Marshfield Clinic: Health Information Technology Paves the Way for Population Health Management

Highlights Fund-defined attributes of an ideal care delivery system and best practices, including an internal electronic health record, primary care teams, physician quality metrics and mentors, and standardized care processes for chronic care management

Organizing for Higher Performance: Case Studies of Organized Delivery Systems

Offers lessons learned from healthcare delivery systems promoting the attributes of an ideal model as defined by the Fund: information continuity, care coordination and transitions, system accountability, teamwork, continuous innovation, and easy access

The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation: Transforming a Public Safety Net Delivery System to Achieve Higher Performance

Describes the results of the public benefit corporation's improvement initiatives -- a common clinical information system for continuity, coordination on chronic disease management, teamwork and continuous innovation, and access to appropriate care

Scott & White Healthcare: Opening Up and Embracing Change to Improve Performance

Offers a case study of a multispeciality system with the attributes of an ideal healthcare delivery system as defined by the Fund. Describes a culture of continuous improvement, collaboration and peer accountability, and a comprehensive approach to care

Geisinger Health System: Achieving the Potential of System Integration Through Innovation, Leadership, Measurement, and Incentives

Presents a case study of a physician-led nonprofit healthcare group exhibiting the attributes of an ideal healthcare delivery system as defined by the Fund. Describes how its ProvenCare model improved clinical outcomes with reduced resource utilization

HealthPartners: Consumer-Focused Mission and Collaborative Approach Support Ambitious Performance Improvement Agenda

Presents a case study of a nonprofit healthcare organization that exhibits the six attributes of an ideal healthcare delivery system as defined by the Fund, including information continuity, care coordination and transitions, and system accountability

Mayo Clinic: Multidisciplinary Teamwork, Physician-Led Governance, and Patient-Centered Culture Drive World-Class Health Care

Describes Fund-defined attributes of an ideal care delivery system, Mayo's model of multidisciplinary practice with salary-based compensation, and best practices, including a shared electronic health record and innovations to implement research quickly

The Impact of a Community based Exercise Program on Somali Immigrants Residing in Subsidized Housing in Minnesota

Purpose: The Somali immigrant population is a growing demographic in Minnesota. Although immigrants to the United States tend to be healthier upon arrival than the general population, their health deteriorates the longer they reside in the United States, with changes in diet and physical activity as contributing factors. This study explored the effects of a physical therapy student-led exercise program on Somali immigrants residing in Minnesota. Methods: Qualitative data were gathered using audiotaped focus group interviews. Eight female and five male Somali individuals were recruited from an existing exercise program within a subsidized housing complex in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A Somali interpreter provided translation services. Audiotapes were transcribed and data were coded using an inductive approach, with no predefined coding criteria or hypotheses, to generate categories from the raw interview data. Results: Six major themes were identified from the data. These include: physical effects; emotional effects; integration of cultures; barriers and facilitators of participation; differences in physical activity between Somalia and the United States; and transferability of the exercise program. Emotional effects and cultural integration, rather than physical effects of the exercise program were found to be the primary benefit in participants’ responses. Conclusion: The effects of participation in this student-led exercise program are consistent with findings from existing literature of programs designed for immigrant populations. This study adds to the existing literature by demonstrating the importance of connectedness between participants and group facilitators. Results and recommendations from this study can be utilized for future exercise programming initiatives with the immigrant Somali community in the United States

Objective estimation of tropical cyclone wind structure from infrared satellite data

Includes bibliographical references.Given the destructive nature of tropical cyclones, it is extremely important to provide quality estimates of intensity, as well as wind structure. The Dvorak technique, and an automated version, the Objective Dvorak Technique (ODT) use a method of identifying cloud characteristics from satellite images (visible and infrared), to provide estimates of current storm intensity. However, these IR techniques provide no information on the extent or location of damaging winds. Estimates of wind structure via alternate methods have significant disadvantages. Gathering data using aircraft is expensive; therefore storms are flown only if they are an immediate threat to the U.S. AMSU algorithms for estimating wind structure have proven successful, however the instruments fly aboard polar-orbiting satellites, which only pass over the tropics twice a day, and are not contiguous at or near the equator. It is apparent that an alternate method of estimating wind structure is necessary; one in which data coverage is continuous. While IR data has historically been used to estimate intensity, the goal of this research is to extend the use of IR data to estimate wind structure. Theoretically, there should be a solid relationship between deep convection and the extent of damaging winds. The database for this work includes aircraft reconnaissance data from 91 Atlantic and E. Pacific storms flown during the 1995-2003 seasons as ground truth, in combination with GOES IR imagery, and storm best track information. Using multiple linear regression techniques, with predictors derived from the IR data, a radius of maximum wind can be estimated, as well as, more accurately, the symmetric tangential winds at a radius of 200 km (size parameter). These estimated parameters are then fit to a modified combined Rankine vortex model to reconstruct the entire symmetric wind field. Given the storm motion vector, and researched relationships between storm motion and wind asymmetries, the asymmetric part of the wind field can be calculated and added to the symmetric part to provide an estimation of the entire tropical cyclone wind field.Funding for this research was primarily sponsored by CIRA Activities and Participation in GOES I-M Produce Assurance Plan under NOAA cooperative agreement NA17RJ1228. Further support was provided by Improvement in Deterministic and Probabilistic Tropical Cyclone Surface Wind Predictions under NOAA cooperative agreement NA17RJ1228

Metacognitive awareness for IL learning and growth: The development and validation of the Information Literacy Reflection Tool (ILRT)

This article describes the development and validation of the Information Literacy Reflection Tool (ILRT), a metacognitive self-assessment for use with undergraduate researchers. It was developed as a teaching and learning tool with the intent to help students recognize and engage the metacognitive domain as a step toward developing personal agency and self-regulation as lifelong, metaliterate learners. Throughout the scale development, three studies were conducted with nine expert reviewers and 44 community college students to consider content and face validity and 542 community college students as part of an item-reduction and construct validation effort. The resulting scale is most appropriately construed through a bifactor model and is made up of 57 items comprising a strong information literacy general factor and six specific factors modestly aligning with each of the threshold concepts outlined in the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. As a part of the ongoing development of this instrument, work is needed to more fully assess reliability and validity