Interviews: In the political melee don't forget the green corner...!

individual
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

group

Therapeutic alliance

"Sir Robin cited research conducted by two psychologists on interviews during the 1987 general election campaign. Dr Peter Bull and Kate Mayer found that Kinnock and Thatcher avoided more than half the questions put to them. They concluded the party leaders used 31 different forms of evasion, among them ignoring the question, acknowledging the question without answering, questioning the question, attacking the question, attacking the interviewer, declining to answer, giving an incomplete answer, repeating a previous answer and claiming already to have answered the question." FT Weekend. p.1

Source:
Katz, Ian, (2014) The death of the political interview. FT Weekend, Life & Arts, September 6-7th. p.1.

Technology Enhanced Learning: A Medical Student Conference, Belfast, 3rd October 2014

Abstract submissions are open for the Technology Enhanced Learning: A Medical Student Conference being held on Friday 3^rd October in Riddel Hall, Queen’s University, Stranmillis, Belfast. The team welcome abstracts reporting on innovations in technology enhanced learning within medical education. This could include the development of electronic materials as well as medical education research. Further details on abstract submissions including the categories and the types of presentation opportunities can be found on the QUB website.

Deadline for receipt of abstract submissions: Wednesday 17^th September.

Bookings are also open for this event through the Higher Education Academy’s website for students and educators to join the team in Belfast for a celebration of student engagement in the area of technology enhanced learning within medical education. The day will showcase student presentation poster presentations and demonstrations. In addition there will be a keynote from Jane Hart from the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies and a group discussion on the future of technology enhanced learning in medical education. Prizes will be awarded for best poster and best presentation.

For further information about the event please go to the QUB event page or contact Karen Murphy from the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences.

Compare and contrast potential - Energy for Change Index and Hodges' model

The biopsychosocial model is quite all encompassing used as it is to help explain and represent pain, explain human development and balance the physical excesses of psychiatry.

For all its scope the biopsychosocial model is two domains short of Hodges' model.

Hodges' model is dated though, a child of the mid-1980s. The biopsychosocial model predates Hodges' and as models of nursing have fallen out of favour in terms of the attention they receive the biopsychosocial is subjected to critique as per:

Ghaemi, S.N. (2009). The rise and fall of the biopsychosocial model. Br J Psychiatry.195(1):3–4.

Hatala, A.R. (2012). The status of the “biopsychosocial” model in health psychology: Towards an integrated approach and a critique of cultural conceptions. Open Journal of Medical Psychology, 1, 51-62. doi: 10.4236/ojmp.2021.14009

A cursory check reveals a diverse and current literature on the biopsychosocial model. If this is positive for the general role of 'models' in health and social care education and learning then there is another encouraging source in the five energies for change with its five domains, as per the figure:

The five energy domains

• Spiritual
• Social
• Physical
• Psychological
• Intellectual

There is clearly great similarity with Hodges' model although in h2cm the spiritual combines all the four domains of which the political also replaces the intellectual. I would equate the intellectual with the psychological, accepting of course the existence of individual and group psychologies. Being intellectual and becoming intellectual to the extent of an individual realising their potential has long been recognised as a political matter and consequence (Freire). As such the Political domain within Hodges' model is central to its relevance within the field of engagement and innovation and beyond.

Whilst the energy for change domains have a specific derivation and (instrumental) purpose I would suggest that a possible strength for Hodges' might lie in the notion (which it is) that there is an underlying conceptual structure from which the domains arise. This structure might support the model's application in time, as well as assuring its longevity and the stamina of its champion.


My prompt: Land, M., et al. (2014) Pedal to the metal to improve the NHS. HSJ, 124, 6389, 26-27.

Image: (please see title and image link)

NW England: Greater Manchester AHSN Hackathon 'Young Carers'

Date: Thursday 31st July

Time: 8.30 – 17.00

Lunch and refreshments will be provided


On the 31st July GM AHSN invite you to an all-day hackathon focussed on developing solutions that can make a difference to the lives of young carers.

