Background Lack of time for exercise is common among office workers given their busy lives. Because of occupational restrictions and difficulty in taking time off, it is necessary to suggest effective ways for workers to exercise regularly. Sustaining lifestyle habits that increase nonexercise activity in daily life can solve the issue of lack of exercise time. Healthy Lifestyle Coaching Chatbot is a messenger app based on the habit formation model that can be used as a tool to provide a health behavior intervention that emphasizes the importance of sustainability and involvement. Objective This study aimed to assess the efficacy of the Healthy Lifestyle Coaching Chatbot intervention presented via a messenger app aimed at stair-climbing habit formation for office workers. Methods From February 1, 2018, to April 30, 2018, a total of 106 people participated in the trial after online recruitment. Participants were randomly assigned to the intervention group (n=57) or the control group (n=49). The intervention group received cues and intrinsic and extrinsic rewards for the entire 12 weeks. However, the control group did not receive intrinsic rewards for the first 4 weeks and only received all rewards as in the intervention group from the fifth to twelfth week. The Self-Report Habit Index (SRHI) of participants was evaluated every week, and the level of physical activity was measured at the beginning and end of the trial. SPSS Statistics version 21 (IBM Corp) was used for statistical analysis. Results After 4 weeks of intervention without providing the intrinsic rewards in the control group, the change in SRHI scores was 13.54 (SD 14.99) in the intervention group and 6.42 (SD 9.42) in the control group, indicating a significant difference between the groups (P=.04). When all rewards were given to both groups, from the fifth to twelfth week, the change in SRHI scores of the intervention and control groups was comparable at 12.08 (SD 10.87) and 15.88 (SD 13.29), respectively (P=.21). However, the level of physical activity showed a significant difference between the groups after 12 weeks of intervention (P=.045). Conclusions This study provides evidence that intrinsic rewards are important to enhance the sustainability and effectiveness of an intervention. The Healthy Lifestyle Coaching Chatbot program can be a cost-effective method for healthy habit formation. Trial Registration Clinical Research Information Service KCT0004009; https://tinyurl.com/w4oo7md

No abstract

Background Telepresence robots used to deliver a point-of-care (POC) consultation system that may provide value to enable effective decision making by healthcare providers at care sites. Objectives This study aimed to evaluate usability of teleconsultation robots, based on endusers' needs, that can improve acceptance in future robot applications. Methods This is a single group postdesign study using mixed methods to assess the usability of teleconsultation robots using scenarios. To collect opinions from various departments, 15 nurses or physicians currently working at medical institutions in Korea were selected using purposive sampling. The usability evaluation was conducted on healthcare providers twice at the simulation center; the think-aloud method was used and surveys and interviews were conducted to identify problems or improvements that may arise from the use of robots in hospital settings. Results The results showed that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and satisfaction level each scored 4 points or higher out of 7 points, showing usability of midhigh level. Camera angle control and robot driving functions were the most difficult. Other basic robot user interface was shown to be relatively easy. There was no difference in usability depending on the characteristics of the evaluator. Some functions including user interface were modified based on the usability test. Conclusion Using robots in health care institutions may support effective communication among healthcare providers, thus contributing to health care improvement.

Background: Development of a point-of-care (POC) consultation system based on telepresence robots is needed to enable effective decision-making by medical staff at care sites. Introduction: This study aimed to identify essential features and functional requirements of teleconsultation robot systems and predict potential administrative and clinical issues. Materials and Methods: Surveys were conducted with 90 health care professionals and additional focus group interviews with 4 physicians and 5 nurses. The questionnaire for the surveys was developed by the authors. Survey results were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and content analysis was used to extract themes from the unabridged transcripts of focus group interviews. Results: The most desired functionalities were related to patient evaluation and facilitation of communication, including measuring vital signs, and medical record sharing and delivery. Nurses and physicians reported different needs for human-robot interactions. Nurses valued robotic functions such as voice command, automatic camera movement, voice recognition with contextual perception, and recognition of nonverbal signals. The thematic analysis of the interviews yielded four themes: major functions, usability, expected effects, and potential issues. The results indicated that robots should primarily be employed to support communication between medical professionals. The major expected effects included prevention of treatment delays and decision-making assistance. Participants believed that teleconsultation robots would be helpful, but had concerns, including anxiety about the robots and judgment errors. Conclusions: Using robots in health care institutions may support effective communication among medical staff, thus contributing to health care improvement. In the future, an actual POC robot system will be developed and its effectiveness evaluated.

Although wearable electrocardiograms (ECGs) are being increasingly applied in clinical settings, validation methods have not been standardized. As an exploratory evaluation, we performed a multicenter clinical trial implementing an approved wearable patch ECG. Healthy male adults were enrolled in 2 study centers. The approved ECGs were deployed for 6 hours, and pulse rates were measured independently with conventional pulse oximetry at selected time points for correlation analyses. The transmission status of the data was evaluated by heart rates and classified into valid, invalid, and missing. A total of 55 subjects (40 in center 1 and 15 in center 2) completed the study. Overall, 77.40% of heart rates were within the valid range. Invalid and missing data accounted for 1.42% and 21.23%, respectively. There were significant differences in valid and missing data between centers. The proportion of missing data in center 1 (24.77%) was more than twice center 2 (11.77%). Heart rates measured by the wearable ECG and conventional pulse oximetry showed a poor correlation (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.0454). In conclusion, we evaluated the multicenter feasibility of implementing wearable ECGs. The results suggest that systems to mitigate multicenter discrepancies and remove artifacts should be implemented prior to performing a clinical trial. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05182684