Continual development of the social care workforce is a key element in improving outcomes for the users of social care services. As the delivery of social care services continues to benefit from innovation in assistive technologies, it is important that the digital capabilities of the social care workforce are aligned. Policy makers have highlighted the importance of using technology to support workforce learning and development, and the need to ensure that the workforce has the necessary digital skills to fully benefit from such provisions.

This study aims to identify the digital capability of the social care workforce in Northern Ireland and to explore the workforce’s appetite for and barriers to using technology for learning and development. This study is designed to answer the following research questions (1) What is the digital capability of the social care workforce in Northern Ireland? (2) What is the workforce’s appetite to participate in digital learning and development? and (3) If there are barrrning and development within the social care workforce. The findings provide clear areas of focus for the future use of technology for learning and development of the social care workforce and considerations to maximize engagement with such approaches.

Mobile health (mHealth) tools have shown promise in clinical photo and wound documentation for their potential to improve workflows, expand access to care, and improve the quality of patient care. However, some barriers to adoption persist.

This study aims to understand the social, organizational, and technical factors affecting clinicians’ adoption of a clinical photo documentation mHealth app and its implications for clinical workflows and quality of care.

A qualitative case study of a clinical photo and wound documentation app called imitoCam was conducted. The data were collected through 20 in-depth interviews with mHealth providers, clinicians, and medical informatics experts from 8 clinics and hospitals in Switzerland and Germany.

According to the study participants, the use of mHealth in clinical photo and wound documentation provides numerous benefits such as time-saving and efficacy, better patient safety and quality of care, enhanced data security and validation, and better accessibility. Th beyond the technical features of the tool itself to embrace significant social and organizational elements. Technology providers, clinicians, and decision makers should work together to carefully address any barriers to improve adoption and harness the potential of these tools.

The promising potential of mHealth in clinical photo and wound documentation is clear and may enhance clinical workflow and quality of care; however, the factors affecting adoption go beyond the technical features of the tool itself to embrace significant social and organizational elements. Technology providers, clinicians, and decision makers should work together to carefully address any barriers to improve adoption and harness the potential of these tools.

Germany is the first country worldwide that has introduced a digital care act as an incentive system to enhance the use of digital health devices, namely health apps and wearables, among its population. The act allows physicians to prescribe statutory financed and previously certified health apps and wearables to patients. This initiative has the potential to improve treatment quality through better disease management and monitoring.

The aim of this paper was to outline the key concepts related to the potential risks and benefits discussed in the current literature about health apps and wearables. Furthermore, this study aimed to answer the research question Which risks and benefits may result from the implementation of the digital care act in Germany?

We conducted the scoping study by searching the databases PubMed, Google Scholar, and JMIR using the keywords health apps and wearables. We discussed 55 of 136 identified articles published in the English language from 2015 to March 2019 in this paper usi processing should be provided at all times for continuing success of the digital care act in Germany.

The digital care act could lead to an improvement in treatment quality through better patient monitoring, disease management, personalized therapy, and better health education. However, physicians should play an active role in recommending and supervising health app use to reach digital-illiterate or health-illiterate people. Age must not be an exclusion criterion. Yet, concerns about data privacy and security are very strong in Germany. Transparency about data processing should be provided at all times for continuing success of the digital care act in Germany.

Research has underscored the need to develop socioculturally tailored interventions to improve adherence behaviors in minority patients with hypertension (HTN) and type 2 diabetes (T2D). Novel mobile health (mHealth) approaches are potential methods for delivering tailored interventions to minority patients with increased cardiovascular risk.

This study aims to develop and evaluate the acceptability and preliminary efficacy of a tailored mHealth adherence intervention versus attention control (AC) on medication adherence, systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and hemoglobin A

(HbA

) at 3 months in 42 Black patients with uncontrolled HTN and/or T2D who were initially nonadherent to their medications.

This was a two-phase pilot study consisting of a formative phase and a clinical efficacy phase. The formative phase consisted of qualitative interviews with 10 members of the target patient population (7/10, 70% female; mean age 65.8 years, SD 5.6) to tailor the intervention basedver time. Modifications to the intervention as a result of the pilot study should guide future efforts.

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01643473; http//clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/ NCT01643473.

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01643473; http//clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/ NCT01643473.

Refugees have an increased risk of developing mental health problems. There are insufficient psychosocial care structures to meet the resulting need for support. Stabilizing and guided imagery techniques have shown promising results in increasing traumatized refugees’ emotional stabilization. If delivered via audio files, the techniques can be practiced autonomously and independent of time, space, and human resources or stable treatment settings.

This study aimed to evaluate the self-practice of stabilizing and guided imagery techniques via digital audio files for traumatized refugees living in a reception and registration center in Germany.

From May 2018 to February 2019, 42 traumatized refugees participated in our study. At T1, patients received digital audio files in English, French, Arabic, Farsi, Turkish, or Serbian for self-practice. Tofacitinib price Nine days later, at T2, a face-to-face interview was conducted. Two months after T2, a follow-up interview took place via telephone.

At T2, about half of the patients reported the daily practice of stabilizing and guided imagery techniques.