Public Health Informatics in Local and State Health Agencies: An Update From the Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey

OBJECTIVE: To characterize public health informatics (PHI) specialists and identify the informatics needs of the public health workforce. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: US local and state health agencies. PARTICIPANTS: Employees from state health agencies central office (SHA-COs) and local health departments (LHDs) participating in the 2017 Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS). We characterized and compared the job roles for self-reported PHI, "information technology specialist or information system manager" (IT/IS), "public health science" (PHS), and "clinical and laboratory" workers. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Descriptive statistics for demographics, income, education, public health experience, program area, job satisfaction, and workplace environment, as well as data and informatics skills and needs. RESULTS: A total of 17 136 SHA-CO and 26 533 LHD employees participated in the survey. PHI specialist was self-reported as a job role among 1.1% and 0.3% of SHA-CO and LHD employees. The PHI segment most closely resembled PHS employees but had less public health experience and had lower salaries. Overall, fewer than one-third of PHI specialists reported working in an informatics program area, often supporting epidemiology and surveillance, vital records, and communicable disease. Compared with PH WINS 2014, current PHI respondents' satisfaction with their job and workplace environment moved toward more neutral and negative responses, while the IT/IS, PHS, and clinical and laboratory subgroups shifted toward more positive responses. The PHI specialists were less likely than those in IT/IS, PHS, or clinical and laboratory roles to report gaps in needed data and informatics skills. CONCLUSIONS: The informatics specialists' role continues to be rare in public health agencies, and those filling that role tend to have less public health experience and be less well compensated than staff in other technically focused positions. Significant data and informatics skills gaps persist among the broader public health workforce

Las competencias tecnológicas en la enseñanza de la enfermería cardiológica

OBJECTIVE To identify the perception of the coordinators of the Specialization Courses in Cardiovascular Nursing about inserting content from Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and analyze them in relation to the technological competencies and regarding its applicability, relevance and importance in assisting, teaching and management. METHOD Descriptive study with 10 coordinators of the Specialization course in Cardiologic Nursing, who replied to the questionnaire for the development of technological competency adapted from the Technology Initiative Guidelines Education Reforms (TIGER), and analyzed using the Delphi technique for obtaining consensus and scored according to the relevance, pertinence and applicability using Likert scale according to degree of agreement. RESULTS Six courses developed ICT content. The contents of the TIGER were considered relevant, pertinent and applicable. CONCLUSION The coordinators recognize the need for technological competencies of the Cardiovascular Nurse for healthcare applicability.OBJETIVO Identificar a percepção dos coordenadores dos Cursos de Especialização em Enfermagem Cardiológica sobre a inserção de conteúdos de Tecnologia de Informação e Comunicação (TIC) e analisá-los relacionando-os às competências tecnológicas e quanto à sua aplicabilidade, pertinência e relevância na assistência, ensino e gestão. MÉTODO Estudo descritivo com 10 coordenadores do curso de Especialização em Enfermagem Cardiológica que responderam ao questionário para o desenvolvimento de competências tecnológicas adaptadas do modelo da Technology Initiative Guidelines Education Reforms (TIGER), e analisados utilizando a técnica de Delphi para obtenção de consenso e pontuados quanto à relevância, pertinência e aplicabilidade utilizando escala tipo Likert conforme grau de concordância. RESULTADOS Seis cursos desenvolviam conteúdos de TIC. Os conteúdos da TIGER foram considerados relevantes, pertinentes e aplicáveis. CONCLUSÃO Os coordenadores reconhecem a necessidade da competência tecnológica do enfermeiro cardiológico visando à aplicabilidade assistencial.OBJETIVO Identificar la percepción de los coordinadores de los Cursos de Especialización en Enfermería Cardiológica sobre la inserción de contenidos de Tecnología de Información y Comunicación (TIC) y analizarlos relacionándolos a las competencias tecnológicas y en cuanto a su aplicabilidad, pertinencia y relevancia en la asistencia, enseñanza y gestión. MÉTODO Estudio descriptivo con 10 coordinadores del curso de Especialización en Enfermería Cardiológica que respondieron al cuestionario para el desarrollo de competencias tecnológicas adaptadas del modelo de la Technology Initiative Guidelines Education Reforms (TIGER), con análisis mediante la técnica de Delphi para la obtención de consenso y puntaje en cuanto a la relevancia, pertinencia y aplicabilidad utilizando escala tipo Likert conforme al grado de concordancia. RESULTADOS Seis cursos desarrollaban contenidos de TIC. Los contenidos de la TIGER fueron considerados relevantes, pertinentes y aplicables. CONCLUSIÓN Los coordinadores reconocen la necesidad de la competencia tecnológica del enfermero cardiológico con vistas a la aplicabilidad asistencial

