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Albeit the potent association between nutrition and health has been repeatedly corroborated in the field of nutrition science through evidence-based approaches, the prevalence of inadequate nutrition among Filipino households is still too high. Therefore, the goal of this study was to pinpoint nutrition challenges faced by Filipino young adults and...
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... This research design involves the integration of quantitative and qualitative data analyses and their results within a single study (Creswell & Clark, 2017). Mixing two research methods is believed to be superior as it is likely to offer more valuable insights into the phenomena that cannot be fully understood by using only a single research method (e.g., Garcia et al., 2020). Moreover, Bringula (2020) found that all ITS-related papers in the country used quantitative methods and there is currently a research methodological gap due to the lack of mixed-method studies. ...
Children often make unhealthy food choices because they lack nutrition knowledge. This chapter consequently assessed the potential employment of a nutrition intelligent tutoring system (NutritionITS) for teaching and learning basic nutrition concepts in primary education. Following the K-12 Health Curriculum Guide by the Department of Education, NutritionITS incorporated the first quarter content in the grade 1 level. Using an exploratory sequential mixed methods design, it was evaluated by teachers and parents. The qualitative phase served as the participatory design process that extracted the features needed by teachers. On the other hand, the quantitative phase served as the prototype evaluation using the technology acceptance model constructs. The results presented in this chapter may assist educational leaders, teachers, parents, and students in achieving a better learning outcome in nutrition education. In addition to its contribution to the literature of educational research, this is the first study to develop an intelligent tutoring system in the field of nutrition science.
... Thus, this chapter aims to respond to these challenges by implementing a school-based public health intervention using a CAI-based tool named "VD-CAI". Specifically designed for teaching physical fitness and exercise, this tool is an extended version of nutrition systems called Plan-Cook-Eat (Garcia, 2019) and Virtual Dietitian (Garcia et al., 2020). ...
Empirical evidence has demonstrated the benefits of physical activity in preventing chronic diseases and premature death. Unfortunately, there is a global trend of insufficient physical activity, which was aggravated by the recent global pandemic. Although physical education is often used to promote physical activity, the transition to online education made it difficult to teach fitness and exercise from a distance due to several limiting factors. This chapter aims to respond to these challenges by implementing a school-based public health intervention using a computer-assisted instruction (CAI) tool called VD-CAI. Through an experimental approach, it was found that VD-CAI as an instructional technology shows a performance advantage compared to other pedagogies. Specifically, students who used VD-CAI in their physical education courses received higher scores and exhibited a more positive attitude. This chapter contributes to the growing scientific evidence of the effectiveness of school-based health education programs as well as the expanding literature on CAI and physical education.
... With the constant emergence of new technologies and treatments Howard, 2023;Maaliw et al., 2022), it is essential for healthcare professionals to be equipped with the latest knowledge and skills to provide the best care for their patients Silva et al., 2023;Tavares et al., 2023). By staying up to date on the latest advancements and innovations in health education, healthcare professionals can better prepare themselves to provide the highest quality of care to their patients and meet the evolving needs of the healthcare industry (Garcia et al., 2020;Solanki et al., 2023;Uunona & Goosen, 2023). Furthermore, advancements in health education have the potential to address public health concerns and contribute to the overall improvement of healthcare outcomes at both the individual and population levels (Garcia, Yousef, et al., 2023;Mishra et al., 2023;Rao & Mokhtar, 2023). ...
Congenital heart defect interventions may benefit from the fabrication of patient-specific vascular grafts because of the wide array of anatomies present in children with cardiovascular defects. Three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting is used to establish a platform to produce custom vascular grafts, which are biodegradable , mechanically compatible with vascular tissues, and support neotissue formation and growth. It is an advanced and emerging technology having great potential in the field of tissue engineering. Bioprinting uses cell-laden biomaterials, generally called bio-inks, to deposit in a layer-by-layer fashion. The goal of 3D bioprinting is to offer an alternative to autologous or allogeneic tissue grafts to replace or treat damaged tissues. This chapter aims to offer a synopsis of the current state of 3D bioprinting techniques in analysis, research potentials, and applications. This new and exciting technology has the potential to not only provide better treatment options, but also to improve the quality of life for patients suffering from chronic illnesses.
... Despite the overall positive ratings, registered dietitians mentioned that PCE lacked more nutrition-related features that integrate evidencedbased dietetics while application users demanded more flexibility in generating their daily meal plans (e.g., incorporating personal food preferences and restrictions). These shortcomings led to a mixed-methods needs analysis for a larger and smarter nutrition application [28]. Accordingly, it was learned that people generally lack the essential nutrition knowledge and dietary compositions to make smarter food choices. ...
