School of Medicine

What are the benefits and drawbacks of integrating social media into higher education and, specifically, graduate medical and health education? In order to explore the answer to this question we conducted a literature search and introduced social media into a course at Tufts University School of Medicine. We report on student surveys that were designed to uncover students’ expectations for, knowledge of, and comfort with social media. Student feedback was overwhelmingly positive when asked about the benefits to learning about social media in an academic setting, which was one of the key questions we sought to answer. We also provide an assessment of social media’s potential from the perspectives of students, faculty, administrators, and people outside the institution.

What are the benefits and drawbacks of integrating social media into higher education and, specifically, graduate medical and health education? In order to explore the answer to this question we conducted a literature search and introduced social media into a course at Tufts University School of Medicine. We report on student surveys that were designed to uncover students’ expectations for, knowledge of, and comfort with social media. Student feedback was overwhelmingly positive when asked about the benefits to learning about social media in an academic setting, which was one of the key questions we sought to answer. We also provide an assessment of social media’s potential from the perspectives of students, faculty, administrators, and people outside the institution.

Background Uptake and completion of the HPV vaccine is suboptimal. This study assessed the feasibility of implementing a one-month Twitter campaign to promote knowledge about the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine among low-income women living in public housing. Methods We recruited a convenience sample (n = 35) of women ages 18–26 years residing in low-come, public housing in Massachusetts. We assessed the feasibility and acceptability of a communication campaign that consisted of daily Twitter messages. Online surveys assessed changes in HPV knowledge, attitudes, and vaccine intentions before and after the campaign. Results Most believed that Twitter was an acceptable educational strategy and remained engaged with the campaign throughout the intervention. We observed no changes in HPV knowledge, perceived benefits of or barriers to vaccination, decision self-efficacy, or vaccine intentions after the campaign, although perceived risk for cervical cancer decreased. Conclusions Twitt...

Background Uptake and completion of the HPV vaccine is suboptimal. This study assessed the feasibility of implementing a one-month Twitter campaign to promote knowledge about the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine among low-income women living in public housing. Methods We recruited a convenience sample (n = 35) of women ages 18–26 years residing in low-come, public housing in Massachusetts. We assessed the feasibility and acceptability of a communication campaign that consisted of daily Twitter messages. Online surveys assessed changes in HPV knowledge, attitudes, and vaccine intentions before and after the campaign. Results Most believed that Twitter was an acceptable educational strategy and remained engaged with the campaign throughout the intervention. We observed no changes in HPV knowledge, perceived benefits of or barriers to vaccination, decision self-efficacy, or vaccine intentions after the campaign, although perceived risk for cervical cancer decreased. Conclusions Twitt...

Erlbaum Associates, 2004). We appreciate LEA's permission to include it here. Commonly used terms delineate a subset of distance education. Synchronous e-learning encompasses same-time interaction independent of location, while asynchronous e-learning includes any situation where learners are dispersed in time and location. Most distance learning is actually blended learning, which refers to a mix of synchronous, asynchronous, and classroom. One of the challenges in planning effective distance education is selecting the appropriate mix of synchronous, asynchronous, and classroom activities, as well as determining the role of teachers and peers. There is a considerable range in the sophistication, quality, cost, and development time of distance education curricula. At the same time, outside of the confines of the classroom, there is the opportunity to rethink and redefine learning activities, materials, and courses.

