Design and Validation of Patient-Centered Communication Tools (PaCT) to Measure Students\u27 Communication Skills

Objective. To develop a comprehensive instrument specific to student pharmacist-patient communication skills, and to determine face, content, construct, concurrent, and predictive validity and reliability of the instrument. Methods. A multi-step approach was used to create and validate an instrument, including the use of external experts for face and content validity, students for construct validity, comparisons to other rubrics for concurrent validity, comparisons to other coursework for predictive validity, and extensive reliability and inter-rater reliability testing with trained faculty assessors. Results. Patient-centered Communication Tools (PaCT) achieved face and content validity and performed well with multiple correlation tests with significant findings for reliability testing and when compared to an alternate rubric. Conclusion. PaCT is a useful instrument for assessing student pharmacist communication skills with patients

The Crowdsourced Replication Initiative: Investigating Immigration and Social Policy Preferences. Executive Report.

In an era of mass migration, social scientists, populist parties and social movements raise concerns over the future of immigration-destination societies. What impacts does this have on policy and social solidarity? Comparative cross-national research, relying mostly on secondary data, has findings in different directions. There is a threat of selective model reporting and lack of replicability. The heterogeneity of countries obscures attempts to clearly define data-generating models. P-hacking and HARKing lurk among standard research practices in this area.This project employs crowdsourcing to address these issues. It draws on replication, deliberation, meta-analysis and harnessing the power of many minds at once. The Crowdsourced Replication Initiative carries two main goals, (a) to better investigate the linkage between immigration and social policy preferences across countries, and (b) to develop crowdsourcing as a social science method. The Executive Report provides short reviews of the area of social policy preferences and immigration, and the methods and impetus behind crowdsourcing plus a description of the entire project. Three main areas of findings will appear in three papers, that are registered as PAPs or in process

Psychoeducational Characteristics of Children with Hypohidrotic Ectodermal Dysplasia

Objective. Hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia (HED) is an X-linked hereditary disorder characterized by hypohidrosis, hypotrichosis, and anomalous dentition. Estimates of up to 50% of affected children having intellectual disability are controversial. Method. In a cross-sectional study, 45 youth with HED (77% males, mean age 9.75 years) and 59 matched unaffected controls (70% males, mean age 9.79 years) were administered the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test and the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement, and their parents completed standardized neurodevelopmental and behavioral measures, educational, and health-related information regarding their child, as well as standardized and nonstandardized data regarding socioeconomic information for their family. Results. There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups in intelligence quotient composite and educational achievement scores, suggesting absence of learning disability in either group. No gender differences within or between groups were found on any performance measures. Among affected youth, parental education level correlated positively with (1) cognitive vocabulary scores and cognitive composite scores; (2) educational achievement for mathematics, reading, and composite scores. Conclusion. Youth affected with HED and unaffected matched peers have similar profiles on standardized measures of cognition, educational achievement, and adaptive functioning although children with HED may be at increased risk for ADHD

Asthma Friendly Pharmacies: A Model to Improve Communication and Collaboration among Pharmacists, Patients, and Healthcare Providers

Pharmacists, with expertise in optimizing drug therapy outcomes, are valuable components of the healthcare team and are becoming increasingly involved in public health efforts. Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in diverse community pharmacy settings can implement a variety of asthma interventions when they are brief, supported by appropriate tools, and integrated into the workflow. The Asthma Friendly Pharmacy (AFP) model addresses the challenges of providing patient-focused care in a community pharmacy setting by offering education to pharmacists and pharmacy technicians on asthma-related pharmaceutical care services, such as identifying or resolving medication-related problems; educating patients about asthma and medication-related concepts; improving communication and strengthening relationships between pharmacists, patients, and other healthcare providers; and establishing higher expectations for the pharmacist’s role in patient care and public health efforts. This article describes the feasibility of the model in an urban community pharmacy setting and documents the interventions and communication activities promoted through the AFP model

Observing many researchers using the same data and hypothesis reveals a hidden universe of uncertainty.

This study explores how researchers' analytical choices affect the reliability of scientific findings. Most discussions of reliability problems in science focus on systematic biases. We broaden the lens to emphasize the idiosyncrasy of conscious and unconscious decisions that researchers make during data analysis. We coordinated 161 researchers in 73 research teams and observed their research decisions as they used the same data to independently test the same prominent social science hypothesis: that greater immigration reduces support for social policies among the public. In this typical case of social science research, research teams reported both widely diverging numerical findings and substantive conclusions despite identical start conditions. Researchers' expertise, prior beliefs, and expectations barely predict the wide variation in research outcomes. More than 95% of the total variance in numerical results remains unexplained even after qualitative coding of all identifiable decisions in each team's workflow. This reveals a universe of uncertainty that remains hidden when considering a single study in isolation. The idiosyncratic nature of how researchers' results and conclusions varied is a previously underappreciated explanation for why many scientific hypotheses remain contested. These results call for greater epistemic humility and clarity in reporting scientific findings

Observing many researchers using the same data and hypothesis reveals a hidden universe of uncertainty

This study explores how researchers' analytical choices affect the reliability of scientific findings. Most discussions of reliability problems in science focus on systematic biases. We broaden the lens to emphasize the idiosyncrasy of conscious and unconscious decisions that researchers make during data analysis. We coordinated 161 researchers in 73 research teams and observed their research decisions as they used the same data to independently test the same prominent social science hypothesis: that greater immigration reduces support for social policies among the public. In this typical case of social science research, research teams reported both widely diverging numerical findings and substantive conclusions despite identical start conditions. Researchers' expertise, prior beliefs, and expectations barely predict the wide variation in research outcomes. More than 95% of the total variance in numerical results remains unexplained even after qualitative coding of all identifiable decisions in each team's workflow. This reveals a universe of uncertainty that remains hidden when considering a single study in isolation. The idiosyncratic nature of how researchers' results and conclusions varied is a previously underappreciated explanation for why many scientific hypotheses remain contested. These results call for greater epistemic humility and clarity in reporting scientific findings

The Crowdsourced Replication Initiative

Crowdsourced Research on Immigration and Social Policy Preference