ABSTRACT
This case study will describe the rapid transition our Office of Student Success and Advising and Office of Admissions made from March 11 to April 7 of 2020 in shifting all academic advising and New Student Orientation from in-person to remote efforts due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Office of Student Success and Advising provides academic advising to all undergraduate students out of a single unit on campus (separate from any academic School). We partner with the Office of Admissions as they funnel students to New Student Orientation, where advisors and related offices offer a rich program that culminates in students enrolling for their first semester. Our hallmark is our personal touch, so one might have predicted that being suddenly forced to rely heavily on technology to deliver our services would have greatly hampered our effectiveness. However, we leveraged our positive relationships as colleagues, diverse knowledge of different technologies related to admissions, advising, and teaching, and support of campus leadership in surging additional staff to our efforts to create both remote orientation and remote advising innovations that honor our developmental, holistic approach to student learning. Having successfully launched and achieved stronger enrollment outcomes than expected, we are convinced that our caring and collaborative professional culture is actually enhanced by our new embrace of technology. In addition, the broader array of technical and human touchpoints provides increased opportunity for assessing student learning and satisfaction with our process. Our practice is nothing like we imagined it would be prior to this experience, but we have already agreed that we will continue to apply many of these approaches into the future.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are an integral part of treat-to-target approaches in managing rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In clinical practice, however, routine collection, documentation, and discussion of PROs with patients are highly variable. The RISE LC (Rheumatology Informatics System for Effectiveness Learning Collaborative) was established to develop and share best practices in PRO collection and use across adult rheumatology practices in the United States METHODS: The goals of the RISE LC were developed through site surveys and in-person meetings. Participants completed a baseline survey on PRO collection and use in their practices. RISE LC learning sessions focused on improving communication around PROs with patients and enhancing shared decision-making in treatment plans. During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the RISE LC pivoted to adapt PRO tools for telehealth. RESULTS: At baseline, all responding sites (n = 15) had established workflows for collecting PROs. Most sites used paper forms alone. PRO documentation in electronic health records was variable, with only half of the sites using structured data fields. To standardize and improve the use of PROs, participants iteratively developed a Clinical Disease Activity Index-based RA Disease Activity Communication Tool to solicit treatment goals and improve shared decision-making across sites. The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated developing a tool to gauge PROs via telehealth. CONCLUSION: The RISE LC is a continuous, structured method for implementing strategies to improve PRO collection and use in rheumatological care, initially adapting from the Learning Collaborative model and extending to include features of a learning network. Future directions include measuring the impact of standardized PRO collection and discussion on shared decision-making and RA outcomes.