Elena Villalba Mora

Elena Villalba Mora
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid | UPM · Departamento de Lenguajes y Sistemas Informáticos e Ingeniería de Software

Ph.D on Biomedical Engineering

About

75
Publications
12,351
Reads
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697
Citations
Introduction
PhD in Biomedical Engineering by the Univerdad Politécnica de Madrid, and Professor (Associate) of User Interaction at the same University. Principal Investigator for the Ageing Lab, a Joint Laboratory on Active and Healthy Ageing of the Hospital Universitario de Getafe (Biomedical Research Foundation of the University Hospital of Getafe), in Madrid; and the Centre for Biomedical Technology at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.
Additional affiliations
March 2018 - present
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
Position
  • Professor (Associate)
March 2015 - present
UPM
Position
  • Professor (Assistant)
February 2014 - present
Hospital Universitario de Getafe
Position
  • Senior Researcher
Education
October 2004 - July 2008
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
Field of study
  • Bioengineering
September 1997 - September 2004
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
Field of study
  • Telecommunications Engineering

Publications

Publications (75)
Article
Technologies can assist in managing frailty through home monitoring and intervention systems, though evidence of their clinical benefit is lacking. Our study had two components. A) A two-arm (Intervention vs. Control) RCT named POSITIVE (NCT04592146) with a 6-month follow-up, recruiting prefrail or frail people aged ≥70 years living at home from th...
Preprint
BACKGROUND Frailty represents a state of susceptibility to stressors and constitutes a dynamic process. Untreated, this state can progress to disability. Hence, timely detection of alterations in patients' frailty status is imperative to institute prompt interventions and impede progression. With this aim, the FACET technological ecosystem has been...
Article
Full-text available
Background Frailty represents a state of susceptibility to stressors and constitutes a dynamic process. Untreated, this state can progress to disability. Hence, timely detection of alterations in patients’ frailty status is imperative to institute prompt clinical interventions and impede frailty progression. With this aim, the FACET (Frailty Care a...
Article
Full-text available
Before interacting with real users, developers must be proficient in human-computer interaction (HCI) so as not to exhaust user patience and availability. For that, substantial training and practice are required, but it is costly to create a variety of high-quality HCI training materials. In this context, ChatGPT and other chatbots based on large l...
Article
Background: Loneliness and social isolation are considered public health problems among older individuals. In addition, both increase the risk of developing cognitive impairment and dementia. The Social Loneliness construct has been proposed to refer to these harmful social interaction-related factors. Objective: To define the risk factors of So...
Article
Full-text available
Objective: In this research work, we systematically reviewed the scientific literature that provided recommendations for the design of mobile apps based on usability testing with older adults and organized such recommendations into a meaningful set of design guidelines. Methods: We conducted a systematic literature review of journal and conference...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose: Frailty is a reversible multidimensional syndrome that puts older people at a high risk of adverse health outcomes. It has been proposed to emerge from the dysregulation of the complex system dynamics of physiologic control systems. We propose the analysis of the fractal complexity of hand movements as a new method to detect frailty in ol...
Article
Full-text available
Objective We aimed to co-create and evaluate an integrated system to follow-up frailty in a community dwelling environment and provide a multi-modal tailored intervention. Frailty and dependency among the older population are a major challenge to the sustainability of healthcare systems. Special attention must be paid to the needs and particulariti...
Conference Paper
We present the preliminary results of a validity and reliability study of two different state-of-the-art algorithms to estimate the gait speed of older adults in free-living conditions from the data collected by the ActiveUP wearable device. We described the ActiveUP wearable sensor together with its integration in a smart environment for frail and...
Article
Full-text available
An objective behavioral test for motivational traits has been developed taking as a reference the structure of the Motivational Trait Questionnaire, which is a validated self-report questionnaire to measure motivational traits in the population. The objective test consists of a computer game, which makes it possible to evaluate a person’s motivatio...
Preprint
Full-text available
BACKGROUND Mobile apps are fundamental tools in today’s society for practical and social endeavors. However, these technologies are often not usable for older users. Given the increased use of mobile apps by this group of users and the impact that certain services may have on their quality of life, such as mobile health, personal finance, or online...
Article
Full-text available
Older adults’ usage of information and communication technology (ICT) is challenged or facilitated by perception of usefulness, technology design, gender, social class, and other unspoken and political elements. However, studies on the use of ICT by older adults have traditionally focused on explicit interactions (e.g., usability). The article then...
