Manuel Franco

Complejo Asistencial De Zamora

Objective To provide high-quality elderly care, digital health technologies (DHTs) can potentially assist in reaching the full capacity of comprehensive geriatric assessments (CGAs) to improve communication and data transfer on patients’ medical and treatment plan information and health decision-making. This systematic review aimed to describe the...

Background: Social robots are considered a promising solution and support in emotional, mental, and physical areas for people with dementia (PwD) and mild cognitive impairments (MCI). Social robots’ effective adoption and outcome may largely depend on this target group’s attitude and acceptance and should be taken into account since the primary sta...

Introduction Adults with autism and adults with schizophrenia show difficulties in adaptive skills, especially those related to daily functioning. Some studies suggest that adaptive skills are associated with deficits in executive functions (EF), while others indicate that intelligence quotient (IQ) might also play a role. Literature suggests that...

Background: E-learning has shown to be an effective intervention in helping informal caregivers of people living with dementia. It has the potential to reach people living in remote areas, increasing service coverage. As a response to the demographic context in Spain associated with a higher percentage of ageing, depopulation, and the complexities...

Introduction: Experts agree that there is a need for protocols to guide health professionals on how to best manage psychiatric comorbidities in patients with epilepsy (PWE). We aimed to develop practical recommendations for key issues in the management of depression in PWE. Methods: This was a qualitative study conducted in four steps: (1) developm...

Currently, high hospital readmission rates have become a problem for mental health services, because it is directly associated with the quality of patient care. The development of predictive models with machine learning algorithms allows the assessment of readmission risk in hospitals. The main objective of this paper is to predict the readmission...

Background Social robots have demonstrated promising outcomes in terms of increasing the social health and well-being of people with dementia and mild cognitive impairment. According to the World Health Organization’s Monitoring and assessing digital health interventions framework, usability and feasibility studies are crucial before implementing p...

BACKGROUND Social robots have shown promising outcomes in enhancing social well-being in people with dementia by boosting emotions, social interactions, and activity participation. OBJECTIVE The goal was to investigate the attitude of stakeholders and potential facilitators and hurdles to implementing the social robot MINI in community-based Meeti...

Background: Social robots, as a form of digital health technologies, are used to support emotional, cognitive, and physical care and have shown promising outcomes in enhancing social well-being in people with dementia (PwD) by boosting emotions, social interactions, and activity participation. Objective: The goal is to investigate the attitude o...

Objectives Mental health professionals are becoming increasingly involved in the process of employment rehabilitation of persons with psychiatric disabilities. However, few studies address the attitudes of these professionals toward the employability of those with mental illness. The aim of this research was to identify differences in the attitudes...

As assessed by numerous neuropsychological tasks, individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs) have similar impairments related to executive functions (EFs). The neuropsychological profile of these two conditions was examined using the three-component EFs’ framework of Miyake and Friedman (Cogn Psychol...

Background Comprehensive Geriatric Assessments (CGAs) have been incorporated as an integrated care approach effective to face the challenges associated to uncoordinated care, risk of hospitalization, unmet needs, and care planning experienced in older adult care. As they assessed different dimensions, is important to inform about the content and ps...

Background: New research fields to design social robots for older people are emerging. By providing support with communication and social interaction, these robots aim to increase quality of life. Because of the decline in functioning due to cognitive impairment in older people, social robots are regarded as promising, especially for people with d...

Background: The rapid transition to digital working, accelerated due to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, has impacted the involvement of patients and public in research. This paper presents experiences of engaging in digital Patient and Public Involvement (e-PPI) in dementia research since the lockdowns, offering recommendations regarding fu...

Suicide was the main source of death from external causes in Spain in 2020, with 3,941 cases. The importance of identifying those mental disorders that influenced hospital readmissions will allow us to manage the health care of suicidal behavior. The feature selection of each hospital in this region was carried out by applying Machine learning (ML)...

EhcoBUTLER is a tablet platform mainly aimed at the elderly with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to promote their well-being and health. The main objective of this study was to explore the perceptions and feedback level of the ehcoBUTLER potential users and stakeholders to improve its development. Through this exploration, the secondary objective w...

Background Mood disturbance is a pervasive problem affecting persons of all ages in the general population and the subset of those receiving services from different health care providers. interRAI assessment instruments comprise an integrated health information system providing a common approach to comprehensive assessment of the strengths, prefere...

This is a comparative analysis of everyday executive functioning between individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders (SSD) and controls using Dysexecutive Questionnaire-Spanish (DEX-Sp), to identify patterns of difficulties. Also we assessed the relationship between EF and adaptive behavior as measured by the V...

New computational methods have emerged through science and technology to support the diagnosis of mental health disorders. Predictive models developed from machine learning algorithms can identify disorders such as schizophrenia and support clinical decision making. This research aims to compare the performance of machine learning algorithms: Decis...