There are currently over 700,000 carers in the UK. In the addition to the difficulties of caring for a sick relative, many are placed at a disadvantage in terms of their academic and social lives. The hackathon is your opportunity to make an impact, test your skills and work collaboratively to help develop solutions to this often overlooked social problem. The event is open to everybody, regardless of experience, though we’re particularly looking for:

• Carers and anybody with experience of the challenges faced
• Software developers
• Web developers
• Designers/ UX experts
• Health and social care professionals
• Marketers
• Project managers
• Researcher
• Coders

The GM AHSN has worked with young carers to identify key challenge areas in:

• Support for epilepsy
• Alert systems for schools and offices
• Time management for young carers
• Social Networking for young carers

(Click here for more info on challenges)
The hackathon will bring together all the right people to help develop your idea in super quick time: You can meet and work with people with skills and experience from the healthcare and technology industries, all with the common goal of wanting to make a difference. The event will be attended by a group of young carers from the Manchester based charity Family Action, who will be acting as mentors and contributing to the development of your concepts.

Prizes

As a prize, the winning team will be rewarded with a day of free consultancy from Inventya, to help develop and commercialise your idea. Inventya is a science and technology commercialisation consultancy with an 80% success rate in helping early stage companies win funding for R&D and technology product development.


If you’d like more information, please contact sarah.dougan AT gmahsn.org

My source: @Stefan
 
[ I can't make it :( ]

Gender models role models and cognitive models... Discuss?

As a male nurse I have been aware of gender throughout my career ever since my student days (late 1970s-early 80s) - mental health - and then as a student again for two years general nurse training. The cultural, professional and global changes over the past three decades and more have been quite profound all influencing the perspectives and realities of gender in nursing today.

Since 1987-88, when I discovered Hodges' model I was also bound to wonder about gender in terms of:

• the number of male nurse theorists and their contribution (should this matter!)?; 
• other male nurse theorists globally and the influence of other cultural perspectives;
• the need to consider gender of course in terms of 'standpoint' within research;
• Is Hodges' model gender biased as its structure and basis comprised of categories of care concepts is a very masculine activity? (Even though the intention in identifying the boxes is to transcend and integrate them.) Please see below (and no pun intended).
• Therefore nursing (still primarily a female profession) may ignore/discredit the potential of the model?

Possibly, the stand-out feature of Hodges' model is its invitation to categorise and typify. There could be gender-based consequences in how the model is perceived and received, which in turn could affect interest and participation in research on this subject? In designing studies of the model the feminist standpoint might be useful?:

“What, then, about the further charge that making clear-cut classifications of this kind is a very masculine thing to do? … It reaches its peak in empirical science as we know it, itself a very male affair, and it embodies the desire to have control of things and to know what is likely to happen. It issues in the kind of binary opposites we have found feminists, especially postmodernist feminists, decrying so vigorously-antimonies such as thought/language, nature/culture, reason/emotion, theory/practice, white/black, and especially men/women.” Crotty, (1998) p.171.

Crotty, M. (1998) The Foundations of Social Research: Meaning and Perspective in the Research Process. SAGE Publications Ltd.

This post was prompted by an item on GANM (Global Alliance for Nursing and Midwifery)

Slides: Workshop on Hodges' model at 5th Threshold Concepts Conference Durham 11 July 2014

See also previous post:

http://hodges-model.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/h2cm-workshop-at-threshold-concepts.html

H2CM workshop at Threshold Concepts Conference 11th July 2014 Durham

Prior to the workshop I did not know how many people would be interested. In the end I had four attendees. With the session located in a large dining hall I had to improvise. I explained the model on paper sat in the middle. The presentation worked on the laptop, with a little swapping of seats for vision. As always with Hodges' model (I believe) the questions and discussion that ensues is primary engagement and this can mitigate environmental limitations. This is also why I believe Hodges' model is applicable to the global community.

I had twenty 2-sided A4 templates to hand-out. The format was as follows:

• What is Hodges’ model?
• A concept sorting exercise
• A case study exercise
• Some examples of links to threshold concepts
• Q & A - discussion
• Feedback

The exercises appeared to go very well, prompting, as hoped, people to think about the model as presented, their own work and threshold concepts. The case study seemed quite realistic and yet it is of course fictional.

Where did I slip up? In at least three ways: I did not have my own feedback form. This is frustrating as I've used these routinely in sessions delivered in residential and nursing homes. I did not complete all the slides. We ran for 85 minutes starting 5 minutes later than intended. On reflection I could have attended for the two days as there were, some really relevant presentations on the Thursday also. I'm really grateful to the people who took part in the workshop. Their work included computer science, law, migration and mathematics.