Background: Social media is rapidly changing how cancer survivors search for and share health information and can potentially serve as a cost-effective channel to reach cancer survivors and invite them to participate in nutrition intervention programs. Objective: This study aimed to assess the feasibility of using Twitter to recruit cancer survivors for a web-based survey and assess their willingness to complete web-based nutrition surveys, donate biospecimens, and to be contacted about web-based nutrition programs. Methods: We contacted 301 Twitter accounts of cancer organizations, advocates, and survivors to request assistance promoting a web-based survey among cancer survivors. The survey asked respondents whether they would be willing to complete web-based nutrition or lifestyle surveys, donate biospecimens, and be contacted about web-based nutrition programs. Survey promotion rate was assessed by the percentage of Twitter accounts that tweeted the survey link at least once. Survey response was assessed by the number of survey respondents who answered at least 85% (26/30). We compared the characteristics of cancer survivors who responded to this survey with those who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999-2010 and evaluated factors associated with willingness to complete web-based surveys, donate biospecimens, and be contacted to participate in web-based nutrition programs among those who responded to the social media survey. Results: Over 10 weeks, 113 Twitter account owners and 165 of their followers promoted the survey, and 444 cancer survivors provided complete responses. Two-thirds of respondents indicated that they would be willing to complete web-based nutrition or lifestyle surveys (297/444, 67.0%) and to be contacted to participate in web-based nutrition interventions (294/444, 66.2%). The percentage of respondents willing to donate biospecimens were 59.3% (263/444) for oral swab, 52.1% (231/444) for urine sample, 37.9% (168/444) for blood sample, and 35.6% (158/444) for stool sample. Compared with a nationally representative sample of 1550 cancer survivors in NHANES, those who responded to the social media survey were younger (53.1 years vs 60.8 years; P<.001), more likely to be female (93.9% [417/444] vs 58.7% [909/1550]; P<.001), non-Hispanic whites (85.4% [379/444] vs 64.0% [992/1550]; P<.001), to have completed college or graduate school (30.1 [133/444] vs 19.9% [308/444]; P<.001), and to be within 5 years of their initial diagnosis (55.2% [244/444] vs 34.1% [528/1550]; P<.001). Survivors younger than 45 years, female, and non-Hispanic whites were more willing to complete web-based nutrition surveys than older (65+ years), male, and

The pervasiveness of online mis/disinformation escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic. To address the proliferation of online mis/disinformation, it is critical to build safety into the tools older adults use to seek health information. On average, older adult populations demonstrate disproportionate susceptibility to false messages under the guise of informative authority and were the most engaged with false information about COVID-19 across online platforms when compared to other age-groups. In a design-thinking challenge posed by AARP to graduate students in a Digital Health course at Tufts University School of Medicine, students leveraged existing solutions to develop a health information platform that is responsive to both passive and active health information-seeking methods utilized by older adults in the United States. This paper details the design-thinking process employed, results of primary research, an overview of the prototyped platform, and insights relating to the design of effective health information-seeking platforms for older adults.

In this presentation we describe the development of a distributed teamwork skills training program for co-located or distributed teams performing complex, highly interdependent tasks that require overlapping expertise and shared knowledge, flexibility, and the capability for rapid organization and deployment to respond quickly to a changing situation. Our goal is to develop and demonstrate a training approach that uses advanced distance learning technology to provide portable training to small, flexible, quickly reconfigured, rapidly deployed military teams. The program is a web-enabled, scenario-based teamwork skills training program comprised of: information about and examples of teamwork skills; scenario-based training exercises that provide practice in teamwork skills; guidelines for team-conducted exercise debriefings that do not require the presence of a training instructor; and a leader's manual that helps team leaders to conduct web-based training sessions. The version we are currently developing is focused on physicians under training (fellows and residents) working in an academic trauma center. Training Teamwork in a Distributed Environment Over the past 15 years, there has been a significant research focus on team performance, resulting in the development of team-level models. At the core of these models is the identification of two sets of behaviors within a team. One set, taskwork, refers to the execution of mission tasks, while the second, teamwork, contains behaviors necessary to perform within a team (Salas, et. al., 1992). Because team performance is comprised of both individual and team skills, team performance enhancement requires that team members be trained in teamwork slulls (Salas, Cannon-Bowers, and Blickensderfer, 1997). Therefore, team training must encompass teamwork as well as taskwork skills.

Online health communities provide a means for patients and their families to learn about an illness, seek and offer support, and connect with others in similar circumstances. They are supported by a variety of technologies (e.g., email lists, forums, chat rooms) and are hosted by patients, advocacy groups, medical organizations, and corporations. They raise difficult design challenges because of the wide variability of members' medical expertise, the severity of problems due to misinformation, and the need for emotional support. The importance of on-line health communities is evidenced by their popularity, as well as the significant impact they have on the lives of their members. This Special Interest Group (SIG) will explore current trends in online health communities, as well as discuss the socio-technical design challenges and opportunities that they afford.

