Hip fractures are amongst the leading causes of admission to an orthopaedic ward. Systematized pathways with reduced admission time have become increasingly common as an essential tool for quality development and to improve efficiency in the hospital setting.  The aim of this study was to clarify if the patients feel empowered and able to perform self-care after short time stay in hospital (STSH) due to a hip fracture. The study used descriptive phenomenology to describe experiences of the pathway. Field studies were conducted in hospitals and in the patients' homes.  Interviews were performed with 10 patients recruited from two wards at a Danish University hospital, 4 family members and 15 health professionals from three hospitals.  The open attitude of reflective lifeworld research guided the analysis. The findings revealed that patients felt unprepared and insecure about their future, but also had a strong desire to be in charge of their own lives.  Of all the patients interviewed, none had any recollection of the information given to them by health professionals during their hospital admission. This study demonstrates that empowerment of patients with hip fractures is not adequately achieved in the pathway with STSH.

Computing support for large engineering enterprises provides an example of the need for hypermedia-based collaborative computing systems composed of a large number of distributed heterogeneous tools. These computing environments place complex requirements on the underlying hypermedia platform.To support integration of independently written tools for these environments, hypermedia platforms must address several important issues such aa scalability y, openness, distribution, heterogeneity, interoperability, extensibility and computation.

Telemedicine or tele-health is increasingly used to help meet challenges in health care linked to demographic changes and an aging population. This study aimed to investigate whether a tele-health solution, an ''app'' presented on a tablet, can assist patients in their recovery following a hip fracture and accommodate individual learning and health literacy needs to support them in self-care and empowerment. Twenty patients with a hip fracture were informed and educated using an app during hospital admission and for 3 to 4 weeks after discharge. A qualitative approach employed field observation and individual interviews with patients and their relatives. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Patients found that the app supported their ability to perform self-care and their desire for autonomy. They would not have downloaded the app by themselves but found the use of the app presented on a tablet very supportive in their everyday life while rehabilitating after a hip fracture. Findings indicate that health-care professionals can support information and education for patients with a hip fracture using an app that accommodates different learning styles. This demonstrates that apps used for the dissemination of health knowledge can be used by elderly hip fracture patients even if they are not used to technology.

Model defects are a significant concern in the Model-Driven Development (MDD) paradigm, as model transformations and code generation may propagate errors to other notations where they are harder to detect and trace. Formal verification techniques can check the correctness of a model, but their high computational complexity can limit their scalability. In this paper, we consider a specific static model (UML class diagrams annotated with unrestricted OCL constraints) and a specific property to verify (satisfiability, i.e., "is it possible to create objects without violating any constraint?"). Current approaches to this problem have an exponential worst-case runtime. We propose a technique to improve their scalability by partitioning the original model into submodels (slices) which can be verified independently and where irrelevant information has been abstracted. The definition of the slicing procedure ensures that the property under verification is preserved after partitioning.

Early hypertext systems were monolithic and closed, but newer systems tend to be open, distributed, and support collaboration. While this development has resulted in increased openness and flexibility, integrating or adapting various different tools, such as content editors, viewers or even other link servers has remained a tedious task. Many developers were implementing essentially similar components, simply for the benefit of having their own platform on which to experiment with hypertexts.The open hypermedia community is addressing this issue of interoperability between open hypermedia systems. The goal of the community is to provide an open hypermedia framework that can be used by application developers outside the community to construct more powerful hypermedia-aware applications. The design and evolution of this framework is presented along with the requirements that drove its development. The framework has matured to the point where it has supported the creation of a number of research prototypes. These prototypes are described and evaluated with respect to their use of the framework. KEYWORDS:Open hypermedia protocol navigational interface (OHP-Nav), component-based open hypermedia system (CB-OHS), reference architecture, data model, interoperability, open hypermedia systems working group (OHSWG), structural computing.

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This paper presents a taxonomy for open hypermedia systems. The purpose of the Flag 1 taxonomy is manifold: 1 to provide a framework to classify and concisely describe individual systems, 2 to characterize what an open hypermedia system is, 3 to provide a framework for comparing di erent systems in a system independent way, and 4 to provide an overview of the design space of open hypermedia systems. The Flag taxonomy builds on the achievements of the Dexter model. It extends the terminology of the Dexter model to adequately cover issues that relate to open hypermedia systems such a s i n tegration and use of thirdparty applications to edit and display h ypermedia components. Two of the most prominent o p e n h ypermedia systems, DeVise Hypermedia and Microcosm, are used as case studies. The Flag taxonomy i s used to compare these systems on a carefully selected set of aspects that distinguish open hypermedia systems from other hypermedia systems.

Objectives:In future healthcare systems, individuals are expected to be more involved in managing their health and preventing illness. A previous study of patient empowerment on a hip fracture pathway uncovered a gap between what the healthcare system provided and patients’ needs and wishes. The aim of this study was to investigate whether a user-driven approach and a participatory design could provide a solution that would bridge this gap.Methods:Four workshops and a laboratory test were conducted with healthcare professionals to co-create a final prototype. This was performed in iterative processes through continuous interviews and face-to-face evaluation with patients, together with field studies in patients’ homes, to maintain relevance to end-users, that is, patients and healthcare professionals. The data were analysed according to the plan, act, observe and reflect methodology of iterative processes in participatory design.Results:Our results contribute to a key research area within patient involvement. By using participatory design, patients and healthcare professionals gained a mutual understanding and collaborated to create a technological solution that would encompass needs and wishes. Patient empowerment also involved giving healthcare professionals a means of empowerment, by providing them with a platform to support patient education. We found that one solution to bridging the aforementioned gap could be an app, including a range of educational features that would accommodate different learning styles.Conclusion:In developing a technological solution, user involvement in a participatory design ensures usability and inclusion of the requested functionalities. This can help bridge the gap between what the healthcare system provided and patients’ needs and wishes and support patients’ individual empowerment needs and self-care capacity. Together with the tools and techniques, the setting in which PD unfolds should be thoughtfully planned.