Durham from TC2014 website

They suggested I identify existing threshold concepts from the health and social care literature and relate these to Hodges' model. Another suggestion pointed to a pre-populated conceptual space using Hodges' model that can act a guide. I've wondered about this before in terms of how to avoid the care reduced to a checklist critique. Although lists play an evidence-based role in assuring safety and situational awareness, the check box mentality is viewed as undermining nursing and high quality personalised care? There is definitely scope for a paper combining #h2cm and threshold concepts.

The TEL course at Lancaster is proving a challenge as anticipated, because I do not have first-hand access to learning management systems and the more formal educational context. I am working on this with an ongoing secondment application, but I never hold my breath.  Doing the TEL course is (also) a test, it forces me to focus and produce small studies and very quickly too. I had wondered about using the workshop to this end, but in light of very helpful supervision and discussion with peers online I directed attention to a semi-structured questionnaire and the reflective content of LMSs used by local students.

Significantly, the four participants in Durham is more than needed for a 4000 word study, so the workshop is a great experience and further 'demonstrator'.

I am still reflecting on the workshop and will be in touch with several people as a result. I would also like to thank the organisers for my being able to contribute. The slides will also be posted online soon. I will add some notes to act as instructions.

In 2016 the conference will be in Nova Scotia, when available I will add the updated link in the sidebar.

For portals, speak patients' language ( c/o Healthcare IT News )

Mike Miliard's 

For portals, speak patients' language 

in Healthcare IT News is a reminder of accessibility and engagement at the level of a communities languages.

This is one of the reasons why I am committed to using Drupal, to try to make use of its Internationalization capabilities amongst others. 

Thanks to Mike's post I'm now familiar with a 'full court press' as a hospital - enterprise wide no less - seeks to achieve defined patient engagement levels by accessing their electronic health record.

This begs the question of what constitutes the patients' language? I don't just mean the purely linguistic forms of Chinese, Korean, Russian and Greek mentioned in the article. The effort is driven by the statutory demands of meaningful use, but what of the patient's general literacy, IT and health literacies? How do patients make sense of their own health (or another in the role of a carer) not just in a given language, but culturally from a medical sociological and public health perspective? What is the community's vocabulary when it comes to health?

How can we assure that meaningfulness? How can we affirm that use and critically translate use into patient benefits and self-efficacy?

You could also entitle Mike's article as

4 portals speak patients' language

individual

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

group

Health Literacy, Accessibility	Measures (health literacy, patient engagement, health and well-being, clinical outcomes)
Cultural Diversity, Languages, Carer	Internationalization 'Meaningful Use', Standards, Legislation, Policy

When we focus on languages we must remember that listening is a great gift. Whether as health and IT professionals, educators, patients and carers, listening to the care domains can help us integrate diverse social, clinical, policy and technical objectives.

What do these portals say to you?

Mike Miliard twitter

From: Slow is beautiful (Bloomstein, net, July 2014)

The quotes below are from a one page article in the July issue of net magazine. The message is that while efficiency in online experiences is critical especially in ecommerce and business there is still a place for 'slow' and content that asks questions (I hope so):

"Second thoughts undermine efficient ecommerce experiences. But if we only value efficiency, we ignore opportunities for learning and validation that characterise effective, less transactional experiences.

... (How several brands - "Foster Good Decisions")

DESIGN FOR QUESTIONS

These content types and design patterns aren't necessarily the fastest way for users to complete transactions. Instead, they help users engage with purchases with greater confidence, satisfaction and certainty. When content pushes us to weigh options and wrestle with difficult concepts, it pushes us to ask questions - and place greater weight on their answers."

It does not take a giant leap of imagination to consider this in health and social care contexts?

Margot Bloomstein, .net, July 2014, Issue 255, p. 42.

From local field to global arena: the rough and tumble of conceptual sport

Jo hit the deck. it was a foul tackle, an apt description for a move that Jo did not see coming.

Talk about a change of perspective!! Sheesh! Was it bone crunching, did I hear something?

It could have been worse. At least the ground knows it’s March and not January.

There was no anticipation, no reflex adjustment, no ability to shift, just in time, no poetry in motion this time.

The coach and physio dashed on to the field. Jo looked up and said “OK, tell me straight, what’s the damage?”

Coach looked down. "Well you're talking that's a start." Assessing rapidly though and through gritted teeth he replied:

“It’s not looking good Jo.”
“Wha?

[Silence]

Oh come on tell me…”

“Well, kid it’s bad, yes, really bad.