Article
Full-text available
Background: eHealth and telehealth play a crucial role in assisting older adults who visit hospitals frequently or who live in nursing homes and can benefit from staying at home while being cared for. Adapting to new technologies can be difficult for older people. Thus, to better apply these technologies to older adults' lives, many studies have an...
Article
Full-text available
In recent years, research on convolutional neural networks (CNN) and recurrent neural networks (RNN) in deep learning has been actively conducted. In order to provide more personalized and advanced functions in smart home services, studies on deep learning applications are becoming more frequent, and deep learning is acknowledged as an efficient me...
Article
Full-text available
Frailty predisposes older persons to adverse events, and information and communication technologies can play a crucial role to prevent them. CAPACITY provides a means to remotely monitor variables with high predictive power for adverse events, enabling preventative personalized early interventions. This study aims at evaluating the usability, user...
Article
Full-text available
Agile development processes are increasing their consideration of usability by integrating various user-centered design techniques throughout development. One such technique is Personas, which proposes the creation of fictitious users with real preferences to drive application design. Since applying this technique conflicts with the time constraint...
Preprint
Full-text available
BACKGROUND eHealth and Telehealth play a crucial role in assisting older adults who visit hospitals frequently or who live in nursing homes and can benefit from staying at home while being cared for. Adapting to new technologies can be difficult for older people. Thus, to better apply these technologies to older adults’ lives, many studies have ana...
Article
Background eHealth and telehealth play a crucial role in assisting older adults who visit hospitals frequently or who live in nursing homes and can benefit from staying at home while being cared for. Adapting to new technologies can be difficult for older people. Thus, to better apply these technologies to older adults’ lives, many studies have ana...
Article
Full-text available
Population aging threatens the sustainability of welfare systems since it is not accompanied by an extended healthy and independent period in the last years of life. The Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) has been shown to be efficient in maintaining the healthy period at the end of the life. Frailty monitoring is typically carried out for an...
Article
Full-text available
Ubiquity (devices becoming part of the context) and transparency (devices not interfering with daily activities) are very significant in healthcare monitoring applications for elders. The present study undertakes a scoping review to map the literature on sensor-based unobtrusive monitoring of older adults' frailty. We aim to determine what types of...
Preprint
BACKGROUND Frailty is a highly prevalent condition that predisposes older persons to adverse events. According to the WHO, there is a pressing need to develop comprehensive community-based approaches, and to introduce interventions to prevent functional decline. In this regards, Information and Communication Technologies can play a crucial role to...
Chapter
Full-text available
Since the publication of agile manifesto in 2001, agile methodologies has been gaining significant interest in both software industry and research community. Agile User-Centered Design (AUCD) assesses the challenge of integrating agile development with user experience and usability techniques. Although both methodologies have similarities, their sc...
Article
Full-text available
Globally, the percentage of older people in the general population is growing. Smart homes have the potential to help older adults to live independently and healthy, improving their quality of life, and relieving the pressure on the healthcare and social care systems. For that, we need to understand how older adults live and their needs. Thus, this...
Article
Full-text available
The present paper describes a system for older people to self-administer the 30-s chair stand test (CST) at home without supervision. The system comprises a low-cost sensor to count sit-to-stand (SiSt) transitions, and an Android application to guide older people through the procedure. Two observational studies were conducted to test (i) the sensor...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Motivation is a key issue in people’s lives. Motivated people are more likely to accomplish the goals they set out to achieve. For this reason, it is essential to motivate people in their lives. At present, the world of information and communications technologies (ICT) is evolving rapidly, and humans are used to interacting with a large...
Article
Full-text available
Frailty condition is an intermediate state in the ageing trajectory, preceding the onset of disability, and is becoming both challenging and priority to guarantee the sustainability of healthcare systems. To address it, we designed a software platform for supporting CGA and monitoring the activities performed at patients' dwelling. We have implemen...
Article
Full-text available
Diabetes Mellitus is a chronic disease with a high prevalence among older people, and it is related to an increased risk of functional and cognitive decline, in addition to classic micro and macrovascular disease and a moderate increase in the risk of death. Technology aimed to improve elder care and quality of life needs to focus in the early dete...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Spain has a rapidly ageing population that still faces a large digital divide. This preliminary study aims to research the barriers and motivations that Spanish older adults experience with mobile phones and tablets. To investigate it, semi-structured interviews and participant observations were carried out with seniors living in Madrid. An anthrop...
