October 30, 2008
Videoconferencing May Not Be As Good As Face-to-Face
Research published in the journal Management Science, reveals differences in information processing by medical professionals attending a seminar. One group attended a series of seminars in person and the other via videoconferening.
The researchers found that attendees of videoconferences must work harder to interpret information delivered during a conference than they would if they attended face-to-face. Results show differences in information processing: participants attending a seminar via videoconference are more influenced by the likeability of the speaker than by the quality of the arguments presented, whereas the opposite pattern is true for participants attending in person.
The Study
Residents, attendings, and local physicians specializing in pediatrics, psychiatry, or orthopedics were surveyed as they attended 1 of 19 different live interactive seminars, either face-to-face or via videoconference. The seminars spanned a 12-week period, comprising part of the teaching activities of an urban healthcare consortium. Each interactive one-hour seminar was delivered live by a different physician in a large auditorium, followed by questions and answers. These seminars were simultaneously broadcasted via videoconference to a number of smaller sites. Both face-to-face and remote attendees could ask questions.
According to the authors, important business decisions may suffer if videoconferencing is used to make them without adjusting the process to take its differences into account.
The researchers offer guidelines for understanding when videoconferencing is most appropriate and for improving the design of videoconferencing equipment:
* Videoconferencing may not be appropriate for decision making when some stakeholders are present face-to-face and others attend via video, because these two groups are likely to process information differently.
* Videoconferencing equipment may be improved by the addition of features that reduce cognitive workload, such as support for turn taking, audio localization, and personal distance location.
* Videoconference presenters can use heuristic cues to increase the influence of their message.
This research draws upon dual-process cognitive theory to describe how people process information differently when it is delivered via videoconference rather than when it is delivered face-to-face. The authors believe that this is due to the higher cognitive demands that videoconferencing places on participants and that differences in cognitive load can explain these effects. The findings also show that videoconferencing is not like face-to-face communication, despite apparent similarities.
Management Science
Vol. 54, No. 9, September 2008, pp. 1565-1578
October 29, 2008
Measuring the 'Reality' of Virtual Worlds
Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a new way of measuring how "real" online virtual worlds are - an important advance for the emerging technology that can be used to foster development of new training and collaboration applications by companies around the world.
The use of virtual worlds to train employees and foster collaboration in areas such as research and development, have generated a great deal of interest. Understanding the effectiveness of these immersive environments and measuring the productivity of workers interacting in them is closely linked to how comfortable they feel functioning in this virtual realm.
According to the researchers, "if users feel they are 'present' in the virtual world, they will collaborate better with other members of their team – and the more effective the virtual world will be as a setting for research and development or other collaborative enterprises." Also if there is an increased sense of presence in the virtual world, this will lead to better comprehension and retention of information if the technology is being used for training purposes, and trainees are happier with the process."
The measurement scale developed by the researchers for the virtual world is called Perceived Virtual Presence (PVP), and factors in how users interact with the virtual environment, with their work in that environment, and with other users. The researchers believe that such a scale can be used to determine which PVP levels are most conducive to training, collaboration or other applications." The PVP scale can also be used to design a virtual environment that has the degree of reality that will best cater to a company's specific needs.
Source:
NC State University Press Release
Related articles:
Continuous Presence in Collaborative Virtual Environments (pdf)
Measuring Presence in Virtual Environments: A Presence Questionnaire
A Review of Presence and Performance in Virtual Environments
October 27, 2008
Health 2.0 Conference Fall 2008
Health 2.0 Conference took place last week in San Francisco. The theme of the conference this year was "User-Generated Healthcare," and offered an impressive collection of presenters that reads like a Who's Who in healthcare and technology.
A likewise impressive agenda convened panels on topics such as:
The Future of Health 2.0
Health 2.0 Across America: The Great American Health 2.0 Tour
Consumer Aggregators - One Year Later
Search in the Long Tail & Intelligence in Communities
Patient Social Networks
Content, Navigation & Advocacy
Managing Money in Health 2.0
Clinician Social Networks
The Engagement Dynamic behind Health 2.0
Health 2.0 platforms for patient-provider communication
Health Plans and Health 2.0
Provider search, directories & ratings
The Business Case for Health 2.0
Health 2.0 Around the World
Tools for Consumers
Getting Past the Privacy Conundrum
Pharma and Health 2.0
Gaming in Health Care
Disease Management 2.0
Looking ahead - The Business and Society of Health 2.0
One Definition of Health 2.0
Health 2.0 is participatory healthcare. Enabled by information, software, and community that we collect or create, we the patients can be effective partners in our own healthcare, and we the people can participate in reshaping the health system itself.
A couple of interesting quotes from Keynote speaker Clay Shirky
Information: Most valuable aspect of the Internet: “people.” Those who think about health information think of individual transactions–but the value is when people share this information. Yahoo Groups, “the first social software,” illustrates tremendous public demand for collaboration with others. “Wherever people trust each other, the information will flow...”
Parallel: In healthcare, the standing command-and-control structure sees “healthcare” as the sum total of providers, payers, etc.–the established institutions. But the patients are healthcare too–and they outnumber professionals by 100 to 1. Once they collaborate, the central institutions lose power–and have to change.
More at Health 2.0 blog
Next year's meeting will be held in Boston, April 22-23, 2009
The theme: "The Great Debates on the Next Generation of U.S. Healthcare."
* Health 2.0 & Ix vs. Traditional health care
* Knowledge creation: Expert vs Wiki
* Navigating the health care system: Human intermediaries versus automation & algorithms.
* How do you build Health 2.0 into the delivery system?
* What is the future role of the doctor?
October 15, 2008
Is Technology Changing Our Brains?
