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BackgroundSeveral smartphone applications aim at facilitating communication between patients and healthcare providers. In this review, we evaluate and compare the most promising applications in the field of diabetes mellitus (DM) and obesity. Most applications monitor body weight, fasting or postprandial blood glucose, glycosylated hemoglobin (Hgb) A1c (HgbA1c), and units and types of insulin used.MethodsNine clinically tested applications and two Web platforms were grouped into three categories that were evaluated and compared. Group 1 included seven applications focusing mainly on monitoring DM, fitness and weight, blood glucose levels, and HbA1c. Group 2 included two applications that focus on insulin dosage calculators and glucose self-monitoring tests. Group 3 included two web-platforms that interact with patients via SMS (short message service) messaging.ResultsA common feature of the applications examined was the limited number of clinical parameters tested, the small number of subjects taking part in the evaluation, and the fact that the controls were not randomized. Furthermore, the interfaces of the applications varied and were not standardized. Finally, another common characteristic across applications was the lack of standardization of the interface and the overall structure due to language barriers, the devices usually having been designed around a specific language. Lastly, most applications lacked a critical mass of evaluators and were thus not worthy of being considered of serious clinical relevance.ConclusionsThe current smartphone applications for DM are characterized by a limited number of participants, a small number of parameters, and a lack of standardization.

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By law, schools are required to protect the well-being of students against problems such as on-campus bullying and physical abuse. In the UK, a report by the Office for Education (OfE) showed 17% of young people had been bullied during 2017–2018. This problem continues to prevail with consequences including depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and eating disorders. Additionally, recent evidence suggests this type of victimisation could intensify existing health complications. This study investigates the opportunities provided by Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) data towards next-generation safeguarding. A new model is developed based on blockchain technology to enable real-time intervention triggered by IoMT data that can be used to detect stressful events, e.g., when bullying takes place. The model utilises private permissioned blockchain to manage IoMT data to achieve quicker and better decision-making while revolutionising aspects related to compliance, double-entry, confidentiality, and privacy. The feasibility of the model and the interaction between the sensors and the blockchain was simulated. To facilitate a close approximation of an actual IoMT environment, we clustered and decomposed existing medical sensors to their attributes, including their function, for a variety of scenarios. Then, we demonstrated the performance and capabilities of the emulator under different loads of sensor-generated data. We argue to the suitability of this emulator for schools and medical centres to conduct feasibility studies to address sensor data with disruptive data processing and management technologies.

• Supplement human ingenuity in science, thereby opening up new areas of thinking and hopefully fuel new breakthroughs and discoveries• Change the face of scientific research and revolutionise how research and development is undertaken• Continue to promote the benefits of collaboration A marriage of technological innovation and human ingenuity Professor Feng Dong is the coordinator of an exciting research project that marries scientific creativity and innovation to supplement human ingenuity in science. Below, he describes his background, the inspirations behind this unique undertaking, and how collaboration plays a vital role in the success of the projectCan you begin by introducing yourself, your key research interests and passions in life and work?I am a Professor of Visual Computing at the University of Bedfordshire, UK. I joined the University in September 2007, having previously worked at Brunel University, UK. I was awarded my PhD from Zhejiang University in China, where I became a member of the academic staff at the State Key Lab of CAD and Computer Graphics, the leading computer graphics lab in China. I have also worked as a lecturer at Lancaster University in the UK.I have many research interests, including computer graphics, medical visualisation and image processing. Much of my recent work has developed into new areas, including visual analytics, pattern recognition, imagebased rendering and figure animation. I am currently leading a research team that has been involved in large-scale research grants in healthcare and creative learning from national and European funding bodies. My team is working on big data management and storage on a cloud environment; mining and visualisation of massive data; and text mining and semantics of web information. I am coordinating two European projects, and am the Principal Investigator of external research funding in excess of 2 million euros.The Dr Inventor project is built on the idea that technologies have the potential to supplement human ingenuity in science. Can you elaborate on this?While human creative thinking is a far more complicated process than can be replicated by machines, our capacity is often severely limited by human nature. A sound knowledge base of an individual requires many years of study to formulate. In addition, people suffer from limited working memory and a lot of thinking barriers, such as selective thinking, perception limitation, biases, problem fixation, etc. Studies have also shown that human thinking is often affected by many unpredictable factors, such as attention spans, environment and health. The vision of Dr Inventor is that we can enhance human creativity by seamlessly integrating modern technologies with human ability. Dr Inventor is designed to experiment and understand technology potentials in human creative processes to enhance domain-specific human creative performance. The consortium has been formed by eight partners across five different EU countries, ranging from East to West, which covers all the essential elements of th...