Article
Full-text available
Lower-limb strength is a marker of functional decline in elders. This work studies the feasibility of using the quasi-periodic nature of the distance between a subjects' back and the chair backrest during a 30-s chair-stand test (CST) to carry out unsupervised measurements based on readings from a low-cost ultrasound sensor. The device comprises an...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
In the current information society, it is essential that the Information and Communication Technologies are accessible for all users, including persons with disabilities. Thus, professionals need to receive training in accessibility and adaptation. The Universidad Politecnica of Madrid in Spain has pioneered since 1995 the introduction of such cont...
Article
Full-text available
The ageing of the population poses a threat to both public and private health and social systems. In the last 50 years, life expectancy has increased by an average of 20 years, and by the year 2050, life expectancy will exceed 90 years of age. However, quality of life in the last years of life is not guaranteed due to conditions such as functional...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Mobile application development is characterized by reduced development cycles and high time-to-market pressure. Usability evaluation in mobile applications calls for the application of cost-effective methods, specially adapted to such constraints. We propose extending the Google Analytics for Mobile Applications basic service to store specific low-...
Chapter
This chapter analyses the current state of the art in the field of mobile apps for managing diabetes. It then focuses on the problems that have prevented these apps from reaching a broad audience. A novel approach for using mobile technologies to remotely manage the health status of older adults with diabetes, which can be easily extended to other...
Article
Objective We aimed to in-depth analyse the Integrated Care Programme for older in- and out-patients implemented for more than 25 years at the Hospital Universitario de Getafe, in Madrid, Spain. We identify the strengths and barriers hindering the full operation, and we proposed a technological solution that overcame these constraints and facilitate...
Chapter
mHealth is an emerging field that comprises the delivery of health through mobile technologies, being part of a broader concept: eHealth. With the rapid advances and adoption of mobile technologies and applications, mHealth opens new opportunities to deliver healthcare and wellness promotion through personal mobiles. This will transform the current...
Chapter
Full-text available
mHealth is an emerging field that comprises the delivery of health through mobile technologies, being part of a broader concept: eHealth. With the rapid advances and adoption of mobile technologies and applications, mHealth opens new opportunities to deliver healthcare and wellness promotion through personal mobiles. This will transform the current...
Article
Full-text available
Health is a multi-dimensional concept, capturing how people feel and function. The broad concept of Active and Healthy Ageing was proposed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as the process of optimizing opportunities for health to enhance quality of life as people age. It applies to both individuals and population groups. A universal Active and...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction: Around 10% of all persons over 70 years of age suffer heart failure in Spain. This is the most common cause of hospitalization amongst patients aged 65 years and over, being the third leading cause of cardiovascular mortality. Although some works have demonstrated that the use of telemedicine in the monitoring after discharge has impr...
Article
Full-text available
We investigated the level of adoption of Health Information Technologies (HIT) services, and the factors that influence this, amongst specialised and primary care physicians; in Andalusia, Spain. We analysed the physicians' responses to an online survey. First, we performed a statistical descriptive analysis of the data; thereafter, a principal com...
Article
Full-text available
Note: MACVIALR (contre les maladies chroniques pour un vieillissement actif en Languedoc Roussillon), reference Site of the European Innovation Parternship on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP on AHA), EIP on AHA Reference Site Network, European Union Geriatric Medicine Society (EUGMS), International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics (IAGG), G...
Article
Objectives: The deployment and adoption of Integrated Personal Health and Care Services in Europe has been slow and fragmented. There have been many initiatives and projects of this kind in different European regions, many of which have not gone beyond the pilot stage. We investigated the necessary conditions for mainstreaming these services into...
Article
In Latin America, public health systems that manage and warrant the health of the population lack mechanisms and technological capabilities that enable them to accept and adopt initiatives focused to guide, look after, and improve the quality of life of millions of patients with diabetes who need attention and special care. However, the proposal pr...
Chapter
The patient, in his multiple facets of citizen and user of services of health, needs to acquire during, and later in his majority of age, favorable conditions of health to accentuate his quality of life and it is the responsibility of the health organizations to initiate the process of support for that patient during the process of mature life. The...
Article
Health indicators express remarkable gaps between health systems at a world-wide level. Countries of the entire world are overflowed by the need of new strategies, methodologies and technologies to better serve the millions of patients, who demand better medical attention. The present archaic and ephemerally systematized systems widen the gap even...
Conference Paper
Health indicators express remarkable gaps in health systems at a world-wide level. Countries of all over the world are implementing new strategies, methodologies and technologies to better serve the millions of patients, who demand better medical attention. The current system, which is archaic and not very systematic, widens the gap even more than...
Article
Full-text available
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) account for 45% of all deaths in the western world according to the 2004 World Health Organization statistics report. Heart failure (HF), CVD's primary paradigm, mainly affects people older than 65. The European MyHeart Project's mission is to empower citizens to fight CVD by leading a preventative lifestyle and allow...
