‘To whom am I speaking?’; Public responses to crime reporting via live chat with human versus AI police operators

Driven by social and technological change and the imperative to enhance efficiency, police have in recent years adopted various technologies to transform their interactions with the public. In the UK, these initiatives often fall under "transformation" agendas, promoting "channel choice" strategies to facilitate public interactions through various technologically mediated platforms, such as reporting crimes online using form-based or chat functions. Artificial Intelligence already plays a role in some of these interactions, which is likely only to increase in the future. In this study we examine preferences and perceptions in online crime reporting. Participants read a fictitious ‘chat’ between a victim of crime and a police operator identified as either a human or a chatbot. Although the chats were identical, we find a consistent preference for human operators over chatbots across all scenarios. Human operators were thought to provide clearer explanations, although there were no significant differences in judgements of interpersonal treatment or decision neutrality between human and chatbot operators. Participants also responded more positively to the process when (a) the crime involved was less serious and (b) when the outcome was active (police attendance) rather than passive (simple recording). Our findings underscore the importance of procedural justice and communication clarity in online crime reporting systems – and perhaps of human interaction when reporting crimes

Shedding Light on Antisocial Behavior Through Genetically Informed Research

Antisocial behavior (ASB) refers to a set of behaviors that violate social norms and disregard the well-being and rights of others. In this review, we synthesize evidence from studies using genetically informed designs to investigate the genetic and environmental contributions to individual differences in ASB. We review evidence from studies using family data (twin and adoption studies) and measured DNA (candidate gene and genome-wide association studies) that have informed our understanding of ASB. We describe how genetically informative designs are especially suited to investigate the nature of environmental risk and the forms of gene-environment interplay. We also highlight clinical and legal implications, including how insights from genetically informed research can help inform prevention and intervention, and we discuss some challenges and opportunities within this field of research

Mentalization-based treatment for adolescent depression

Depression is a very common mental health problem in adolescence. Although over the past decades a number of psychological interventions for depression in adolescence have been developed and empirically evaluated, recent systematic review and meta-analyses suggest that there is considerable room for improvement of their effectiveness. This is particularly true for the treatment of adolescents with “complex” depression, that is, those where depression is embedded within broader personality and relational problems, often related to a history of attachment trauma. Mentalization-based treatment (MBT) may be particularly effective in these cases, as it has a strong focus on temporary or long-term impairments in mentalizing (i.e., the capacity to understand the self and others in terms of intentional mental states), which are very typical of adolescents with depression. This paper outlines a continuum of severity of depression as seen from a mentalizing perspective, ranging from the mild and moderate to the more severe end of the spectrum. This is followed by a summary of the mentalizing approach to the understanding of depression along the spectrum of severity, the empirical evidence supporting this approach, and a description of the basic principles of MBT for depression. We close this paper with some thoughts about the future of MBT in the treatment of depression in adolescents

‘That’s kind of under my work blanket’—redeployment experiences of children’s hospital staff during the covid-19 pandemic: a qualitative interview study

Background: During COVID-19 pandemic, a rapid readjustment to continued delivery of healthcare was required. Redeployment is an intentional process to mobilise human resources by reassigning a healthcare worker to a new role or new work location, to achieve sustainable delivery of patient care. We report redeployment experiences of staff from a specialist children’s hospital during first and second waves of the United Kingdom COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This study focuses on a specialist children’s hospital where redeployment occurred externally to adult intensive care units and other COVID-19 specific initiatives, and internally as some service activity reduced and others expanded. This was a study of staff experiences using a qualitative rapid appraisal design. Hospital staff participated in an in-depth one-to-one telephone interview. We used a semi-structured interview guide, and recorded and transcribed all interviews. Rapid Research Evaluation and Appraisal Lab sheets were used to share data; team-based analysis was facilitated using a framework approach. Results: Recruitment and interviews took place from March-November 2021. Twenty-four staff participated: 17 nurses, five doctors and two other healthcare professionals. Interviewees articulated their experiences of redeployment both within the specialist children’s hospital and externally to other health settings (predominantly adult intensive care). Redeployment impacted staff in multiple ways professionally and personally and was reported to be both challenging and rewarding. The reality of working in different settings was felt by everyone, with unfamiliar environments, patient safety, and delivery of a more task-based model of care creating some negative experiences. We identified five main themes: (i) Drivers and Agency; (ii) Journey to Redeployment; (iii) Working Reality; (iv) Personal Impact and Support; (v) Professional Disruption. Conclusions: Although experience of those redeployed varied, prior background of working in intensive care settings and with adult patients, with opportunities to share practice with colleagues, mitigated challanges for our participants. Positive experiences were associated with perceptions of support received, being welcomed in the new setting, and feeling valued. This study also highlights the act of ‘volunteering’, the nature of ‘voluntariness’ and the difference that may exert on the overall redeployment experience. Future guidance would be encouraged to consider the voluntary nature of redployment

Understanding scope of practice and accountability when prescribing

This article introduces the core components of professionalism for prescribing pharmacists and shows how these concepts can be used to enhance decision making and promote safe and effective prescribing practice

Challenges in Cardiomyopathy Gene Therapy Clinical Trial Design

Gene therapy has emerged as a possible treatment for progressive, debilitating Mendelian cardiomyopathies with limited therapeutic options. This paper arises from discussions at the 2023 Cardiovascular Clinical Trialists Forum and highlights several challenges relevant to gene therapy clinical trials, including low prevalence and high phenotypic heterogeneity of Mendelian cardiomyopathies, outcome selection complexities and resulting regulatory uncertainty, and immune responses to the adeno-associated viral vectors that are being used in ongoing studies. Avenues to address these challenges such as natural history studies, external controls, novel regulatory pathways, and immunosuppression are discussed. Relevant cases of recent therapy approvals are highlighted. Ultimately, this work aims to broadly frame discussions on and provide potential future avenues for clinical trial design for rare cardiomyopathy gene therapies