The Virtual Dietitian (VD) application is a nutrition knowledge-based system that generates personalized meal plans in accordance with the one-size-does-not-fit-all concept of precision nutrition. A subset of the population that was not involved in its four-part developmental study was gym and fitness enthusiasts despite them being important target users. As part of our quality improvement (QI) plan, we initiated a two-phase user testing to inform modifications to VD. We recruited a total of 30 users with prior experience in nutrition applications. In phase 1, they used the current version of VD for a week and answered a mixed-form questionnaire afterward. We used the same questionnaire from our previous study, which is composed of System Usability Scale (SUS) items and open-ended questions. After months of system modification, the same set of users evaluated again the new VD version after another week of use. A paired-sample t-test showed a statistically significant difference in SUS scores before (SUS = 79) and after (SUS = 82) modifying VD based on the suggestions of the participants (p = 0.005). Some new features include water tracker and reminder modules, Google Fit integration, and other nutrition support services (e.g., teleconsultation with registered dietitians). Although further refinements to VD are still needed, we were able to incorporate a QI initiative typically employed by healthcare organizations into software development for a better and improved personalized nutrition application.
... For the usability evaluation, a mixedmethods design is warranted to produce more reliable and valuable outcomes for mobile application usability studies (Weichbroth, 2019). Garcia et al. (2020) stressed that user-centered design and usability studies are recommended to utilize mixed-methods to cover multifaceted aspects and dimensions that are both qualitative and quantitative. In addition, they found that a mixed-methods needs analysis is essential before starting a large application development project. ...
Location-based marketing (LBM) is becoming an integral element of the media mix for making highly personalized offers to the targeted audience at the most opportune time and place. Yet, the literature calls for more usability studies due to the lack of user-centered research. To fill this gap, this study explores the development of PushMapp – a geomarketing tool for launching LBM campaigns – through a user-centered, parallel-iterative approach. Usability analysis shows that this type of application is affected by issues related to security, privacy, advertisement relevancy, and notification overload. Meanwhile, only performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and hedonic motivation appeared to be the significant factors in an LBM mobile application. Experiences from this study provided valuable insights for marketers and business owners who plan to capitalize on LBM strategies by underscoring the importance of integrating users’ input, ensuring usability compliance, and conforming to factors of mobile application utilization.
... Despite the large number of proposed food recommender systems (e.g., Plan-Cook-Eat [6] -the initial version of VD) that aims to incorporate the concept of personalized nutrition, existing artifacts remain preliminary in the nutritional health context largely due to lack of integrated nutrition knowledge [7]. Similar findings emerged during the preliminary analysis of VD [8], where nutrition knowledge was regarded as a vital and necessary component to make people a smarter decisionmaker when it comes to dietary choices. With considerations to these shortcomings, the first version of VD [9] was created in compliance with these findings. ...
... In response to the existing inadequate nutrition problems and challenges of personalized nutrition, VD was proposed [8] and developed [9]. VD is a nutrition system grounded on NCPM that aims to personalize nutrition care through the recommendation of tailored meal plans. ...
... AQ was used to assess the acceptability of VD. Meanwhile, AQEL was created for evaluating nutrition apps' qualities, which was the same tool used in the preliminary analysis of VD [8]. It has 25 items divided into five factors such as skill development, behavior change, knowledge acquisition, app function, and purpose. ...
Nutrition research is now entering the subfield of personalized nutrition, where dietetics professionals are using it as an approach to support individuals in formulating unique dietary interventions and guidelines. Despite a large number of meal recommender systems that endeavors to incorporate the concept of personalized nutrition, the existing artifacts remain preliminary in the nutritional health context largely due to lack of integrated nutrition knowledge. Hence, a nutrition system called Virtual Dietitian (VD) was developed and grounded on the Nutrition Care Process and Model. Unfortunately, the beta evaluation (Phase 1) revealed some vital modifications that are needed to accomplish as per the feedback from experts. Hence, another sprint of development was achieved to comply with the requirements set forth by experts. This study reports the alpha evaluation (Phase 2) of 397 non-expert users on the revised VD on three factors: acceptability, usability, and quality. Using the scores from these factors, statistical analyses were performed to determine if there were significant differences between these scores and variables linked to users' profile. Results show that VD passed on all factors, and there were significant differences between the scores and users' profile (living condition, current physical activity, nutritional status, monthly household income, and average daily meals). Several recommendations were still offered on how to move beyond the existing features of VD and with considerations to relevant modern technologies.