Background: Computer-based programs have been implemented from a psychosocial approach for the care of people with dementia (PwD). However, several factors may determine adherence of older PwD to this type of treatment. The aim of this paper was to identify the sociodemographic, cognitive, psychological, and physical-health determinants that helpe...

Precision medicine applied to psychiatry provides new insight into the promising field of precision psychiatry. Psychotic disorders are heterogeneous, complex, chronic, and severe mental disorders. Not only does the prognosis and the course of the disease vary among patients suffering from psychotic disorders, but the treatment response varies as w...

Background The rapid transition to digital working, accelerated due to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, has impacted the involvement of patients and public in research. For this reason, this paper presents a narrative of a co-production journey experienced by a Participant and Public Involvement (PPI) group since the lockdowns and recommendat...

Background: Computer-based cognitive training programs have been developed with promising results on the maintenance/improvement of cognitive performance in people with dementia. Objective: The objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of the cognitive rehabilitation program "GRADIOR" in people with mild cognitive impairment and mild dementia....

During the first confinement in Spain, between the months of March to June 2020, Information and Communication Technologies strategies were implemented in order to support health workers in the Wellbeing of Mental Health. Faced with so much uncertainty about the pandemic, an Online Mindfulness course. The objective of the course was to support heal...

Precision medicine utilizing the genetic information of genes involved in the metabolism and disposition of drugs can not only improve drug efficacy but also prevent or minimize adverse events. Polypharmacy is common among multimorbid patients and is associated with increased adverse events. One of the main objectives in health care is safe and eff...

Technology integration in the field of mental health helps prevent cognitive decline in patients. If older users do not adopt service-based Information and Communication Technologies, they will face problems in managing their daily lives. The main objective of our work is to analyze the usability of the Long Lasting Memories program among mental he...

Background Integrated care delivery is regarded as the most effective way of care provisioning to tackle challenges of dementia care, such as uncoordinated care, risk of hospitalizations, care planning and unmet needs. As Comprehensive Geriatric Assessments (CGAs) incorporate the key principles of integrated care, implementing CGAs in care practice...

Background: In a search for innovative dementia care strategies, a new research field has been dedicated to design social robots for older adults with cognitive impairments and dementia in order to promote their quality of life through communication and social interactions. Although the results are promising, the quality of studies on effectivenes...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a remarkable challenge for healthcare in the 21st century. Since 2017, deep learning models with transfer learning approaches have been gaining recognition in AD detection, and progression prediction by using neuroimaging biomarkers. This paper presents a systematic review of the current state of early AD detection by us...

Mental disorders are a critical public health challenge since they profoundly affected people lifestyle. Mental healthcare treatments aim to promote a higher quality of life of the patients. These procedures include interventions for prolonged mental illness which can be supported by telemedicine technologies. This paper presents a comprehensive an...

Background In a search for innovative dementia care strategies, a new research fields have been dedicated to design social robots for older adults with cognitive impairments and dementia in order to promote their quality of life through communication and social interactions. Although the results are promising, the quality of studies on effectivenes...

Background Health systems are in the need for novel approaches to tackle the challenges from the demographic transition to ageing populations. An effective approach to face these challenges is integrated care delivery. Implementing Comprehensive Geriatric Assessments (CGAs) in Health Ageing might be highly relevant to incorporate this approach. How...

Background Comprehensive Geriatric Assessments (CGAs) incorporate the key principles of integrated care delivery, which is regarded as the most effective approach of care provisioning to face challenges of dementia care, such as uncoordinated care, risk of hospitalizations, care planning and unmet needs. For this reason, implementing CGAs in care p...

Second-generation antipsychotic metabolism is mainly carried out by the CYP450 superfamily, which is highly polymorphic. Therefore, knowing the influence of the different known CYP450 polymorphisms on antipsychotic plasmatic levels and, consequently, the biological effect could contribute to a deeper knowledge of interindividual antipsychotic treat...

Background: Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder that often manifests within the first three decades of life. Its prognosis is uncertain and may result in a prolonged treatment that could extend throughout the entire lifespan of the patient. Antipsychotic drugs are characterized by a high interindividual variability when considering therapeut...

In a search for innovative dementia care strategies, a new research field has been dedicated to design social robots for older adults with cognitive impairments and dementia in order to promote their quality of life through communication and social interactions. Although the results are promising, the quality of studies on effectiveness of social r...

Background: Integrated care delivery is regarded as the most effective way of care provisioning to tackle challenges of dementia care, such as uncoordinated care, risk of hospitalizations, care planning and unmet needs. As Comprehensive Geriatric Assessments (CGAs) incorporate the key principles of integrated care, implementing CGAs in care practic...

La mayor parte de los estudios que abordan el problema en la consecución de empleo en personas con enfermedades mentales lo hacen desde la perspectiva cualitativa. Este estudio aborda los facilitadores y barreras para conseguir empleo a través de una revisión de artículos cualitativos en donde participen personas con enfermedad mental grave y prolo...

