Utilizing a consumer-grade smartwatch in conjunction with a prescribed exercise therapy plan can help to reduce the patient-level entry barriers into programs designed for patients with peripheral arterial disease, which affects millions of people worldwide. Currently, the alternative to this physical therapy plan is surgical therapy which costs between $3 and $5 billion annually. This paper presents the development and testing of WalkCoach app, a smart service system integrating a consumer-grade smartwatch (Polar M600) in the monitoring of supervised walking exercises. By monitoring a participant's baseline activity and improvements with time, it will be possible to provide personalized exercise prescriptions that can be easily modified or personalized to adjust and optimize for improved walking ability as the therapy progresses. This paper demonstrates the accuracy of the smartwatch-based WalkCoach app in a pilot cohort study of 10 healthy older adults (>65 yrs) who were recruited to perform a 400m overground walking task. Results are promising and show that the consumer-grade smartwatch accurately measures steps (step count = 637) compared to a video/manual step count (650 steps; Pearson's r = 0.96, P <;0.001). In the future, WalkCoach will be improved to produce granular analytics on a patient's compliance and performance to the supervised walking exercises.

Contemporary programmers have a predominately visual experience. Computer code is read from sophisticated text editors, analyzed using visual tools, designed using UML, and debugged using a watch window. Little research has attempted to create tools for the non-sighted programmer, using either haptic or aural feedback. In this paper, we present WAD, the wicked audio debugger, a new debugger for Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 that sonifies computer code as an aid to the programmer. This paper has two primary contributions, namely the tool itself and the results of a feasibility study. We conducted this feasibility study to test participants' ability to comprehend dynamic program behavior, including tracking the value of state variables and control flow. Results of our feasibility study show that participants were able to comprehend approximately 86% of dynamic program behavior using audio only.

Algorithm visualizations graphically illustrate how algorithms work. In prior ethnographic studies of a computer science course in which students were required to construct and present their own algorithm visualizations, we observed that visualizations based on storylines tended to stimulate increased audience interest and involvement. This observation, coupled with the empirical research that substantiates the value of stories as mnemonic devices, raises an interesting research question: Do visualizations with storylines actually help students remember the procedural behavior of an algorithm better than visualizations that do not involve storylines? To investigate this question, we conducted an experimental study that compared the memorability of algorithm descriptions involving differing degrees of spatial and verbal embellishment. The study failed to detect significant differences. We reflect on our lack of significant results, and suggest two alternative paths for future research into the value of story-based algorithm visualization.

For quantitative examination of phenomena that simultaneously occur on very different spatial and temporal scales, adaptive hierarchical schemes are required. A special numerical multilevel technique, associated with a particular hierarchical data structure, is so-called adaptive mesh refinement (AMR). It allows one to bridge a wide range of spatial and temporal resolutions and therefore gains increasing popularity. We describe the interplay of several visualization and VR software packages for rendering time dependent AMR simulations of the evolution of the first star in the universe. The work was done in the framework of a television production for Discovery Channel television, "The Unfolding Universe.". Parts of the data were taken from one of the most complex AMR simulation ever carried out: It contained up to 27 levels of resolution, requiring modifications to the texture based AMR volume rendering algorithm that was used to depict the density distribution of the gaseous interstellar matter. A voice and gesture controlled CAVE application was utilized to define camera paths following the interesting features deep inside the computational domains. Background images created from cosmological computational data were combined with the final renderings.

To the Editor:—I read with interest the recent article by Murff and Kannry on physician satisfaction with computerized order entry systems.1 In brief, house staff were fairly satisfied with one system, and displeased with another. The authors conclude that user satisfaction is an important marker for the usability of any system, and that not all order entry systems are created equal. They further stress that only well-received, high-quality order entry systems should be implemented. When I was a resident in 1990, our tertiary-care teaching hospital in Calgary, Canada, installed a commercially available patient information system, complete with physician order entry. The institution's official name for the system was OSCAR (Online System for Communication and Records), but it soon became known as FRED (Friggin' Ridiculous Electronic Device). Our travails with FRED were reported in the medical literature2; the University of Virginia had a similar experience with the same system around the same time.3 Similar to work reported by Murff and Kannry, a survey of residents at the hospital was performed after FRED had been in place for a year. About 120 residents were surveyed; more than 90 questionnaires were returned, for a response rate of 75 percent. Of those who completed the survey, 90 percent reported that working with FRED took more time than working with paper charts, 95 percent thought the system was difficult to use, and 63 percent thought the quality of patient care had declined since its implementation. Rating overall satisfaction with FRED on a scale of 1 to 10, residents gave it a mean score of 2.4 (95% CI, 1.4–3.4). In written comments returned with the survey, residents frequently remarked that FRED appeared to be an antiquated system. At the time, I had just purchased a state-of-the-art 386 personal computer, with a sizzling 16 MHz chip and a whopping 2 MB of RAM. The awesome power and speed of my desktop machine put ol' mainframe FRED to shame. I predicted confidently that FRED, like the Edsel and disco boots, would soon be consigned to the dustbin of history. A few years later, as I completed a master's degree in medical informatics at the University of Utah, I discovered that many of the faculty were familiar with FRED and largely shared my impressions. Imagine, therefore, my surprise when I read in the paper by Murff and Kannry that FRED is alive and well and living in New York. Although not named specifically, FRED is instantly recognizable by its pathognomonic clunky user screens, shown in Figure 1 of their paper. According to the article, this antediluvian system was implemented and its use made mandatory in the Mount Sinai Hospital in 1999, almost a decade after the fiasco in our hospital. Predictably, the results of the survey among Mount Sinai house staff closely parallel those of our assessment 10 years earlier. Surely the choice of FRED so recently was a triumph of marketing over prudence, since far superior systems now exist. I wonder if the decision makers at Mount Sinai were aware of the Calgary and Virginia experiences with FRED, both published in medical journals. If not, I doubt that the vendor took the time or effort to inform them. I believe strongly in the concept of computerized physician order entry, but think that the physician community will make the migration from paper-based records only if they are enticed by carrots, not beaten by sticks. As noted by Murff and Kannry, user satisfaction is crucial to acceptance of hospital information systems, and it, in turn, is dependent on intuitive and responsive software. Unfortunately, inefficient proprietary systems such as FRED do little to impress doctors and serve only to give the specialty of medical informatics a bad name.—Robert Patterson, MD, MSC, FRCSC