... The additional features that emerged in the first study renovated Plan-Cook-Eat into VD -which is a larger and more intelligent nutrition system grounded on Nutrition Care Process (NCP). To assess whether VD is the right solution, the second study covered a mixed-methods needs-analysis [5]. In this preliminary study of VD, nutrition challenges of Filipino young adults as well as the applicability of a KBS as a nutrition intervention tool were determined. ...
The association between nutrition and health has been repeatedly established by the field of nutrition science and evidence-based practices. Nevertheless, inadequate nutrition is still prevalent among Filipino households. As a response to this public health issue, a nutrition system called Virtual Dietitian (VD) was conceived. Through a mixed-methods approach, VD was beta tested via a user study and System Usability Scale (SUS) by six information technology experts and six registered dietitians. Participants performed the standardized tasks with a mean of 85% completion rate and 106.2 seconds, and graded SUS with a mean score of 83.4 (excellent). Albeit the prototype successfully exhibited the potential of VD as a nutrition system, qualitative feedback from experts revealed some modifications that are needed to accomplish before going to the next phase of the study. Healthcare professionals delivered their feedback on the correctness of processes and meal plan generation while the information technology experts pointed out the deficiencies of VD from the technical perspective (e.g., web standards, layout and design, functionality, navigation, usability). With this beta evaluation, an overview of the true experience gained by end users while using VD was determined without the trouble of undergoing the whole project lifecycle. Feedback from experts, which will be used in the next phase, were beneficial to ensure that the final version of VD will be correct, useful, and valid.
The field of health and medical sciences has witnessed a surge of published research exploring the applications of ChatGPT. However, there remains a dearth of knowledge regarding its specific potential and limitations within the domain of nutrition. Given the increasing prevalence of nutrition-related diseases, there is a critical need to prioritize the promotion of a comprehensive understanding of nutrition. This paper examines the potential utility of ChatGPT as a tool for improving nutrition knowledge. Specifically, it scrutinizes its characteristics in relation to personalized meal planning, dietary advice and guidance, food intake tracking, educational materials, and other commonly found features in nutrition applications. Additionally, it explores the potential of ChatGPT to support each stage of the Nutrition Care Process. Addressing the prevailing question of whether ChatGPT can replace healthcare professionals, this paper elucidates its substantial limitations within the context of nutrition practice and education. These limitations encompass factors such as incorrect responses, coordinated nutrition services, hands-on demonstration, physical examination, verbal and non-verbal cues, emotional and psychological aspects, real-time monitoring and feedback, wearable device integration, and ethical and privacy concerns have been highlighted. In summary, ChatGPT holds promise as a valuable tool for enhancing nutrition knowledge, but further research and development are needed to optimize its capabilities in this domain.
The technical-scientific area of neurophysiology has seen significant advancements in recent years, with the introduction of new technologies aimed at improving the diagnosis, treatment, and management of neurological conditions. However, these advancements resulted in significant repercussions in terms of specificity and sensitivity, diagnostic accuracy, and prognosis in more specific situations, particularly in the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and telemedicine. In this chapter, the authors aim to explore the current state of neurophysiology and examine the role of AI and telemedicine in addressing the challenges faced by this field. The authors will delve into the potential benefits and limitations of these technologies and their impact on patient outcomes, healthcare delivery, and the future of neurophysiology. The chapter's goal is to provide a comprehensive overview of the challenges and potentialities of AI and telemedicine in neurophysiology, highlighting their significance in advancing the field and improving patient care.
In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has been progressively merging into the daily practice of many healthcare professionals. Radiology is a branch of medicine that can benefit from these new technological advancements, as it is a data-rich medical specialty and is well-placed to embrace AI. Specifically, radiologists are in a distinctive position to support the AI revolution because of their direct access to a significant amount of data. In turn, these AI tools can improve pathology detection by radiologists, thereby resulting in better, more accurate, and sooner diagnostics. The chapter aims to provide some new insights into AI concepts, tools, and their application in medical imaging. Several technologies are becoming more available in all imaging modalities, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced a rapid transition to a new era of digital health. In conclusion, the next generation of AI-based diagnostic imaging systems will surely have a serious impact on daily educational and healthcare institutions for the next generation.
