Abstract
A. Laflor-Hernandez, M. Vazquez-Briseno, J.I. Nieto-Hipolito, R. Conte, A. Garcia-Berumen, J.D. Sanchez -Lopez, E. Gutierrez1
In recent years, several information and communication technology systems have emerged as tools to improve sleep quality. Research reveals that poor sleep quality may produce irritability and deficits in performance, concentration, and learning ability in the short term, and is associated with chronic disease in the long term. ICT proposals range from the old Polysomnography (PSG) to innovative systems, such as wearable devices, smartphone applications, and suites of sensors embedded in the users’ environment. Since these technological developments concern a health issue, they have raised important questions regarding their reliability and the level of rigor of the evaluations to which they are submitted. We found that some of the emerging systems that we studied, do not meet the requirements that health science demands to be accepted as clinical tools. The rationale behind this apparent weakness is explained with arguments from the field of evaluations for health interventions and evaluation of technological developments. We propose a framework to evaluate this kind of systems through appropriate scientific methods that provide valuable information to the research. These methods must be performed while designs mature and the feasibility of rigorous evaluations became appropriate.
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