You’ve got an academic detachment.”

Jo groaned, "Oh no, not that! What about the future!!"

<->

OK, sorry about that and I do realise that a great many world class athletes are very well educated people.

The tendency of young and promising athletes to relinquish contact with their academic side and really be the best they can be - remains a challenge for some, but this post concerns academic detachment as in - educational institutions and students with the world.

Call it a paradox, a contradiction in this hyper-connected world, what with gap years, travel opportunities.... that there seem so many examples of a lack of awareness of the bigger picture that is the international stage. Not just in students, in education, but the wider citizenry.

Does this matter. Well it does, at least according to the 2012 Conference of The Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA) which included:

Academic detachment is not an option in the 21st Century

on the theme “Building a Secure World through International Education.”

The point I’d like to make is that Hodges’ model is fit to assist in some of the objectives that the AIEA outlines in this context:

Keynote speaker Abiodan Williams, Senior Vice ‐ President of the US Institute for Peace, offered remarks at the opening plenary. Mr. Williams said that his own international education began with post ‐ secondary level study at the Lester B. Pearson College, United World College of the Pacific, in Victoria, BC. To develop graduates committed to peace and security, he urged educational institutions to teach:

• Knowledge – including greater interdisciplinarity and learning about conflict prevention
• International outlook – to shape the attitudes and outlook of a new generation, encourage all students to spend at least six months studying abroad, learn at least one new language and take at least one course about another country
• Sensibility – alluding to Fielding’s definition of ‘good nature’, developing people of benevolent and amiable temper of mind, who sympathize with the problems of others and who enjoy the happiness of others

“Academic detachment from the world is not an option in the 21st Century,” he said. Globalization is here to stay, and international education is playing a key role in contributing positive answers to many of the challenges that it presents.

Many institutions are actively engaged in programs that further environmental and energy sustainability, broader access to health care and education, resolution of conflicts, pursuit of fundamental human rights, economic development, and greater cross‐cultural understanding around the world. Harnessing the collective effort, and lessons learned, from each of these individual initiatives is important in moving internationalization forward. [AIEA conference website]

With thanks to Katy Rosenbaum:

27 March 2014:
Good morning,
Thank you for your email. I will check with my colleagues to see if they have any suggestions for someone who might be able to provide more information on work within this theme, and if they have any insights on this, I will certainly forward these on to you.
In the meantime, all conference session materials that presenters made available to download are available at the link below. The zip files include multiple presentations and handouts; underneath are links to these materials hosted on other websites: http://www.aieaworld.org/2012-conference#Presentations
The article you referred to mentioned Abiodan Williams' keynote address, which is available here: http://www.aieaworld.org/assets/docs/Conference_Materials/2012/abiodunwilliamsspeech2012.pdf
Thank you for your interest; I hope this information is useful. If my colleagues have other suggestions, I will certainly pass them on.

Best,
Katy Rosenbaum
Program Associate - AIEA
Association of International Education Administrators
www.aieaworld.org
kathryn.rosenbaum AT duke.edu

Additional link:
http://www.ruthnestvold.com/tomjones.htm
Thanks Dad.

Student engagement survey UK pilot – Year 2: HEA

Forwarded from the HEA

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) was designed to measure students’ participation in activities and practices that are known to relate to improvements in learning. It asks about the amount and quality of effort that students invest in their studies, as well as the extent to which their courses and institutions are supportive and encouraging. It was developed and first used in North America in 2000, and has now been adapted and implemented in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Ireland.

In early 2013, nine UK institutions piloted a range of survey questions derived from NSSE. The questions were focused on four key areas:

• Critical thinking. Four questions asked students about the emphasis their coursework placed on a range of mental activities such as evaluating and applying information.

• Course challenge. Three questions focused on how their courses have encouraged them to work hard.

• Collaborative learning. Three questions asked students how often they had interacted with other students in a range of ways.

• Academic integration. Five questions explored students’ interaction with academic staff, participation in class and discussions with others outside class.

8500 students responded, and the report of the first year of the pilot will be published on 6 November 2013 and will be available at www.heacademy.ac.uk/surveys. The report contains analysis of the results, as well as findings from interviews with students about the questions used.

In order to allow more institutions to take part in this project, and to collect more data for research purposes, the project will run again in spring/summer 2014.

