Felix Holl

Hochschule Neu-Ulm · DigiHealth Institute

Quantifying and monitoring the spatial and temporal dynamics of the global land cover is critical for better understanding many of the Earth’s land surface processes. However, the lack of regularly updated, continental-scale, and high spatial resolution (30 m) land cover data limit our ability to better understand the spatial extent and the tempora...

Important requirements for mHealth, the availability of devices and network connectivity have dramatically improved in the past years globally. mHealth applications are being developed at a rapid pace. But a thorough impact assessment is not routinely performed. We performed a scoping review to compile an overview of evaluation methods used to asse...

Medical data are being generated in large quantities. However, these data are rarely used beyond their primary purpose. Big data methods to medical data offer the opportunity to transform healthcare. The healthcare industry has been a lot less successful than other industries in applying these new tools. Main reasons are privacy concerns and the fa...

Introduction Latest advances in smartphone technologies and increasing availability of mobile Web access have promoted the creation and expansion of mobile phone-based telemedical solutions, referred to as mHealth. Developing countries have been left behind from this trend due to a lack of infrastructure and availability of appropriate devices.1 Wi...

Potential benefits of mHealth applications are large for chronic diseases. To get an overview of how these applications are being evaluated, a scoping review is being conducted. First results show that single factors are most commonly assessed. The results of clinical outcome measures are the most common. Economic factors are the least common. A un...

BACKGROUND Revealing the full potential of digital public health (DiPH) systems requires a wide-ranging tool to assess their maturity and readiness for emerging technologies. Although a variety of indices exist to address digital health systems, questions arise regarding the integration of indicators on information-communication-technology maturity...

Background The Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (RCRC) utilizes specialized Emergency Response Units (ERUs) for international disaster response. However, data collection and reporting within ERUs have been time-consuming and paper-based. The Red Cross Red Crescent Health Information System (RCHIS) was developed to improve clinical documentation...

Objective: Mobile Health (mHealth) refers to using mobile devices to support health. This study aimed to identify specific methodological challenges in systematic reviews (SRs) of mHealth interventions and to develop guidance for addressing selected challenges. Study Design and Setting: Two-phase participatory research project. First, we sent an o...

Background In recent years, the fast-paced adoption of digital health (DH) technologies has transformed health care delivery. However, this rapid evolution has also led to challenges such as uncoordinated development and information silos, impeding effective health care integration. Recognizing these challenges, nations have developed digital healt...

Background: One measure national governments took to react to the acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic was mobile applications (apps). This study aims to provide a high-level overview of published reviews of mobile apps used in association with coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19), examine factors that contributed to the...

BACKGROUND The rapid proliferation of medical apps has transformed the healthcare landscape, providing patients and providers with unprecedented access to personalized health information and services. However, concerns regarding the apps' effectiveness and safety have raised questions about the efficacy of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) for th...

Introduction: Meta introduced the Segment Anything Model (SAM), a new Machine Learning model for segmentation with zero-shot generalization and no need for additional training data, in April 2023 [1]. Since then, the model has already been applied to medical imaging, such as skin cancer segmentation [2] and brain extraction from MRI images [3]. How...

BACKGROUND In recent years, the fast-paced adoption of digital health (DH) technologies has transformed health care delivery. However, this rapid evolution has also led to challenges such as uncoordinated development and information silos, impeding effective health care integration. Recognizing these challenges, nations have developed digital healt...

Since usability is considered a significant success factor for Clinical decision support systems (CDSSs), this study seeks to assess the usability of an electronic medical records-embedded CDSS for arterial blood gas (ABG) interpretation and ordering. The current study was conducted in the general ICU of a teaching hospital, using the System Usabil...

We propose a modified version of the U-Net architecture for segmenting and classifying brain tumors, introducing another output between down- and up-sampling. Our proposed architecture utilizes two outputs, adding a classification output beside the segmentation output. The central idea is to use fully connected layers to classify each image before...

This scoping review aims to identify and summarize the current literature on Machine learning (ML) approaches for detecting coronary artery disease (CAD) using angiography imaging. We comprehensively searched several databases and identified 23 studies that met the inclusion criteria. They employed different types of angiography imaging including c...

Introduction: Standardization of data collection and reporting within EMT’s is challenging. In past deployments, the Red Cross Red Crescent Type one and two facilities (Emergency Response Units- ERU’s) have collected data by hand using paper-based form and Excel spreadsheets. This process can be laborious, time consuming and often inaccurate. Meth...