Conference Paper
CUORE is a Heart Failure (HF) Disease Assessment System that uses Information Technologies (IT) and portable monitoring devices, for to assess and to manage the HF progression. The system valuates the cardiac condition integrating patient data from different sources such as blood pressure cuff or questionnaires. Rather than just evaluate the cardio...
Conference Paper
Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the main cause of death in Western world. Furthermore, an aging population will result in increased chronic condition prevalence in the future. Ambient Intelligence (AmI) allows users to benefit from an enormous variety of user-centered services to improve their quality of life and self manage their chronic conditi...
Article
Full-text available
The rapid aging of the population worldwide will dramatically increase the number of people affected by chronic diseases in the next years. This social situation makes it necessary a paradigm shift from reactive care to preventive care. New technological paradigms, like Ambient Intelligence and Ubiquitous Computing, allow the development of Persona...
Thesis
Full-text available
Ambient Intelligence (AmI) allows the intelligent and natural interaction between the context and individuals. This paradigm will facilitate user support through novel medical protocol design for chronic disease treatment, based on the healthy lifestyle promotion. Cardiovascular Diseases (CVD) account for 45% of all deaths in the western world acco...
Article
Full-text available
CUORE is a Heart Failure (HF) Disease Assessment System that makes use of innovative approaches, based on Information Technologies (IT) and portable monitoring devices, for the continuous assessment of HF progression and cardiovascular risk stratification. The system valuates the cardiac condition integrating patient data from different sources wit...
Conference Paper
In Europe, Cardiovascular Diseases (CVD) are the leading source of death, causing 45% of all deaths. Besides, Heart Failure, the paradigm of CVD, mainly affects people older than 65. In the current aging society, the European MyHeart Project was created, whose mission is to empower citizens to fight CVD by leading a preventive lifestyle and being a...
Article
Full-text available
In Europe, Cardiovascular Diseases (CVD) are the leading source of death, causing 45% of all deceases. Besides, Heart Failure, the paradigm of CVD, mainly affects people older than 65. In the current aging society, the European MyHeart Project was created, whose mission is to empower citizens to fight CVD by leading a preventive lifestyle and being...
Article
Full-text available
In Europe, Cardiovascular Diseases (CVD) are the leading source of death, causing 45% of all deceases. Besides, Heart Failure, the paradigm of CVD, mainly affects people older than 65. In the current aging society, the European MyHeart Project was created, whose mission is to empower citizens to fight CVD by leading a preventive lifestyle and being...
Chapter
Full-text available
In Western world, the prevalence of chronic diseases is highly increasing due to the increase in the life expectancy. Besides, cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the leading source of death, causing 45% of all deaths and Heart Failure (HF), the paradigm of CVD, mainly affects people older than 65. This paper focuses on the latest advances in the des...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
In Europe, cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the leading source of death, causing 45% of all deaths. Besides, heart failure, the paradigm of CVD, affects mainly people older than 65. In the current aging society, the European Union funded MyHeart Project, whose mission is empowering citizens to fight CVD by means of a preventive lifestyle and an ea...
Conference Paper
This paper presents a new model to understand the reasons why individuals would use new ICT (information and communication technologies) to perform a change in their lifestyle (i.e. an e-health application). Achieving a lifestyle change by the use of ICT is a multifold issue that can be broadly addressed by analyzing the individual's attitude towar...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the leading source of death in the western world and in particular, in Europe CVD cause 45% of all deaths. Besides, heart failure (HF), the paradigm of CVD, affects mainly people older than 65. Facing this reality, the European Union funded MyHeart Project, whose mission is empowering citizens to fight CVD by means...
Article
Full-text available
In the Western World, cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the leading source of death. Only in Europe, they cause 45% of all deaths. Besides heart failure, the paradigm of CVD, affects mainly people older than 65. Facing this reality, the European Union has funded MyHeart Project, whose mission is empowering citizens to fight CVD by means of a preven...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Excellence in care optimisation in modern cardiology is a twofold issue that involves both the collaboration of numerous communities that benefit from collaborative work spaces as well as life-long education of professionals. Progressive specialisation of medical professionals is one of the factors that most account for this lack of dissemination g...
Article
Full-text available
The aging of population in developed countries and, consequently, the growth of chronic deseases is pushing public health industry to find solutions in order to bring healthcare to patients homes. This can significantly contribute to the reduction of healthcare cost by avoiding unnecessary hospitalisations and ensuring that those who need urgent ca...