Participation in this project allows institutions to ask students about the extent to which they are investing effort in their studies, to identify areas where more encouragement and opportunities to engage may be required. Institutions will be able to benchmark their own results against the aggregate UK results, both at institutional and subject level, to better understand their students’ engagement.

For full information on the pilot and how to be involved, along with all related documentation please see our website at http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/detail/engagement_survey/pilot_call_2014

Kind Regards

Celia

Dr Celia R Brigg

Academic Lead (Business Development)

 celia.brigg at heacademy.ac.uk

The Higher Education Academy, Innovation Way, York Science Park, Heslington, York, YO10 5BR

www.heacademy.ac.uk – Twitter @HEAcademy

Infostandards.org: HSCIC supports the information standards community

Dear Peter,

You may have seen the publicity this week regarding the launch of a new website, www.infostandards.org, developed by the Health and Social Care Information Centre, working with the Department of Health, NHS England and other commissioning partners.

Infostandsards.org has been developed to support information standards professionals across health and social care. The site provides a single place where all information standards can be located, along with valuable supporting material, such as e-learning, implementation guidance and case studies. It also enables users of the site to become active participants in the development and appraisal of standards, by providing the means to share material, draw on each others’ experiences and engage in discussions about existing and potential future standards.

TRUD is pleased to support this new venture and recognises the importance of engaging with information standards professionals across health and social care. The site provides a single place where all information standards can be accessed, along with valuable supporting materials, such as e-learning, implementation guidance and case studies. It also enables users of the site to share material, draw on each other’s experiences and engage in discussions about existing and potential future standards, collections and extractions.

The site’s scope and design will evolve continually to meet the needs and preferences of the community, so we encourage you to become active users and help shape its future development. It is the intention that the site will be an integral part of the assurance process for information standards and collections, details of which will be made available on the site in due course.

Dr Ken Lunn, Director of Information Standards Delivery, said:

"We have supported the creation of the infostandards.org website because openness and increased engagement with end users can only improve the development, delivery and adoption of effective information standards. Standards are essential to the delivery of improved, digitally enabled health and care services and by collaborating with the wider community we can tackle together the challenges we all face. I look forward to seeing how the site will be used by the community."

In support of implementation of the NHS dictionary of medicines and devices (dm+d) the Pharmacy Terminology team are currently updating some of the dm+d implementation guidance. Following feedback from the community a starter guide to dm+d providing an overview of dm+d, an explanation of the Standard, how it relates to the SNOMED CT UK Drug Extension and some fundamentals on content, structure and the release itself has been drafted and is available for comment on infostandards.org.

http://www.infostandards.org/topic/prescribing/dmd-draft-user-guide-available-for-review

The guidance is not currently ready for formal consultation but we would value your input at this juncture to see if the contents are useful and useable.

Questions about www.infostandards.org can be sent to info.standards AT hscic.gov.uk and via twitter where you can follow us @infostandards

Regards

The TRUD support team
Health and Social Care Information Centre

Health 2.0 Europe 2013: Nurses, registration and £££

This year I've really enjoyed the Health 2.0 Manchester chapter meetings and there's some great evening sessions to follow this northern autumn. In June as I posted on W2tQ I also spent a weekend at the NW Health Hack in Knutsford. 

For several months European Health 2.0 conference has been publicized at the Manchester meetings. I was keen to attend until I saw the registration fee even with a 15% reduction. The fee increased yesterday too as I was reminded by Pascal Lardier on twitter:

@pascal_lardier 19 Sep
Today is the last day to pay less for your ticket to @Health2eu Register here: http://www.health2con.com/events/health-2-0-europe-2013-registration/ … #health2con #nhssm #hcsmeu

I retweeted the above and replied to Pascal and Health2eu, telling them what they already know - Health 2.0 rocks! but adding that I thought few nurses would be able to afford the registration fee.

NW Health Hack was a success for me (in addition to our group coming 3rd) because it was free, apart that is from driving there over the weekend on my days off (thanks again to all the sponsors). As the NHS is trying to save money I've also taken some unpaid leave this year.