A new study by Gary Small, MD of UCLA in the upcoming issue of the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry points out that a simple, everyday task like searching the web appears to enhance brain circuitry in older adults. It has long been thought that activities which keep the brain active, such as crossword puzzles, may help minimise the impact of age related brain changes - and the latest study suggests that surfing the web can be added to the list. 
To see how the Internet might be rewiring us, Small and colleagues monitored the brains of 24 adults as they performed a simulated Web search, and again as they read a page of text. During the Web search, those who reported using the Internet regularly in their everyday lives showed twice as much signaling in brain regions responsible for decision-making and complex reasoning, compared with those who had limited Internet exposure. 
The findings suggest that Internet use enhances the brain's capacity to be stimulated, and that Internet reading activates more brain regions than printed words. The research adds to previous studies that have shown that the tech-savvy among us possess greater working memory, are more adept at perceptual learning, and have better motor skills.
Dr Small suggests that these differences are likely to be even more profound across generations, because younger people are exposed to more technology from an earlier age than older people. He refers to this as the brain gap. On one side, what he calls digital natives, (i.e., those who have never known a world without e-mail and text messaging) use their superior cognitive abilities to make snap decisions and juggle multiple sources of sensory input. On the other side, digital immigrants (those who witnessed the advent of modern technology long after their brains had been hardwired) are better at reading facial expressions than they are at navigating cyberspace. "The typical immigrant's brain was trained in completely different ways of socializing and learning, taking things step-by-step and addressing one task at a time," whereas digital immigrants learn more methodically and tend to execute tasks more precisely.
These tasks don't have to be mutually exclusive and as Dr Small points out, digital natives and digital immigrants can direct their own neural circuitry and thus reaping the cognitive benefits of modern technology while preserving traditional social skills simply by making time for both.
Technology, and the skills it fosters, is evolving even faster than we are and according to Dr Small's new book, "iBRAIN: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind," a dramatic shift in how we gather information and communicate with one another has touched off an era of rapid evolution that may ultimately change the human brain as we know it. "
Gary Small, MD Website
American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry Website
Source:
Newsweek
October 09, 2008
Brainwave-Controlled Video Game
Over the years, the way that we interact with games has changed to allow increasing levels of sophistication and control. We evolved from keyboards to joysticks to touch and motion controlled games such as the Wii which allows the user to interact with and manipulate items on screen via movement and pointing through the use of accelerometer and optical sensor technology.
This week at the Tokyo Game Show, a game creator partners with brainwave-reading (EEG) technology to create a the next generation of brain-controlled games. Square Enix, a famous gaming creator (Final Fantasy and et al) has partnered with NeuroSky a company that creates devices that can harness brain-waves to interact with technology for a prototype of what the future of gaming may look like.
The headset developed by Neurosky, looks like headphones but contains an electrode that reads brain patterns via the wearer's forehead, and by reading the players' "minds," the headset allows them to interact with the game on-screen.
The device is described as both affordable and easy to use, making it ideal for consumer applications like gaming. While controlling a game solely with your mind has been tried before, with limited success, projects like this bring the dream closer to reality, especially with the participation of a prominent game developer.
Is it time for clinical applications for this device yet?
Previous AATP Weblog posts on brainwave technology:
Co-Adaptive Brain-Machine Interface
Brain Control Headset For Games
October 07, 2008
Online Point-of-Care Technology for Pediatrics
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has teamed up with Unbound Medicine to create an online reference source for pediatricians. The system can be accessed via computer, or wirelessly via PDA's and smart phones. The online’s content consists of three of the AAP’s most relied-upon practice resources: the new AAP Textbook of Pediatric Care, which is the standard reference of its kind; content from the AAP’s Red Book®, which provides detailed information on more than 200 childhood infectious diseases; and Bright Futures, the organization’s comprehensive health supervision guidelines.
The Unbound Platform from Unbound Medicine supports end-to-end digital publishing activities from content creation through multi-platform electronic delivery. For Pediatric Care Online, the Unbound Platform's editorial module, uPub, facilitates streamlined creation of modular content via distributed author networks. For users, the Unbound Platform delivers content where and when it is neededto personal digital assistants (PDAs), the Web, or wireless devices.
To preview the many features of the site and download a free trial of the mobile version, visit www.pediatriccareonline.org
October 01, 2008
Real Versus Virtual World for Problem Solving
Last week at the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society meeting in New York City, Penn State researchers reported on a study to investigate how virtual teams can better solve real world problems by collaborating in the virtual world. An experiment was designed in which students formed teams and were asked to solve a problem, posed by a video, using different meeting styles. The researchers set up 10 teams to work face-to-face, 10 teams to work through teleconferencing, and 12 teams to work as groups of avatars in Second Life.
The task that the subjects were assigned revolved around the video "Rescue at Boones Meadow", an episode of "the Adventures of Jasper Woodbury," a series produced by the Vanderbilt University Learning Technology Center that focuses on mathematical problem finding and solving. Participants watched the video individually and then convened to decide how to rescue an injured eagle according to the information given in the video. All groups had to decide which character would rescue the eagle, which methods of transportation would be used and estimate the time it would take to complete the task.
The groups using Second Life were confined to text-based communication and had to learn how to master the complex keyboard strokes required for avatar movement. These barriers did not deter the groups from completing the assigned task, however, the teams using Second Life took the longest to finish.
The face-to-face teams felt most confident of their performance, yet the Second Life teams provided the most accurate answers in the task
The results suggested that there is a learning curve with using the virtual world, especially if you have never used a world like Second Life before. It still proved to be a viable option for group work. More research is planned particularly with different age groups and solving different types of problems.
Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
2008 Annual Meeting
Educational Gaming Resources & Virtual Worlds at Penn State