Having prior contact with people with mental illness in the workplace can lead to an improvement in employers’ attitudes toward this group. However, there is currently a lack of instruments to measure attitudes toward the employability of people with mental illness. The overall aim of this study was to develop a Spanish scale of attitudes toward th...

The use of artificial intelligence in health care has grown quickly. In this sense, we present our work related to the application of Natural Language Processing techniques, as a tool to analyze the sentiment perception of users who answered two questions from the CSQ-8 questionnaires with raw Spanish free-text. Their responses are related to mindf...

The aim of this study was to build a tool to analyze, using artificial intelligence, the sentiment perception of users who answered two questions from the CSQ – 8 questionnaires with raw Spanish free-text. Their responses are related to mindfulness, which is a novel technique used to control stress and anxiety caused by different factors in daily l...

In dementia care, psychosocial interventions can increase people's quality of life with dementia and their caregivers. Despite their effectiveness, however, their translation into practice lacks the desirable systematicity. Systematic educational programs on psychosocial interventions in dementia will improve this translation, as it prepares profes...

Introduction Incorporating technology in cognitive interventions represents an innovation, making them more accessible, flexible, and cost-effective. This will not be feasible without adequate user-technology fit. Bearing in mind the importance of developing cognitive interventions whose technology is appropriate for elderly people with cognitive i...

There is evidence supporting the use of psychosocial interventions in dementia care. Due to the role of policy in clinical practice, the present study investigates whether and how the issue of psychosocial care and interventions has been addressed in the national dementia plans and strategies across Europe. A total of 26 national documents were fou...

In recent years, different computer-based cognitive training (CT) programs for people with dementia (PwD) have been developed following a psychosocial approach. Aim: This systematic review aims to identify the methodological designs applied in the development of computer-based training (CCT) programs for the rehabilitation of cognitive functionin...

In recent years, technology has been implemented in the field of interventions for older adults. GRADIOR 4.5 is a cognitive software within the wide variety of available multimedia programs that support healthcare professionals in cognitive assessment and neuropsychological rehabilitation. The study aimed to evaluate the new version of GRADIOR (v4....

El año 2016 se publicó el primer curso de Formación Continuada a Distancia (FOCAD) sobre ciberterapias1. Si ese año se escribía en un buscador “terapia online” se encontraban unas 45,3 mil entradas. El mismo ejercicio, pero esta vez hasta diciembre del año 2019, aumentaba los resultados en un 182,5% (128 mil entradas). Pero algo ha ocurrido que en...

Antipsychotics are the keystone of the treatment of severe and prolonged mental disorders. However, there are many risks associated with these drugs and not all patients undergo full therapeutic profit from them. The application of the 5 Step Precision Medicine model(5SPM), based on the analysis of the pharmacogenetic profile of each patient, could...

Dementias are brain diseases that affect long-term cognitive and behavioral functions and cause a decrease in the ability to think and remember that is severe enough to disturb daily functioning. In Spain, the number of people suffering from dementia is rising due to population ageing. Reducing admissions, many of them avoidable, would be advantage...

BACKGROUND As a consequence of the decentralisation of health care provision to the different Regions (called Autonomous Communities) in Spain, different healthcare models and resources have been developed for psychiatric patients. It would be very useful to obtain comprehensive and comparative data on healthcare models, resources and activity of a...

Background: As a consequence of the decentralisation of health care provision to the different Regions (called Autonomous Communities) in Spain, different healthcare models and resources have been developed for psychiatric patients. It would be very useful to obtain comprehensive and comparative data on healthcare models, resources and activity of...

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) report in 2016, around 800,000 of individuals have committed suicide. Moreover, suicide is the second cause of unnatural death in people between 15 and 29 years. This paper reviews state of the art on the literature concerning the use of machine learning methods for suicide detection on social networ...

Background Mental health disorders are a problem that affects patients, their families, and the professionals who treat them. Hospital admissions play an important role in caring for people with these diseases due to their effect on quality of life and the high associated costs. In Spain, at the Healthcare Complex of Zamora, a new disease managemen...

It has been estimated that alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs were responsible for more than 10 million deaths worldwide in 2016, and there are many opportunities for improvement. Regarding innovative data analysis, advances have been made in the extraction of information from administrative databases for analytics purposes. We studied trends in h...

Background: Patients suffering from addiction are a vulnerable group in the midst of COVID-19, so their healthcare is considered essential. In this paper, the measures and responses of the Drug Addiction Assistance Network of Castile and Leon (DAACYL) in Spain during the first 6 weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic are explained. The aim is that this exp...

Background The growing number of older people and, with it, the increase of neurological impairments such as dementia has led to the implementation of the use of computer programs for cognitive rehabilitation in people with dementia. For 20 years, we have been developing the GRADIOR cognitive rehabilitation program and conducted several studies ass...

The Interdisciplinary Network for Dementia Using Current Technology, INDUCT, is a Marie Sklodowska Curie funded International Training Network that aims to develop a multi-disciplinary, inter-sectorial educational research framework for Europe to improve technology and care for people with dementia, and to provide the evidence to show how technolog...