NHS nurses, like many public sector groups have effectively had a pay cut these past few years. There are other general challenges:

• Are those nurses who might attend already 'onboard'?
• Does nursing engagement itself need a health check (what is 'clinical engagement' now)?
• Much was made of achieving clinical engagement in previous NHS IT projects. How can clinical engagement that reaches nurses be assured now?
• If (technical) innovation is to be a constant stream, please don't leave the nurses on an island: they can set sail too.
• Are nurses, like the one writing this, tainted, having been sat on the fence (health care || ICT) for too long?
• Once projects are established how can nurses, patients and carers stay the course and keep in touch and engaged?
• As 'NHS clinicians' can nurses participate in initiatives such as the forthcoming Code4Health, or will operational constraints limit their involvement?
• How are the socio-technical aspects and outcomes measured (hospital vs. home personal use vs. self-care...) ?
• Is there a golden ratio for the mix of delegates?
• If there's a strategic partner involved where's the strategy?

Pascal sliced through my query and many of the points above:

Pascal Lardier ‏@pascal_lardier 19 Sep
- then they should reach out to me!

So if the World Wide Health 2.0 conferences are of interest to you, do as Pascal suggests. New communities can provide new opportunities. Don't just help make your day, help make tomorrow too.

In 2012 the NHS employed 146,075 doctors, 369,868 qualified nursing staff, and 37,314 managers. 
http://www.nhsconfed.org/priorities/political-engagement/Pages/NHS-statistics.aspx#staff

Additional notes 29 Sept:

Health 2.0 MCR ‏@H20MCR

@h2cm patients are also asking how can @Health2eu Health 2.0 Europe conference be made more accessible for them @pascal_lardier?

Pascal Lardier ‏@pascal_lardier

@H20MCR @h2cm @Health2eu @pascal_lardier they should email me pascal AT health2con.com there is a FREE reg code for them.

'Pictures to Share' book titles for people with later stage dementia

Hi

I am contacting you as one of our LinkedIn colleagues working in the field of dementia. One of our 'Pictures to Share' book titles for people with later stage dementia has been shortlisted for the UK 'People's Book Prize'

By winning this award we can help to to raise awareness of the needs of people with dementia, so it would be great if you could take a look at the People's Book Prize website, and consider voting for our book 'Proverbs and Sayings'.

The link is below:

http://www.peoplesbookprize.com/book.php?id=982

Many thanks for your help

Helen Bate and Michelle Forster
http://www.picturestoshare.co.uk/

[I will register and vote Michelle - good luck PJ ]

IMIA NI/TermSum - Workshop 3 July: ISO standards for Nursing Terminologies and for Continuity of Care

Please forward this message via to your own lists, networks and contacts. It is particularly relevant to those with an interest in healthcare standards, technical aspects of informatics, standardised terminologies, health records, etc.

As part of the Terminology Summit transition, the IMIA NI Healthcare Standards Working Group is hosting a series of on-line workshops to further the valuable work of the Summit in providing strategic direction to nursing informatics, with a particular focus on supporting the management of nursing information.

The first workshop was led by William Goossen who provided an overview of HL7 standards and the implications for nursing as a stimulus for discussion.

The second workshop will be led by Anne Casey who will provide an overview of two important ISO standards for nursing terminologies and for continuity of care. 

The second workshop will be held via GoToMeeting on 3 July 2013 at 19.00 UTC/GMT.

For joining instructions please contact Nick (or myself).

We look forward to seeing you online.

Access to GoToMeeting has been provided kindly by eHealth Education: www.ehe.edu.au.

With best wishes
Nick
Nick Hardiker RN PhD
Professor of Nursing and Health Informatics | Associate Head (Research & Innovation)
School of Nursing Midwifery & Social Work
MS2.29, Mary Seacole Building, University of Salford, Salford  M5 4WT
n.r.hardiker at salford.ac.uk | www.salford.ac.uk
www.seek.salford.ac.uk/profiles/HARDIKER514.jsp

Scaling Up mHealth: Where Is the Evidence? PLoS Med essay (c/o HIFA2015)

Dear HIFA members,

An essay in the open-access journal PLoS Medicine discusses the evidence base for mHealth and makes recommendations for scale-up. Below is the citation, summary points, selected extracts and recommendations for scale-up. The full text is available here:
http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1001382

Best wishes,
Neil Pakenham-Walsh
HIFA moderator
[ HIFA2015: Healthcare Information For All by 2015 ]

CITATION: Tomlinson M, Rotheram-Borus MJ, Swartz L, Tsai AC (2013) Scaling Up mHealth: Where Is the Evidence? PLoS Med 10(2): e1001382. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001382

SUMMARY POINTS
- Despite hundreds of mHealth pilot studies, there has been insufficient programmatic evidence to inform implementation and scale-up of mHealth.
- We discuss what constitutes appropriate research evidence to inform scale up.
- Potential innovative research designs such as multi-factorial strategies, randomized controlled trials, and data farming may provide this evidence base.
- We make a number of recommendations about evidence, interoperability, and the role of governments, private enterprise, and researchers in relation to the scale up of mHealth.