Introduction: RCHIS is an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and Health Information System (HIS) that has been purpose-built for use by Red Cross Red Crescent (RCRC) Emergency Response Units (ERUs), which are the equivalent of Type 1 (fixed and mobile) and Type 2 facilities in the Emergency Medical Teams (EMT) classification. Method: A three day in-p...

Cardiovascular disease is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Scarce resources and rising costs are pushing healthcare systems to their limits. There is an urgency to develop, optimize and evaluate technologies that provide more effective care for patients. Modern technologies, such as mobile health (mHealth) applications, can provide rel...

Glioblastoma is the most common malignant brain tumor with a poor survival rate due to its high intra- and intertumor heterogeneity. The current heterogeneity determination is based on a microscopic analysis of Hematoxilyn and Eosinstained tumor slides carried out by experienced neuropathologists. There is no standardized procedure yet, to quantify...

Workshop outline: Digital healthcare technologies can facilitate core public health functions, improve efficiency, and reduce costs or the burden of the healthcare workforce. Public health decision-makers, researchers, and practitioners are increasingly required to consider such interventions. However, they must grapple with multiple challenges in...

How people monitor their health has changed drastically during the last years since the widespread accessibility of smartphones. Since then, thousands of apps have been developed to promote health and prevent diseases. They can also improve the patient’s autonomy and reduce the workload burden on health professionals. However, these apps can also h...

Introduction Since first reports about a novel coronavirus were published in February 20201, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has turned into a global pandemic with more than 653,000,000 associated cases and 6,665,000 deaths globally by 01/23/20232. To provide a high-level (meta-)overview the objectives of this syst...

mHealth applications have a strong potential of improving care. This is especially true for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where access to care is often limited, but the mobile phones are broadly accessible. A large number of studies with mHealth applications for a number of health domains have been conducted. The findings of these studi...

Background/Introduction Standardization of data collection and reporting within EMTs is challenging. In past deployments, the Red Cross Red Crescent Type 1 and Type 2 facilities have collected data by hand using paper-based form and Excel spreadsheets. This process can be laborious, time-consuming, and often inaccurate. Objectives To combat this i...

Background/Introduction RCHIS is an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and Health Information System (HIS) that has been purpose built for use by Red Cross Red Crescent (RCRC) Emergency Response Units (ERUs), which are the equivalent of Type 1 (fixed and mobile) and Type 2 facilities in the Emergency Medical Teams (EMT) classification. Objectives To...

Objective The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of apps to help control the spread of Covid-19 in Germany and rate them according to standardized instruments. Materials and methods The Apple App Store and Google Play Store were systematically searched to identify apps dealing with Covid-19 in Germany. The German Mobile App Rating Sca...

Smart mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets have become an important factor for collecting data in complex health scenarios (e.g., psychological studies, medical trials), and are more and more replacing traditional pen-and-paper instruments. However, simply digitizing such instruments does not yet realize the full potential of mobile device...

Robotic assistance systems offer new therapeutic perspectives for patient mobilization. This work aims to investigate the chances and risks of robotic assistance systems in early neurological rehabilitation. Nine professionals working in physiotherapy and nursing were interviewed on their opinion on robotic assistance systems. The experts were recr...

Given the lack of literature on the contributing factors to adopt mobile applications (apps) among physicians and the crucial role of the quality of the apps in their widespread use, the aim of this study is using the Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS) to evaluate the quality of the head CT scan appropriateness criteria app(HAC app). It was developed t...

Mobile Health (mHealth) applications have seen strong growth in recent years, but they are often not systematically evaluated. A Delphi survey was conducted to identify key elements for the evaluation of mHealth applications. Sixteen experts participated in the study, and the study yielded a list of 79 key elements with expert consensus. Thirty-two...

Background: Management of child healthcare can be negatively affected by incomplete recording, low data quality, and lack of data integration of health management information system (HMIS) to support decision making and public health program needs. Given the importance of identifying key determinants of child health via capturing and integrating a...

Background There is little evidence regarding the adoption and intention of using mobile apps by health care professionals (HCP) and the effectiveness of using mobile apps among physicians is still unclear. To address this challenge, the current study seeks two objectives: developing and implementing a head CT scan appropriateness criteria mobile a...

Background: The use of assistive technologies (ATs) to support older people has been fueled by the demographic change and technological progress in many countries. These devices are designed to assist seniors, enable independent living at home or in residential facilities, and improve quality of life by addressing age-related difficulties. Object...

Cardiovascular diseases are a major cause of morbidity and expenditure for healthcare systems. Mobile Health applications can help to improve access to care and reduce expenditure. To integrate digital interventions into care structures, an impact assessment of all professional mHealth applications is needed. This paper examines the extent to which...

