Students’ Experiences with Community in an Open Access Course

Online open access courses have become regular offerings of many universities. Building community and connectedness is an important part of branding and success of such offerings. Our goal was to investigate students’ experiences with community in an open access course. Therefore, in this study, we explored the sense of community of 342 participants in an open access chemistry course. We found that participants did not rate a sense of community as important to them, and did not report feeling very connected to the online course. We will discuss opportunities for building community features in such courses in the future

Students’ Experiences with Community in an Open Access Course

Online open access courses have become regular offerings of many universities. Building community and connectedness is an important part of branding and success of such offerings. Our goal was to investigate students’ experiences with community in an open access course. Therefore, in this study, we explored the sense of community of 342 participants in an open access chemistry course. We found that participants did not rate a sense of community as important to them, and did not report feeling very connected to the online course. We will discuss opportunities for building community features in such courses in the future

Using PBL to Prepare Educators and Emergency Managers to Plan for Severe Weather

Within the past 10 years severe weather has been responsible for an annual average of 278 fatalities in the United States (National Weather Service, 2013). During severe weather special populations are populations of high concentrations of people that cannot respond quickly. Schools show both of these characteristics. The average lead time for tornadoes is only 11 minutes (Simmons & Sutter, 2008), so decisions must be made decisively and leaders must be prepared in advance. This paper describes how an instructional design process was used to develop an interdisciplinary problem based learning training for both school personnel and emergency managers. In this real world based activity, participants simulated difficult decisions that must be made during severe weather to develop a better understanding of each others’ roles and responsibilities

An Incremental Adoption Pathway for Developing Precision Medicine Based Healthcare Infrastructure for Underserved Settings

Recent focus on Precision medicine (PM) has led to a flurry of research activities across the developed world. understaffed and underfunded health care systems in the US and elsewhere evolve to adapt PM to address pressing But how can healthcare needs? We offer guidance on a wide range of sources of healthcare data / knowledge sources as well as other infrastructure / tools that could inform PM initiatives, and may serve as low hanging fruit easily adapted on the incremental pathway towards a PM based healthcare system. Using these resources and tools, we propose an incremental adoption pathway to inform implementers working in underserved communities around the world on how they should position themselves to gradually embrace the concepts of PM with minimal interruption to existing care delivery

Personalizing Longitudinal Care Coordination for Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease

Chronic care coordination efforts often focus on the needs of the healthcare team and not on the individual needs of each patient. However, developing a personalized care plan for patients with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) requires individual patient engagement with the health care team. We describe the development of a CKD e-care plan that focuses on patient specific needs and life goals, and can be personalized according to provider needs

Factors Related to User Ratings and User Downloads of Mobile Apps for Maternal and Infant Health: Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Mobile health apps related to maternal and infant health (MIH) are prevalent and frequently used. Some of these apps are extremely popular and have been downloaded over 5 million times. However, the understanding of user behavior and user adoption of these apps based on consumer preferences for different app features and categories is limited. Objective: This study aimed to examine the relationship between MIH app characteristics and users’ perceived satisfaction and intent to use. Methods: The associations between app characteristics, ratings, and downloads were assessed in a sample of MIH apps designed to provide health education or decision-making support to pregnant women or parents and caregivers of infants. Multivariable linear regression was used to assess the relationship between app characteristics and user ratings, and ordinal logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between app characteristics and user downloads. Results: The analyses of user ratings and downloads included 421 and 213 apps, respectively. The average user rating was 3.79 out of 5. Compared with the Apple App Store, the Google Play Store was associated with high user ratings (beta=.33; P =.005). Apps with higher standardized user ratings (beta=.80; P <.001), in-app purchases (beta=1.12; P =.002), and in-app advertisements (beta=.64; P =.02) were more frequently downloaded. Having a health care organization developer as part of the development team was neither associated with user ratings (beta=−.20; P =.06) nor downloads (beta=−.14; P =.63). Conclusions: A majority of MIH apps are developed by non–health care organizations, which could raise concern about the accuracy and trustworthiness of in-app information. These findings could benefit app developers in designing better apps and could help inform marketing and development strategies. Further work is needed to evaluate the clinical accuracy of information provided within the apps. [JMIR Mhealth Uhealth 2020;8(1):e15663

Envisioning health equity for American Indian/Alaska Natives: a unique HIT opportunity

The Indian Health Service provides care to remote and under-resourced communities in the United States. American Indian/Alaska Native patients have some of the highest morbidity and mortality among any ethnic group in the United States. Starting in the 1980s, the IHS implemented the Resource and Patient Management System health information technology (HIT) platform to improve efficiency and quality to address these disparities. The IHS is currently assessing the Resource and Patient Management System to ensure that changing health information needs are met. HIT assessments have traditionally focused on cost, reimbursement opportunities, infrastructure, required or desired functionality, and the ability to meet provider needs. Little information exists on frameworks that assess HIT legacy systems to determine solutions for an integrated rural healthcare system whose end goal is health equity. This search for a next-generation HIT solution for a historically underserved population presents a unique opportunity to envision and redefine HIT that supports health equity as its core mission