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationNanoinformatics is a relatively young field of study that is important due to its implications in the field of nanomedicine, specifically toward the development of nanoparticle drug delivery systems. As more structural, biochemical, and physiochemical data become available regarding nanoparticles, the greater the knowledge-gain from using nanoinformatics methods will become. While there are challenges that exist with nanoparticle data, including heterogeneity of data and complexity of the particles, nanoinformatics will be at the forefront of processing these data and aid in the design of nanoparticles for biomedical applications. In this dissertation, a review of data mining and machine learning studies performed in the field of nanomedicine is presented. Next, the use of natural language processing methods to extract numeric values of biomedical property terms of poly(amido amine) (PAMAM) dendrimers from nanomedicine literature is demonstrated, along with successful extraction results. Following this is an implementation and its results of data mining techniques used for the development of predictive models of cytotoxicity of PAMAM dendrimers using their chemical and structural properties. Finally, a method and its results for using molecular dynamics simulations to test the ability of EDTA, as a gold standard, and generation 3.5 (G3.5) PAMAM dendrimers to chelate calcium

Mensagens telefônicas frente às medidas preventivas contra COVID-19

Objetivo: Analisar as evidências de validade de conteúdo de mensagens telefônicas frente as medidas preventivas contra a COVID-19.Método: Estudo metodológico, em que as mensagens contendo texto e imagem foram desenvolvidas por meio de uma revisão narrativa de literatura e que tiveram seu conteúdo avaliado por oito juízes em relação a clareza, pertinência prática, relevância teórica e vocabulário. Calculou-se o índice de validade de conteúdo (IVC), e considerou-se com adequadas evidências de validade, as mensagens que alcançaram índices acima de 90%. Resultados: Foram desenvolvidas 18 mensagens de texto/imagens contendo informações sobre a COVID-19, higienização das mãos, uso e manuseio das máscaras e a importância do distanciamento social. Após a segunda rodada de avaliação obteve-se um índice de validade de conteúdo acima de 90% em todos os indicadores avaliados.Conclusão: As mensagens telefônicas foram desenvolvidas e apresentaram adequadas evidências de validade de conteúdo.Descritores: COVID-19. Prevenção de doenças. Envio de mensagens de texto

Utilizing TIGER Competencies to Improve Informatics Practice

Nursing Informatics (NI) is quickly becoming an essential part of nursing. From the classroom, to the bedside, and to the boardroom, nurses across the nursing continuum are expected to use NI in their practice with the hopes of delivering better quality care to their patients. However, the training and education of NI provided to all levels of nurses is unable to keep up with the pace of technology. This project seeks to improve the NI competency of the nursing workforce at a pediatric hospital through an educational course using NI competencies identified by the Technology Informatics Guiding Educational Reform (TIGER) Initiative (2009). The value of this project is that it addresses the gap in NI education and competencies at a 265-bed pediatric hospital and creates a NI curriculum that is relevant, timely, and teaches nurses the essential skills to use NI to provide quality care and become a driver of patient quality outcomes

An investigation of an undergraduate course module on the ethical aspects of information systems

An increased emphasis is being placed on ethics in Information Systems. An investigation of: the relevant literature which highlighted the growth of, and importance in understanding the moral philosophies which underlie Computer Ethics; and the official curricula recommendations that have increasingly and consistently recommended inclusion of courses describing the Social, Professional and Ethical responsibilities of Information Systems Professionals; and informed by the observations from two empirical Studies that showed the extent of unethical behaviour, and how this behaviour is diminished in those who have received formal tertiary level education resulted in a proposed new course module on Ethics in Information Systems. The module follows a sandwich-approach whereby two stand-alone modules are conducted on either side of integrated Computer Ethics content within the rest of the curriculum