Literature suggests that the adoption of guidelines for antibiotic prescribing has a significant impact on improving prescription practices of physicians; thus, this study aimed to assess the effectiveness of computer-aided decision support systems (CA-DSS) on antibiotic prescribing among medical interns. A prospective before-and-after intervention...

Healthcare systems are challenged by increasing costs. Digital technology can help to combat this trend. Evaluation of these technologies is uncommon or incomplete. Scholars have called for a standardized and holistic evaluation. We provide a synthesis of an online panel on medical informatics (MI) and stipulate a discussion on new guidelines for m...

Short messaging system (SMS) works as one of the most popular strategies for physicians' behavior change via sending feedback and reminder messages. One of the areas in which SMS feedback can be effective on physicians' behavior is CT scan ordering. This study investigates the effect of mobile phone SMS feedback on residents' head CT scan ordering...

Die ethische Betrachtung von Evaluationsprojekten gehört zum Standard medizinischer, d. h. klinischer Forschung. Alle Vorhaben, die Menschen mit einbeziehen, sollten sich grundlegende medizinethische Fragen stellen. Dies trifft umso mehr zu, wenn besonders vulnerable Gruppen, wie etwa Kinder, einbezogen werden. Aus diesem Grund verlangen mittlerwei...

Längst gibt es altersgerechte digitale Assistenzsysteme. Doch sind Umfang und Geschwindigkeit ihrer Verbreitung sowohl in Pflegeeinrichtungen als auch in privaten Haushalten weitgehend unbekannt. Informationen zu tatsächlich eingesetzten Systemen, realisierten Umsätzen und Marktvolumen sind kaum zu finden. Obwohl es viele Vermutungen hinsichtlich d...

n the face of demographic change and constantly increasing health care costs, health care system decision-makers face ever greater challenges. Mobile health applications (mHealth apps) have the potential to combat this trend. However, in order to integrate mHealth apps into care structures, an evaluation of such apps is needed. In this paper, we fo...

Introduction Fueled by the wide availability of cellular networks and mobile phones, mobile health (mHealth) applications have become widely used to expand access to care and are being used to monitor communicable diseases1,2. The Covid-19 pandemic, which started in 2019, has put healthcare and public health systems around the globe under immense p...

Längst gibt es altersgerechte digitale Assistenzsysteme. Doch sind Umfang und Geschwindigkeit ihrer Verbreitung sowohl in Pflegeeinrichtungen als auch in privaten Haushalten weitgehend unbekannt. Informationen zu tatsächlich eingesetzten Systemen, realisierten Umsätzen und Marktvolumen sind kaum zu finden. Obwohl es viele Vermutungen hinsichtlich d...

Given the lack of empirical evidence and limited literature on dashboard development and its usefulness, it is still not clear how to deliver automated feedback using a dashboard to improve the physicians' practice. Therefore, the present prospective and quasi-experimental study aimed to investigate the effect of automated feedback with a dashboard...

Introduction: Healthcare systems globally are challenged by increasing costs caused by improved life expectancy and an increase in multimorbidity [1], [2]. The use of digital technology in healthcare delivery can help to combat this trend [3], [4]. There a substantial body of literature for the evaluation of medical informatics projects ranging fr...

BACKGROUND The use of assistive technologies (ATs) to support older people has been fueled by the demographic change and technological progress in many countries. These devices are designed to assist seniors, enable independent living at home or in residential facilities, and improve quality of life by addressing age-related difficulties. OBJECTIV...

Public health data are collected globally in large quantities. But these data are rarely shared across countries and used beyond their primary purpose. These data have the potential to prove public health more if shared cross-border as infectious diseases do not stop at borders. The application of big data methods could be used to gain new insights...

The panel members will chronicle the unique informatics needs, challenges, and approaches to health care demands during a pandemic, illustrated through the initial and current responses to the COVID-19 epidemic, in resource-constrained environments. The ability to identify and address challenges and difficult clinical situations with bioinformatics...

Chronic pain is one of the major causes of disability in the general population. Even though there are effective treatment options available for reducing symptoms, these treatments often do not have consistent lasting effects. As the usage of mobile devices has increased enormously during the last few years, mobile application-based treatment optio...

Logistics is a major organizational and financial challenge for clinics in rural areas with multiple locations. The use of dronegeared material transport was examined with a feasibility study. The economic and legal feasibility of a drone-driven material transport between three clinics in the rural Neu-Ulm district in Bavaria is difficult. Federali...

