3D printing has been quietly moving towards a radical revolution over the past several years. While it has already exceeded 5.1 billion, its growth has been relatively slow, and not as disruptive as some might have envisioned. Instead, 3D printing has been advancing to its quiet revolution through applications like medical technology and industrial manufacturing.
Heart patients who have reached end-stage heart failure may have a pump surgically inserted to help blood flow to the rest of the body. This mechanical implant is called a ventricular assist device (VAD), and it can prolong and improve patients' lives. Though physicians have been performing this surgery for years, the patient outcomes are not as predictable as might be expected. While some patients do very well post-surgery, others do not live long after receiving a VAD. In additional cases, patients who seem to be viable candidates for the surgery never receive the device.
In early October 2016, rapper Kid Cudi made the headlines after writing on Facebook that he entered rehab for treatment for depression and suicidal thoughts. While he’s not as famous as other musicians, his heartfelt message garnered a lot attention and support from celebrities and mental health professionals.
“Yesterday I checked myself into rehab for depression and suicidal urges. I am not at peace. I haven't been since you've known me. If I didn't come here, I would’ve done something to myself,” he wrote.
Despite the existence of successful online groups, the majority of newly created ones fail. They don’t survive, fail to attract enough digital users, or don’t meet goals their founders set for them. Herbert A. Simon Professor of Human-Computer Interaction Robert Kraut has dedicated much of his recent research to investigating why some groups succeed where others fail.
We have built an emotion recognition system based on prosodic features (i.e. intensity, pitch, formant frequencies of sounds) combined with short-term perceptual features for classifying the following emotions: anger, fear, happy, sad, surprise, and neutral. Additional emotional states can be included. Prosodic information applies to syllables, words, or phrases. An interactive dialog elicits responses from the user.
Enabling Technologies Healthcare FacultyVRAs are applications of wearable devices which track patient home exercises in order to quantify exercise metrics regarding compliance, performance, and symptom levels. VRAs are designed to provide Physical Therapists (PTs) with precise, quantitative data regarding patients' home exercises. This precise information can then be used by PTs to improve their decision making regarding treatment adjustments.
Enabling Technologies Healthcare FacultyThis Virtual Coach evaluates and offers corrections and feedback for rehabilitation of stroke survivors. The Virtual Coach is composed of a tablet for clinician programming, a Kinect for monitoring motion, and a machine learning model to evaluate the quality of the exercise.
Enabling Technologies Healthcare FacultyThe goal of Seating Coach (SC) is to facilitate power wheelchair users to utilize auxiliary seating functions for health management while preventing potential hazard due to inappropriate usage. The SC detects seating activities, analyzes user behaviors, and responds accordingly to provide suggestions or reminders. The SC is an intelligent system, integrating sensors, machine intelligence and user-friendly interfaces.
Enabling Technologies Healthcare FacultyOur contention is that multi-user health kiosks, designed with input from older adults and situated in convenient community locations, offer a way to bolster their self-management confidence and capabilities, regardless of personal resources or distance from health services. We are expanding the features and functions of the Health Kiosk to include numerous self-report and performance-based measures, interactive elements, and health intervention modules.
Enabling Technologies Healthcare Faculty
People facing serious health threats increasingly use the Internet to obtain information and support. Internet support groups (ISGs), online communities where people come together to exchange information and/or support, are an important resource for patients grappling with serious medical conditions. Participation in health-related ISGs has been associated with significant reductions in participant-reported depression, anxiety and other indicators of psychological distress.
Healthcare Social Computing Faculty
