Remotely delivered exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation: design and content development of a novel mHealth platform

BACKGROUND: Participation in traditional center-based cardiac rehabilitation exercise programs (exCR) is limited by accessibility barriers. Mobile health (mHealth) technologies can overcome these barriers while preserving critical attributes of center-based exCR monitoring and coaching, but these opportunities have not yet been capitalized on.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to design and develop an evidence- and theory-based mHealth platform for remote delivery of exCR to any geographical location.

METHODS: An iterative process was used to design and develop an evidence- and theory-based mHealth platform (REMOTE-CR) that provides real-time remote exercise monitoring and coaching, behavior change education, and social support.

RESULTS: The REMOTE-CR platform comprises a commercially available smartphone and wearable sensor, custom smartphone and Web-based applications (apps), and a custom middleware. The platform allows exCR specialists to monitor patients' exercise and provide individualized coaching in real-time, from almost any location, and provide behavior change education and social support. Intervention content incorporates Social Cognitive Theory, Self-determination Theory, and a taxonomy of behavior change techniques. Exercise components are based on guidelines for clinical exercise prescription.

CONCLUSIONS: The REMOTE-CR platform extends the capabilities of previous telehealth exCR platforms and narrows the gap between existing center- and home-based exCR services. REMOTE-CR can complement center-based exCR by providing an alternative option for patients whose needs are not being met. Remotely monitored exCR may be more cost-effective than establishing additional center-based programs. The effectiveness and acceptability of REMOTE-CR are now being evaluated in a noninferiority randomized controlled trial.

Points of equilibrium: religious beliefs and economic development policy

Eighty per cent of the world's population professes religious belief. Such beliefs provide precepts on how individuals should conduct their private lives and (often) how society should be organized. Given there are 2.1 billion Christians worldwide and 1.3 billion Muslims, understanding the religious approach to social life based on sacred texts and social teachings of Christianity and Islam has a strong relevance to those interested in implementing international economic development policies. This paper argues that religion can thus play a positive role in development and specifically support development economic policies at the international level. The purpose of this paper is not to present a fully formed development economic policy, but rather to identify teachings of the world's two largest religions – such as preferencing the poor, minimizing inequality and having the economy serve wider realms of society – that directly speak to how sustainable economic development is understood within these faith traditions and how these teachings could scaffold and support and international policy frameworks aimed to achieve sustainable economic development. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Social inclusion and social protection in Nepal

This thesis explores the contribution of social protection to building an inclusive state in the post-conflict democratic era in Nepal. A grounded theory methodology is used to understand the roles of different actors including development partners, civil servants, politicians, the private sector, trade unions, journalists, academics and how recipients of five government funded cash transfers perceive these funds and view their own sense of citizenship.What emerges from the research is insights into how structural and practised forms of exclusion are reproduced, and changed, and the roles of the different actors involved.

Sydney Opera House on eBay: enabling technologies, community and social value

Digital forms of participation with significant places, such the Sydney Opera House, are increasing. What can they reveal about communities of this World Heritage site? How do contingent forms of participation evidence the interconnectedness of tangible, intangible and digital forms of cultural heritage? Critical heritage scholars assert that social value is a central issue in cultural heritage. In an Australian context, ‘social value’ is used to denote the significance that communities have for places of cultural heritage. Unlike other forms of place-significance such as scientific, historic or aesthetic values, the assessment of social value is complex and difficult to evidence. This theoretical paper explores participation in place through two digital instances, buying a real tile on eBay and a virtual one on Own Our House a crowdfunding venture by the Opera House Trust. The paper seeks to reveal the way in which such online artefacts demonstrate how cultural significance is entangled in the everyday and the individual experience. It argues that these seemingly insignificant moments of participation are implicated in the personal and the emotional by connecting work within critical heritage studies with the work of media scholar Jose van Dijck. Then the paper reflects on the way in which these everyday forms of participation through digital technologies disrupts and complicates established ideas about communities upon which local, state, national and international heritage systems are based.