Purposes, Uses, and Practices of Leadership Assessment in Education

Explores recent research literature dealing with personnel evaluations, professional learning, accountability, and the relation of leadership to learning, in order to clarify how leadership assessment practices impact student achievement

The Dynamics of Information Collaboration: A Case Study of Blended IT Value Propositions for Health Information Exchange in Disability Determination

Recent developments in health information technology (health IT) for health information exchange suggest that successful public-private collaborations should devote more attention to understanding the dynamics of collaboration. In the context of health information sharing for disability determination, this case study examines early instances of public-private interorganizational sharing of health information. The theoretical focus of the paper is on the construction of blended value propositions and their role in collaboration for health information exchange. For this purpose, we performed a case analysis of a prototype health IT application to be shared between the United States Social Security Administration and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The case analysis found that business, socio-organizational, and technical dynamics were operative during the planning and execution of the prototype. From a theoretical perspective, the case study provides insight into blended value propositions in terms of understanding and potentially predicting the success of newly established Health Information Exchanges (HIEs). The findings have implications for further development of collaboration value propositions and their evolution over the course of IT deployments for health information exchange

Leadership for Learning Improvement in Urban Schools

Examines urban school leaders' efforts to improve the quality of teaching and learning by supporting progress for diverse students, sharing leadership work, and aligning resources. Analyzes school environments and coordination of various leadership roles

User perceptions about sharing exposure notification information for communicable diseases

BackgroundThe (GuideSafe™) Exposure Notification System (ENS) was built and deployed in (Alabama) for anonymous sending and receiving of COVID-19 exposure alerts to people who have been in close contact with someone who later reports a positive COVID-19 test. Little is known about how the demographic groups perceive recent privacy-preserving the ENS innovations, including their usability, usefulness, satisfaction, and continued interest in sharing COVID-19 exposure information. The purpose of this study was to investigate how users across the demographic groups perceive the sharing of exposure information with various types of organizations and to investigate how end-user perceptions of the ENS usability, usefulness, and satisfaction differ across the demographic groups within the context of a statewide deployment of an exposure notification system.MethodsA survey was administered to (state residents blinded for review) (N = 1,049) to assess propensity to share COVID-19 infection data and evaluate end-user perceptions about usability, usefulness, and satisfaction with the (Alabama) ENS. The ANOVA and the Tukey's Honestly Significant Difference (HSD) post-hoc tests were conducted to assess the demographic group differences.ResultsThe ENS survey participants had a high awareness of contact tracing, exposure notifications, and the (GuideSafe™) ENS and reported having downloaded the app. Survey results revealed the majority of participants rated the app as useful (n = 490, 79%), easy to use (n = 490, 79%), and reported satisfaction with its use (n = 546, 88%). Other results suggest that ethnicity and age may be important factors for trust in sharing exposure information.ConclusionThe (GuideSafe™) system was one integrated component of comprehensive education and work re-entry strategy across (Alabama) that reached a broad user base. Users across the different demographic groups perceive the sharing of information about their communicable disease exposures differently. Furthermore, demographic factors play a role in which types of organizations individuals are willing to share their communicable disease exposure information. Public health institutions, employers, schools, healthcare providers, and technology designers may want to consider these findings as they construct technologies and perform outreach campaigns aimed at reducing infection rates with the ENS and related technologies

Information Systems for Disability Determination: A Multi-Stakeholder Assessment of Electronic Medical Evidence Needs and Processes

This study focuses on Health Information Technology (Health IT) in improving the decision-making process concerning disability benefits. Using a multimethod, multilevel approach that includes case analysis and semi-structured interviews, this study examines the practices, challenges, and potential solutions or methods involved in adequate and timely collection of medical evidence through information technology (IT) to support disability determination. Researchers collected qualitative data through fifty-six semi-structured thirty-minute interviews with Disability Determination Services (DDS) personnel in three states. Based on site observations, interviews, and document analysis, they developed two provider case studies. To demonstrate the adequacy and timeliness of medical evidence collection, the study also examined and reviewed twelve disability claimant cases. Findings suggest that, at the payer and provider levels, electronic solutions provide more adequate and timely responses to medical evidence requests. Based on the case studies, implemented Health IT reduces incomplete medical evidence and decreases provider turnaround time in processing a payer’s requests. Among the claims examined, 50 percent received low scores for adequacy of medical evidence and 33 percent received high or medium scores for delay of return of medical evidence of record. This examination of disability determination demonstrated that Health IT holds promise for clinical data use in this context