SELECTED EXTRACTS:
'A recent World Bank report tracked more than 500 mHealth studies, and many donor agencies are lining up to support the 'scaling up' of mHealth interventions [7]. Yet, after completion of these 500 pilot studies, we know almost nothing about the likely uptake, best strategies for engagement, efficacy, or effectiveness of these initiatives...  mHealth is in a period very similar to the early days of the Internet: not creating robust, interoperable platforms will ensure failure for mHealth initiatives to be scaled to improve health outcomes for at least the next decade.'

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SCALE UP OF MHEALTH
- Existing standards for research should be reconsidered in order to provide guidance as to when scale up is appropriate.
- mHealth interventions should be guided by a plausible theory of behaviour change and should use more than one technique depending on the targeted behaviour [38].
- We need to establish an open mHealth architecture based on a robust platform with standards for app development which would facilitate scalable and sustainable health information systems.
- Implementation strategies such as factorial designs that are able to test the multiple features of interventions must be explored, in order to provide the necessary evidence base.
- Scale-up of mHealth in LAMICs should be preceded by efficacy and effectiveness trials so that they are founded on an appropriate evidence base.
Governments, funders, and industry must cooperate in order to set standards to create a self-governing commercially viable ecosystem for innovation.

Journal Special Issue on the Politics of Recovery and Resilience

 

Hi friends and colleagues: 

 

I'm sending forward the open link to a special issue of Studies in Social Justice on the Politics of Recovery and Resilience in Mental Health Care. Some of you helped Alison Howell ad I through the process of co-editing this special issue (thanks!), and for others this might be of use in you scholarship and teaching. The issue offers a variety of critiques on how the recovery model, participation, and resilience are being taken up in practice, as well as some modes of resistance.  My hope is that this issue will compliment the work that you are all already undertaking. Here's the link:

 

http://ojs.uwindsor.ca/ojs/leddy/index.php/ssj

 

Please feel free to circulate to your networks, thanks for you ongoing work & support and -- 

Happy new year! 

Jijian Voronka

 

My source: MHHE list

My coat, Your coat, the Community cloakroom

'Untitled' 2012 (coats, wire, screws), by Jannis Kounellis

"Such wall-mounted three-dimensional pieces seem to me to talk the language of painting rather than sculpture. So does a massive, poignantly flopping black cross created from several navy coats tied together with wire and screws, hung against a wall. Each coat is a human measure, a stand-in for a human presence." p.20.

Wullschlager, J. (2012) Arts: Beauty in a burlap sack, Financial Times, 8-9 December. p. 20.




Bunzl, J. (2001) writes:

"Expressed in terms of a community-building process, we could thus identify the entity of the nation state as representing the equivalent of the individual person: the prime agent through which community or chaos in the world will ultimately be determined." p.20.

Additional link:
Parasol unit (Jannis Kounellis exhibition)

Bunzl, J. (2001) The Simultaneous Policy – An Insider’s Guide to Saving Humanity and the Planet. New European Publications.
Image source:
Wullschlager, J. (2012) Arts: Beauty in a burlap sack, Financial Times, 8-9 December. p. 20.

International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

The 16 days ends on International Human Rights Day (December 10).

Image source email from: http://www.usaid.gov/

Slides from IPH Conference Belfast 11 Oct 2012

Here are the slides from the IPH Open Conference in Belfast. There were several very helpful questions from the floor. With fifteen minutes for the presentation and ten for questions, the 23 slides were ambitious but they were delivered in the allotted time. Many aspects could be developed further and emphasized. In particular the way that public health policy and practice has switched from needs based approaches to assets. This also reflects the trend in self-care and the recovery model in mental health. (I have added needs-assets to one slide.)

If any public health - public mental health practitioners are interested in exploring the possibilities then please get in touch. After several presentations the issue here is to extend this work so as to be able to test and apply existing and found knowledge to say something new... 

A Framework to facilitate Integrated Public Health from Peter Jones

I greatly appreciate the votes received for the abstract, the organisers for what was a free event to attendees, and the support and hospitality of Prof. Kernohan. 

Additional link: The Health Well