Die Digitalisierung im Gesundheitsmarkt verändert und erweitert die Möglichkeiten, Menschen mit chronischen Erkrankungen zu helfen, weshalb sie einen immer größeren Stellenwert für Diagnostik und Versorgung einnimmt. Dieses Herausgeberwerk gibt einen Überblick über akutelle und innovative mHealth-Lösungen, die als tägliche Begleiter bei Prävention,...

Mit der Digitalisierung werden im Gesundheitswesen große Erwartungen verbunden. Die gegenwärtig zu verzeichnende Bandbreite an Entwicklungen in den Bereichen eHealth und mHealth erinnert dabei stark an die Anfangsphase des eBusiness und die damit eng verknüpfte so genannte New-Economy-Blase. Im Zuge dieser Entwicklung wurden unterschiedliche Parado...

mHealth-Systeme, die in letzter Zeit eine starke Verbreitung gefunden haben, zeigen einige Vorteile wie leichte Bedienung, mobilen Einsatz und Verwendung kompakter, preiswerter Endgeräte. Dem stehen Herausforderungen gegenüber, die die eingeschränkte Kapazität der verwendeten Hardware und den schwerer zu bewältigen Datenschutz betreffen. Bei nähere...

Abstract—Wetlands, particularly in developing countries, are common hotspots of insect-borne diseases that are a constant threat to public health, such as malaria. To help identify and characterize potential breeding grounds for mosquitoes, we utilize freely available satellite image data and software in combination with a mosquito trap system. Mul...

The joint research project CARE REGIO aims to modernize the care system with digital solutions. We focus on the development of a uniform electronic care record, uniform data exchange between care facilities, and technical assistive systems, which shall all be unified in a standardized care-based storage solution.

In der sich heutzutage schnell wandelnden Unternehmensumwelt wird die datenbasierte Entscheidungsunterstützung immer wichtiger. Auch Krankenhäuser setzen häufiger auf Business Intelligence Lösungen in Form von Dashboard-Anwendungen, um interne und externe Prozesse zu analysieren und zu optimieren. In diesem Artikel werden die Anforderungen an ein s...

Health data are being generated in large quantities. However, these data are rarely used beyond their primary purpose in comparison to other industries. Main barriers are privacy and ethical concerns and the fact that medical data are scattered across institutions. The study investigated the availability and utilization of public use files (PUF) of...

Neue Entwicklungen und dramatisch gefallene Preise bei Smartphonetechnologien sowie die weitgehende Verfügbarkeit von Mobilfunk und mobilem Internet haben die Verbreitung der mobiltelefonbasierten Telemedizin, kurz M-Health, vorangetrieben. Jedoch waren die Länder der niedrigen und mittleren Einkommen von diesem Trend wegen der mangelnden Infrastru...

Brain tumor surgery is a complex medical procedure. The extent of tumor resection is essential for postoperative recovery and survival. The neurosurgeon needs to regularly check the borderline between healthy and cancerous tissue. Currently, tissue samples are extracted via instantaneous sections and sent to a neuropathologist for examination. This...

Brain tumor surgery is a complex medical procedure. The extent of tumor resection is essential for postoperative recovery and survival. To determine the borderline between healthy and cancerous tissue tissue samples are extracted via instantaneous sections and sent to a neuropathologist. This process takes time and requires extensive human resource...

Hintergrund: Das Angebot an mobile Anwendungen wächst derzeit rasant. Die Vielzahl von Anwendungen sind für den sekundären Gesundheitsmarkt bestimmt. Deren kommerzieller Erfolg ist geprägt von subjektiven Faktoren wie Marketing und Reputation.[1] Jedoch nimmt auch die Zahl der Anwendungen für den primären Gesundheitsmarkt zu. Für mobile Gesundheit...

The fast-growing group of senior citizens does often not participate in the digitization of the overall society. In order to enable a longer, self-sustained living, it is important to empower and include this group. One problem in particular can be observed: Many older people lack the motoric skills to use contemporary digital devices. To overcome...

Introduction The number of patients suffering from chronic diseases is rising globally, fostered by both demographic change and advances in medicine and public health1. Chronically ill patients, especially with increasing multimorbidity, require long-term, continuous treatment and care2. Fulfilling these requirements within the existing organizatio...

The fast-growing group of senior citizens does often not participate in the digitization of the overall society. In order to enable a longer, self-sustained living, it is important to empower and include this group. One problem in particular can be observed: Many older people lack the motoric skills to use contemporary digital devices. To overcome...

Introduction In 2015, there were around 214 million cases of malaria, which resulted in 438 000 deaths. Over the past 15 years, malaria control efforts have cut the number of deaths in half. Despite the disproportionate burden of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa, 90% of all malaria deaths in 2015, a number of countries on the continent are pursuing ma...