Predictors of Weight Change: Findings From an Employee Wellness Program

Introduction: Employers are instituting employee wellness programs that include educational, lifestyle coaching, and weight and other condition management components to address obesity-related issues in the workplace. However, the findings of such wellness initiatives have been mixed. The purpose of this exploratory study is to determine whether the readiness for change measures are important predictors of weight loss in an employee wellness program.Methods: Retrospective data analysis of an employee wellness program conducted in the United States was conducted using data collected between 2014 and 2015 for people with BMI ≥ 30. These participants were assigned to one of two subprograms: weight management or condition management. We assessed the weight change within each program. Further, the relationship between weight change and readiness for change variables for weight, diet, and physical activity were examined by applying multiple linear regression and logistic regression models. The multivariable model included subprogram; gender; age; systolic and diastolic blood pressure; risk factor count; readiness for change for weight, activity, and diet; and stress level as covariates.Results: There were 209 participants in the weight management program and 243 participants in the condition management program who met the criteria for obesity, resulting in a final sample of 452 participants. On average, the weight change for these participants was −0.28 pounds (SD = 15.55) and there was no statistical difference between the weight change in the two programs. When compared to the reference group (maintenance), participants at the action stage of physical activity, on average, lost weight (b = −4.59, p = 0.02). Likewise, participants at the pre-contemplation stage of physical activity lost weight when compared to the maintenance group (b = −26.24, p = 0.000). Participants at the pre-contemplation stage of physical activity had higher odds of achieving at least 5% weight loss than participants at the maintenance stage (OR = 5.80, p = 0.053).Conclusion: Readiness for change for activity may be a predictor of weight change, and may predict the likelihood of achieving clinically significant weight loss. These findings can assist in targeting subjects for participation in such programs. The findings regarding the relationship between readiness for change and weight loss are counterintuitive, and further research is warranted in this area

Mapping the Delineation of Practice to the Amia Foundational Domains for Applied Health Informatics

OBJECTIVE: This article reports on the alignment between the foundational domains and the delineation of practice (DoP) for health informatics, both developed by the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA). Whereas the foundational domains guide graduate-level curriculum development and accreditation assessment, providing an educational pathway to the minimum competencies needed as a health informatician, the DoP defines the domains, tasks, knowledge, and skills that a professional needs to competently perform in the discipline of health informatics. The purpose of this article is to determine whether the foundational domains need modification to better reflect applied practice. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Using an iterative process and through individual and collective approaches, the foundational domains and the DoP statements were analyzed for alignment and eventual harmonization. Tables and Sankey plot diagrams were used to detail and illustrate the resulting alignment. RESULTS: We were able to map all the individual DoP knowledge statements and tasks to the AMIA foundational domains, but the statements within a single DoP domain did not all map to the same foundational domain. Even though the AMIA foundational domains and DoP domains are not in perfect alignment, the DoP provides good examples of specific health informatics competencies for most of the foundational domains. There are, however, limited DoP knowledge statements and tasks mapping to foundational domain 6-Social and Behavioral Aspects of Health. DISCUSSION: Both the foundational domains and the DoP were developed independently, several years apart, and for different purposes. The mapping analyses reveal similarities and differences between the practice experience and the curricular needs of health informaticians. CONCLUSIONS: The overall alignment of both domains may be explained by the fact that both describe the current and/or future health informatics professional. One can think of the foundational domains as representing the broad foci for educational programs for health informaticians and, hence, they are appropriately the focus of organizations that accredit these programs

Draws and windfalls: Comparing patient experiences in inpatient telehealth and non-telehealth acute care units

The global COVID-19 pandemic has challenged health care delivery in many ways. One solution from the pandemic that offers potential upside is the expansion of telehealth as a means to provide high quality, cost-effective, and safe care while also maintaining excellence in patient and family experience. While most examinations of the use of telehealth over the pandemic have focused on the expansion of outpatient telehealth, few have explored the use of telehealth for hospitalized patients. This article will examine the influence of telehealth use on patient experiences among acute care patients. Inpatient telehealth acute care (ITAC) is a novel modality for hospitalized patients that enables providers to engage with a remote medical unit to ask questions regarding the care plan, medications, and discharge instructions. This case study will compare the experiences of two inpatient hospital units within the same institution to determine the degree to which patient experiences are influenced by telehealth capabilities. The results find that the telehealth unit has negligible differences in patient evaluations of provider communication but shows significant differences in patients’ experiences of staff responsiveness and the environmental aspects of care captured via the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey (quietness and cleanliness of care). Future scholarship should seek to determine the extent to which these capabilities influence nurses and other care providers. Experience Framework This article is associated with the Innovation & Technology lens of The Beryl Institute Experience Framework (https://www.theberylinstitute.org/ExperienceFramework). Access other PXJ articles related to this lens. Access other resources related to this len

Transfer Learning for the Prediction of Entity Modifiers in Clinical Text: Application to Opioid Use Disorder Case Detection

Background: The semantics of entities extracted from a clinical text can be dramatically altered by modifiers, including entity negation, uncertainty, conditionality, severity, and subject. Existing models for determining modifiers of clinical entities involve regular expression or features weights that are trained independently for each modifier. Methods: We develop and evaluate a multi-task transformer architecture design where modifiers are learned and predicted jointly using the publicly available SemEval 2015 Task 14 corpus and a new Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) data set that contains modifiers shared with SemEval as well as novel modifiers specific for OUD. We evaluate the effectiveness of our multi-task learning approach versus previously published systems and assess the feasibility of transfer learning for clinical entity modifiers when only a portion of clinical modifiers are shared. Results: Our approach achieved state-of-the-art results on the ShARe corpus from SemEval 2015 Task 14, showing an increase of 1.1% on weighted accuracy, 1.7% on unweighted accuracy, and 10% on micro F1 scores. Conclusions: We show that learned weights from our shared model can be effectively transferred to a new partially matched data set, validating the use of transfer learning for clinical text modifiersComment: 18 pages, 2 figures, 6 tables. To be submitted to the Journal of Biomedical Semantic