Determining the Psychometric Properties of an Instrument to Assess Healthcare Availability in Adolescents Diagnosed with a Sport Related Concussion

Please enjoy Volume 6, Issue 1 of the JSMAHS. In this issue, you will find Professional, Graduate, and Undergraduate research abstracts, and case reports. Thank you for viewing this 6th Annual OATA Special Edition

Putting babies first : an educational video and social media project

Newborn screening (NBS) saves lives and prevents disabilities due to metabolic disorders by collecting blood samples from the heels of newborns. Poor-quality specimens must be recollected - delaying valid results, diagnosis and treatment. Recollection can also cause pain for the baby, stress for the family and more work for care providers. The Iowa State Hygienic Laboratory partnered with Genetic Alliance to create the educational video “Putting Babies First”, which focuses on reducing invalid specimens collected from newborns. The video has been promoted and distributed around the country through social media. Innovative metrics were used to analyze the virality and impact of social media on distribution. The Iowa Newborn Screening Program provides services to Iowa, North Dakota, and South Dakota. It seeks to reduce invalid specimens through education for healthcare professionals. First, a series of outreach and research activities were conducted. Surveys assessing knowledge and attitudes toward NBS were completed with Iowa nurses and phlebotomists. Later, focus groups were held to measure the knowledge, frustrations and insight into specimen collection that participants regularly face. Information collected through the surveys and focus groups was used to inform a ten-minute educational video addressing common questions and areas of confusion for NBS collectors. Video promotion was launched through collaborative Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and e-mail efforts in May 2012 at the annual American Public Health Laboratories conference and lasted until the project ended in August 2012. Many of these social media elements continue today as educational tools to inform the public about newborn screening. Social media metrics quantitatively captured the impact of the video and additional NBS information: the video’s YouTube page, a 30-second video short, Twitter messages, promotional materials with QR codes and the “Putting Babies First” Facebook page. The video link was shared on the Facebook pages of nearly 800 hospitals and major public health organizations. As result, the two videos were viewed more than 1,200 times. Although Facebook “likes” were low, we reached 630 users in the project’s last week. Photos of a baby affected by NBS reached a virality of 41.8%. Blog posts, news releases, media news stories and offline video presentations maintained project interest. Seven months after completion, the project was featured by the Big 10 Network. This generated additional feedback well into 2013, which is the 50thanniversary of NBS in the United States. The Putting Babies First video and social media have been used to promote awareness of this anniversary. Video promotion combined traditional and social media to maximize its potential. Publicity from traditional media generated public interest in the project’s activities on YouTube, Facebook and others platforms. Social media promoted our appearances in traditional media. Thus, we established a unified and coherent presence both online and offline. The project offers innovative research suggestions for how to measure the impact of health materials distributed via multiple online and offline platforms. Additionally, the video has the ability to raise awareness of NBS and set a precedent of cooperation between hospitals and public health laboratories

Clinical validation of cutoff target ranges in newborn screening of metabolic disorders by tandem mass spectrometry: A worldwide collaborative project

PURPOSE:: To achieve clinical validation of cutoff values for newborn screening by tandem mass spectrometry through a worldwide collaborative effort. METHODS:: Cumulative percentiles of amino acids and acylcarnitines in dried blood spots of approximately 25-30 million normal newborns and 10,742 deidentified true positive cases are compared to assign clinical significance, which is achieved when the median of a disorder range is, and usually markedly outside, either the 99th or the 1st percentile of the normal population. The cutoff target ranges of analytes and ratios are then defined as the interval between selected percentiles of the two populations. When overlaps occur, adjustments are made to maximize sensitivity and specificity taking all available factors into consideration. RESULTS:: As of December 1, 2010, 130 sites in 45 countries have uploaded a total of 25,114 percentile data points, 565,232 analyte results of true positive cases with 64 conditions, and 5,341 cutoff values. The average rate of submission of true positive cases between December 1, 2008, and December 1, 2010, was 5.1 cases/day. This cumulative evidence generated 91 high and 23 low cutoff target ranges. The overall proportion of cutoff values within the respective target range was 42% (2,269/5,341). CONCLUSION:: An unprecedented level of cooperation and collaboration has allowed the objective definition of cutoff target ranges for 114 markers to be applied to newborn screening of rare metabolic disorders. © 2011 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins