Background Active assisted living (AAL) refers to systems designed to improve the quality of life, aid in independence, and create healthier lifestyles for those who need assistance at any stage of their lives. As the population of older adults in Canada grows, there is a pressing need for nonintrusive, continuous, adaptable, and reliable health monitoring tools to support aging in place and reduce health care costs. AAL has great potential to support these efforts with the wide variety of solutions currently available; however, additional work is required to address the concerns of care recipients and their care providers with regard to the integration of AAL into care. Objective This study aims to work closely with stakeholders to ensure that the recommendations for system-service integrations for AAL aligned with the needs and capacity of health care and allied health systems. To this end, an exploratory study was conducted to understand the perceptions of, and concerns with, AAL technology use. Methods A total of 18 semistructured group interviews were conducted with stakeholders, with each group comprising several participants from the same organization. These participant groups were categorized into care organizations, technology development organizations, technology integration organizations, and potential care recipient or patient advocacy groups. The results of the interviews were coded using a thematic analysis to identify future steps and opportunities regarding AAL. Results The participants discussed how the use of AAL systems may lead to improved support for care recipients through more comprehensive monitoring and alerting, greater confidence in aging in place, and increased care recipient empowerment and access to care. However, they also raised concerns regarding the management and monetization of data emerging from AAL systems as well as general accountability and liability. Finally, the participants discussed potential barriers to the use and implementation of AAL systems, especially addressing the question of whether AAL systems are even worth it considering the investment required and encroachment on privacy. Other barriers raised included issues with the institutional decision-making process and equity. Conclusions Better definition of roles is needed in terms of who can access the data and who is responsible for acting on the gathered data. It is important for stakeholders to understand the trade-off between using AAL technologies in care settings and the costs of AAL technologies, including the loss of patient privacy and control. Finally, further work is needed to address the gaps, explore the equity in AAL access, and develop a data governance framework for AAL in the continuum of care.
Big data originating from user interactions on social media play an essential role in infodemiology and infoveillance outcomes, supporting the planning and implementation of public health actions. Notably, the extrapolation of these data requires an awareness of different ethical elements. Previous studies have investigated and discussed the adoption of conventional ethical approaches in the contemporary public health digital surveillance space. However, there is a lack of specific ethical guidelines to orient infodemiology and infoveillance studies concerning infodemic on social media, making it challenging to design digital strategies to combat this phenomenon. Hence, it is necessary to explore if traditional ethical pillars can support digital purposes or whether new ones must be proposed since we are confronted with a complex online misinformation scenario. Therefore, this perspective provides an overview of the current scenario of ethics-related issues of infodemiology and infoveillance on social media for infodemic studies.
Refugee newcomers almost invariably face “food” culture shock and are at greater risk of food insecurity due to slow-to-evolve institutions. Community programs can help boost refugee newcomer confidence through knowledge exchange during intercultural culinary experiences. The originally proposed program was “Breaking Down the Walls (BDTW) - Building Integration and Cultural Appreciation through Shared Food Experiences with Refugee Newcomers”. With the restrictions set in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic, adaptations were made to the BDTW program. Specifically, the program’s scope was greatly reduced and the program itself shifted to a virtual environment. The final deliverables for this program included: 1) a framework/guide for conducting intercultural cooking events; and 2) an Online cultural brokerage training tool to help users to grasp some of the food-related challenges faced by newcomers to Canada. To best identify the challenges, successes, and efficacy of conducting community-based research, the team adopted a Developmental Evaluation approach, which is often used in complex settings and evolving scenarios such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The themes which emerged from interviews with participants were further distilled into broader areas of the COVID-19 pandemic, collaboration, and equity. Programs like BDTW have the potential to create infrastructure for newcomer nutrition programming that is integrated and streamlined as a long-term intervention. This type of programming would help shift care practices from sporadically addressing health/nutrition and settlement issues as they arise to a system that proactively anticipates nutritional needs from day one, ultimately promoting long-term health and mental wellbeing among newcomer populations.
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