Even when older adults monitor hypertension at home, it is difficult to understand trends and share them with their providers. MyHealthNetwork is a dashboard designed for patients and providers to monitor blood pressure readings to detect hypertension and ultimately warning signs of changes in brain health. A multidisciplinary group in a Digital Health course at Tufts University School of Medicine used Design Thinking to formulate a digital solution to promote brain health among older adults in the United States (US). Older adults (aged 65 and over) are a growing population in the US, with many having one or more chronic health conditions including hypertension. Nearly half of all American adults ages 50-64 worry about memory loss as they age and almost all (90%) wish to maintain independence and age in their homes. Given the well-studied association between hypertension and dementia, we designed a solution that would ultimately promote brain health among older adults by allowing th...

This paper explores how wikis may be used to support primary education students' collaborative interaction and how this such an interaction process can be characterised. The overall aim of this study was is to analyse the collaborative processes of students working together in a wiki environment, to be able to unfoldin order to see how primary students can actively create a shared context for learning in the wiki. Educational literature has already reported that wikis may support collaborative knowledge-construction processes, but in our study, we claim that a dialogic perspective is also needed to accomplish this. Students are requiredmust to develop an intersubjective orientation towards each other participants' perspectives, to be able to co-construct knowledge about a topic. For this purpose, the our project utilised a '"Thinking Together'"type approach to help students to develop an intersubjective orientation towards one another and to support the creation of a 'dialogic space' to coconstruct new understanding in a wiki science project. The students' asynchronous interaction process in a primary classroom ,-which led to the creation of a science text in the wiki-, was analysed and characterised, using a dialogic approach to the study of Computer-Supported Collaborative LearningCSCL practices. Our results illustrate how the 'Thinking Together' approach became embedded within the wiki environment and in the students' collaborative processes. We would argue that a dialogic approach for examining interaction can be used to help to design more effective pedagogic approaches related to the use of wikis in education and to equip learners with the competences they need to participate in the global knowledgeconstruction era.

How might clinicians collect the vitals needed for effective scheduled video visits for older adults? This challenge was presented by AARP to graduate students in a Digital Health course at Tufts University School of Medicine. The design thinking process was used to create a product that would meet this need, keeping the needs and constraints of older adults, especially those with chronic conditions or other barriers to health, central to the solution. The initial steps involved understanding and empathizing with the target audience through interviews and by developing personas and scenarios that identified barriers and opportunities. The later steps were to ideate potential solutions, design a prototype, and define product success. The design thinking process led to the design of Home Health Hub, a remote patient monitoring (RPM) platform designed to meet the unique needs of older adults. Additionally, Home Health Hub can conceivably benefit all users of telehealth, regardless of h...

BackgroundOver 50% of U.S. adults do not take their prescriptions as prescribed, which is responsible for 33% to 69% of hospital admissions and 125,000 deaths annually. Given the higher prevalence of prescription drug use among older adult populations, increasing medication adherence is of particular importance with this age group. Two speculated facilitators of medication adherence are home medication storage location and the use of digital health devices.ObjectiveOur objective was to use survey data to investigate the associations between medication storage location and medication adherence among adults 40 years and older. Additionally, we aimed to report preliminary findings about the associations between use of digital health devices and medication adherence in this same population.MethodsWe conducted primary analysis of data sampled from a home medication management survey deployed in November 2021 (n=580). Exploratory analyses were conducted by way of chi2tests and creation of...

BackgroundOver 50% of US adults do not take their prescriptions as prescribed, which is responsible for 33%–69% of hospital admissions and 125,000 deaths annually. Given the higher prevalence of prescription drug use among middle-aged and older adult populations, promoting medication adherence is of particular importance with these age groups. Two speculated facilitators of medication adherence are home medication storage location and the use of digital health devices.ObjectiveOur objective was to use survey data to investigate the associations between medication storage location and medication adherence among adults 40 years and older. Additionally, we aimed to report preliminary findings about the associations between use of devices and medication adherence in this same population.MethodsWe conducted primary analysis of data sampled from a home medication management survey deployed in November 2021 (n = 580). We conducted exploratory analyses by way of chi2 tests and creation of b...