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the benefit, for medical students on their surgical rotations, of real-time educational instruction during order entry on a hospital information system. DESIGN: Prospective controlled trial. INTERVENTION: Access to educational information during computerized order entry. SUBJECTS: Medical students in their final year at the University of Calgary. MAIN OUTCOMES: Attainment of the surgery rotation educational objectives, as measured by performance on a multiple-choice examination. METHODS: Before they began their surgical rotations, students at two hospitals took a multiple-choice examination to measure their knowledge of surgery. One hospital had an information system with computerized order entry; students at this hospital had access, while composing orders, to educational material on the system. The other hospital did not have an information system; students there wrote orders on a paper chart. At the end of the rotation, all students took another multiple-choice examination. RESULTS: Of 50 eligible students, 45 agreed to participate in the project, 21 in the treatment group and 24 in the control group. Pre-rotation scores were similar for the two groups (43 percent in the treatment group and 40 percent in the control group; SD, 10 percent). Post-rotation scores were identical for the two groups (65 percent in the treatment group and 65 percent in the control group; SD, 12 percent). A t-test analysis revealed no significant difference in performance on the examinations between the two groups. CONCLUSION: This study did not demonstrate a learning advantage for medical students who have access to educational material on a hospital information system.

In 1887, Polish physician Ludovic Zamenhof introduced Esperanto, a simple, easy-to-learn planned language. His goal was to erase communication barriers between ethnic groups by providing them with a politically neutral, culturally free standard language. His ideas received both praise and condemnation from the leaders of his time. Interest in Esperanto peaked in the 1970s but has since faded somewhat. Despite the logical concept and intellectual appeal of a standard language, Esperanto has not evolved into a dominant worldwide language. Instead, English, with all its idiosyncrasies, is closest to an international lingua franca. Like Zamenhof, standards committees in medical informatics have recognized communication chaos and have tried to establish working models, with mixed results. In some cases, previously shunned proprietary systems have become the standard. A proposed standard, no matter how simple, logical, and well designed, may have difficulty displacing an imperfect but functional "real life" system.

Article Free Access Share on Experiences with virtual reality applications (panel) Authors: William R. Sherman The National Center for Supercomputing Applications The National Center for Supercomputing ApplicationsView Profile , Nina Adams Adams Consulting Group Adams Consulting GroupView Profile , Rita Addison View Profile , R. Bowen Loftin University of Houston and NASA/Johnson Space Center University of Houston and NASA/Johnson Space CenterView Profile , Ben Britton University of Cincinnati University of CincinnatiView Profile , Donna Cox The National Center for Supercomputing Applications The National Center for Supercomputing ApplicationsView Profile , Robert Patterson The National Center for Supercomputing Applications The National Center for Supercomputing ApplicationsView Profile Authors Info & Claims SIGGRAPH '97: Proceedings of the 24th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniquesAugust 1997 Pages 473–476https://doi.org/10.1145/258734.258913Online:03 August 1997Publication History 0citation535DownloadsMetricsTotal Citations0Total Downloads535Last 12 Months4Last 6 weeks1 Get Citation AlertsNew Citation Alert added!This alert has been successfully added and will be sent to:You will be notified whenever a record that you have chosen has been cited.To manage your alert preferences, click on the button below.Manage my AlertsNew Citation Alert!Please log in to your account Save to BinderSave to BinderCreate a New BinderNameCancelCreateExport CitationPublisher SiteeReaderPDF