lino M.Introduction: Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the leading cause of death globally, taking an estimated 17. 9 million lives each year. Cardiac rehabilitation is shown to reduce mortality and hospital readmissions, while improving physical fitness and quality of life. Despite the recommendations and proven benefits, acceptance and adherence remain low. Mobile health (mHealth) solutions may contribute to more personalized and tailored patient recommendations according to their specific needs. This study protocol aims to assess the effectiveness of a user-friendly, comprehensive Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) for remote patient monitoring of CVD patients, primarily on the reduction of recurrent cardiovascular events. Methods and Analysis: The study will follow a multicenter randomized controlled design involving two cardiology units in the Center Region of Portugal. Prospective CVD patients will be approached by the healthcare staff at each unit and checked for eligibility according to the predefined inclusion/exclusion criteria. The CDSS will suggest a monitoring plan for the patient, will advise the mHealth tools (apps and wearables) adapted to patient needs, and will collect data. The clinical study will start in January 2023. Discussion: The success of the mHeart.4U intervention will be a step toward the use of technological interfaces as an integrating part of CR programs. Ethics and Dissemination: The study will undergo ethical revision by the Ethics Board of the two hospital units where the study will unfold. The study was registered in ClinicalTrials.gov on 18th January 2022 with the number NCT05196802. The study findings will be published in international peer-reviewed scientific journals and encounters and in a user-friendly manner to the society.
- Complexity Analysis of a Business Process Automation: Case Study on a Healthcare OrganizationPublication . Martinho, Ricardo; Rijo, Rui, Rui Pedro Charters Lopes; Nunes, AnaHealthcare organizations have been struggling to get Business Process Management (BPM) and associated Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) properly aligned to improve their patients' service and quality of care. Nevertheless, the highly structured nature of larger organizations such as hospitals hampers this alignment, and commonly ICT is applied to isolated tasks or fragments of processes. In this paper, we present and discuss the results, in terms of complexity, of the introduction of a new scheduling system within the medical appointment and exam business processes of a large hospital. During the case study, we began by modelling the processes using the Business Process Modelling and Notation (BPMN) standard. We then used abstract metrics to compare the complexity between old (before the introduction of the scheduling system) and new processes, and interpreted the obtained results. Finally, we derived important conclusions that will help guide us in further business process optimization endeavors.