Abstract:
This study examined how emotional proximity and gender affect people's information requirements when someone that they know is chronically or critically ill. In an online...Show MoreMetadata
Abstract:
This study examined how emotional proximity and gender affect people's information requirements when someone that they know is chronically or critically ill. In an online study, participants were asked what information they would want to receive about members of their social network in three categories: someone who was very close, someone who was not so close, and someone who was not close at all. Our results show that the information that people want can be predicted from their gender and emotional proximity to the network member. The closer the relationship with the patient, the more information people want. Women want more information than men. We propose a model for the socially intelligent communication of health information across the social network, and discuss areas for its application.
Published in: IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine ( Volume: 14, Issue: 2, March 2010)

School of Applied Computing, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK
Department of Computer Science, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK
Wendy Moncur received her M.Sc. degree with distinction in multimedia and interactive systems and she will be completing her Ph.D. degree in computing science from the University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, U.K., in early 2010.
Her research interests include socio-technical systems, with an emphasis on personalisation, communication, social networks, and health informatics. She has also worked extensively in industry as a Relat...Show More
Wendy Moncur received her M.Sc. degree with distinction in multimedia and interactive systems and she will be completing her Ph.D. degree in computing science from the University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, U.K., in early 2010.
Her research interests include socio-technical systems, with an emphasis on personalisation, communication, social networks, and health informatics. She has also worked extensively in industry as a Relat...View more

Department of Computer Science, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK
Ehud Reiter received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
He is currently a Reader in computer science at the University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, U.K. His core interest is building computer systems that use English (or other human languages) to communicate data, information, and knowledge to people. From an applied perspective, he is interested in using natural language generation to gene...Show More
Ehud Reiter received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
He is currently a Reader in computer science at the University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, U.K. His core interest is building computer systems that use English (or other human languages) to communicate data, information, and knowledge to people. From an applied perspective, he is interested in using natural language generation to gene...View more

Department of Computer Science, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK
Judith Masthoff received her Ph.D. degree in computing science.
She is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computing Science, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, U.K. Her research interests are in the automatic adaptation of computer systems to the needs of individual users, and groups of users.
Judith Masthoff received her Ph.D. degree in computing science.
She is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computing Science, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, U.K. Her research interests are in the automatic adaptation of computer systems to the needs of individual users, and groups of users.View more

School of Applied Computing, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK
Alex Carmichael received his B.A. and Ph.D. degrees in psychology, and completed a Research Fellowship examining interactive television services for older people.
He is currently with the School of Computing, University of Dundee, Dundee, U.K., where he is Principal Investigator for the EC funded Vital Mind Project. His research interests include in examining the cognitive human factors of older people.
Alex Carmichael received his B.A. and Ph.D. degrees in psychology, and completed a Research Fellowship examining interactive television services for older people.
He is currently with the School of Computing, University of Dundee, Dundee, U.K., where he is Principal Investigator for the EC funded Vital Mind Project. His research interests include in examining the cognitive human factors of older people.View more

School of Applied Computing, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK
Department of Computer Science, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK
Wendy Moncur received her M.Sc. degree with distinction in multimedia and interactive systems and she will be completing her Ph.D. degree in computing science from the University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, U.K., in early 2010.
Her research interests include socio-technical systems, with an emphasis on personalisation, communication, social networks, and health informatics. She has also worked extensively in industry as a Relational Database Designer.
Wendy Moncur received her M.Sc. degree with distinction in multimedia and interactive systems and she will be completing her Ph.D. degree in computing science from the University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, U.K., in early 2010.
Her research interests include socio-technical systems, with an emphasis on personalisation, communication, social networks, and health informatics. She has also worked extensively in industry as a Relational Database Designer.View more

Department of Computer Science, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK
Ehud Reiter received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
He is currently a Reader in computer science at the University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, U.K. His core interest is building computer systems that use English (or other human languages) to communicate data, information, and knowledge to people. From an applied perspective, he is interested in using natural language generation to generate textual summaries of numeric and other nonlinguistic data.
Ehud Reiter received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
He is currently a Reader in computer science at the University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, U.K. His core interest is building computer systems that use English (or other human languages) to communicate data, information, and knowledge to people. From an applied perspective, he is interested in using natural language generation to generate textual summaries of numeric and other nonlinguistic data.View more

Department of Computer Science, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK
Judith Masthoff received her Ph.D. degree in computing science.
She is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computing Science, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, U.K. Her research interests are in the automatic adaptation of computer systems to the needs of individual users, and groups of users.
Judith Masthoff received her Ph.D. degree in computing science.
She is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computing Science, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, U.K. Her research interests are in the automatic adaptation of computer systems to the needs of individual users, and groups of users.View more

School of Applied Computing, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK
Alex Carmichael received his B.A. and Ph.D. degrees in psychology, and completed a Research Fellowship examining interactive television services for older people.
He is currently with the School of Computing, University of Dundee, Dundee, U.K., where he is Principal Investigator for the EC funded Vital Mind Project. His research interests include in examining the cognitive human factors of older people.
Alex Carmichael received his B.A. and Ph.D. degrees in psychology, and completed a Research Fellowship examining interactive television services for older people.
He is currently with the School of Computing, University of Dundee, Dundee, U.K., where he is Principal Investigator for the EC funded Vital Mind Project. His research interests include in examining the cognitive human factors of older people.View more