A Framework to Implement Academic Digital Badges When Reskilling the IT Workforce

Information technology (IT) plays an increasingly significant role in today's world. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased that reliance. Employers in all industries are struggling with considerable shortages of skilled IT workers and are seeking innovative alternatives to meet these needs. Digital badging and micro-credentials have emerged as an alternative system to validate skills. The issuing of digital badges has spanned across a wide spectrum of settings and purposes. However, there is currently less application of digital badges in graduate-level programs to link to important academic or subject-matter related achievements and higher-level competencies. Reskilling and upskilling existing employees need a more practical and sustainable approach and often do not require completion of an entire IT master's degree. To align with such demand, this study aims to demonstrate how a digital badging system can be used to validate stackable certificates for micro-credentials in a graduate-level program. The paper starts with a background introduction of the current IT employment landscape. The next two sections provide an overview of micro-credentials in workforce development and higher education today. This is followed by a section on our conceptual framework used to determine the potential value of digital badging to our graduate programs. The next section focuses on the case study. The last sections conclude with the lessons learned and the future research directions.

The impact of COVID-19 on lung cancer detection, diagnosis and treatment for Maori in Aotearoa New Zealand.

AIM: The purpose of this article is to examine disparities in the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on access to lung cancer diagnosis and access to clinical services between Maori and non-Maori. METHODS: Using national-level data, we examined age-standardised lung cancer registrations, diagnostic procedures (bronchoscopy) and lung surgeries separately by ethnic group for the years 2018-2020, as well as patterns of stage of diagnosis. RESULTS: We found a trend toward a reduction in rates of lung cancer registration in Maori (but not non-Maori/non-Pacific) New Zealanders in 2020 compared to 2018 and 2019, but no apparent shift in the distribution of stage at diagnosis. We found a trend toward a reduction in rates of bronchoscopy for both Maori and non-Maori/non-Pacific patients, with the largest reduction observed for Maori. Rates of lung cancer surgery appeared to have reduced for Maori patients, although this was based on a small number of procedures. CONCLUSIONS: We observed disparities between Maori and non-Maori/non-Pacific patients in lung cancer registration and bronchoscopy as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Impact of Updating Pharmacogenetic Results: Lessons Learned from the PREDICT Program.

Pharmacogenomic (PGx) evidence for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) continues to evolve. For sites offering testing, maintaining up-to-date interpretations and implementing new clinical decision support (CDS) driven by existing results creates practical and technical challenges. Vanderbilt University Medical Center initiated panel testing in 2010, added CYP2D6 testing in 2017, and released CDS for SSRIs in 2020. We systematically reinterpreted historic CYP2C19 and CYP2D6 genotypes to update phenotypes to current nomenclature and to launch provider CDS and patient-oriented content for SSRIs. Chart review was conducted to identify and recontact providers caring for patients with current SSRI therapy and new actionable recommendations. A total of 15,619 patients' PGx results were reprocessed. Of the non-deceased patients reprocessed, 21% (n = 3278) resulted in CYP2C19*1/*17 reinterpretations. Among 289 patients with an actionable recommendation and SSRI medication prescription, 31.8% (n = 92) did not necessitate contact of a clinician, while 43.2% (n = 125) resulted in clinician contacted, and for 25% (n = 72) no appropriate clinician was able to be identified. Maintenance of up-to-date interpretations and recommendations for PGx results over the lifetime of a patient requires continuous effort. Reprocessing is a key strategy for maintenance and expansion of PGx content to be periodically considered and implemented.

The Rethinking Clinical Trials (REaCT) Program. A Canadian-Led Pragmatic Trials Program: Strategies for Integrating Knowledge Users into Trial Design.

We reviewed patient and health care provider (HCP) surveys performed through the REaCT program. The REaCT team has performed 15 patient surveys (2298 respondents) and 13 HCP surveys (1033 respondents) that have addressed a broad range of topics in breast cancer management. Over time, the proportion of surveys distributed by paper/regular mail has fallen, with electronic distribution now the norm. For the patient surveys, the median duration of the surveys was 3 months (IQR 2.5-7 months) and the median response rate was 84% (IQR 80-91.7%). For the HCP surveys, the median survey duration was 3 months (IQR 1.75-4 months), and the median response rate, where available, was 28% (IQR 21.2-49%). The survey data have so far led to: 10 systematic reviews, 6 peer-reviewed grant applications and 19 clinical trials. Knowledge users should be an essential component of clinical research. The REaCT program has integrated surveys as a standard step of their trials process. The COVID-19 pandemic and reduced face-to-face interactions with patients in the clinic as well as the continued importance of social media highlight the need for alternative means of distributing and responding to surveys.

The impact of coronavirus disease 2019 on the quality of life and treatment disruption of patients with breast cancer in a multiethnic cohort.

BACKGROUND: As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to spread, it remains unclear how vulnerable populations with preexisting health conditions like cancer have been affected. METHODS: Between July and September of 2020, the authors conducted a cross-sectional study that surveyed 2661 patients with breast cancer who were registered in the Chicago Multiethnic Epidemiologic Breast Cancer Cohort and received 1300 responses (71.5% White patients and 22.4% Black patients). The survey measured the psychosocial well-being of participants before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and examined whether they experienced any type of financial challenges or treatment disruption. RESULTS: The results indicated that feelings of isolation increased significantly during the pandemic. Meanwhile, the overall median isolation/stress score was 1.2 on a scale from 0 (never) to 4 (always), which was not significantly different between White patients and Black patients. One-third of patients experienced some type of financial challenge during this time. Medicaid recipients, of whom almost 80% were Black, were more likely to experience financial challenges. In addition, approximately one-fourth of patients experienced difficulty getting treatment. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that the quality of life of patients with breast cancer and their scheduled treatments have been adversely affected during the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings suggest that more support should be provided by hospital centers and the medical research community to patients with cancer during this challenging pandemic. LAY SUMMARY: The authors surveyed patients with breast cancer in Chicago using a questionnaire to examine how their lives have been affected during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The results indicate that the lives of patients with breast cancer and their scheduled treatments have been adversely affected during the pandemic. In addition, patients who were covered by Medicaid, most of whom were Black, were more likely to experience financial challenges. The findings suggest that hospital centers and the medical research community should reach out and provide more information to support patients with cancer during this challenging pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic: An opportunity to rethink and harmonise the frequency of follow-up visits for patients with early stage breast cancer.

PURPOSE: While routine, in-person follow-up of early-stage breast cancer patients (EBC) after completion of initial treatment is common, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in unprecedented changes in clinical practice. A systematic review was performed to evaluate the evidence supporting different frequencies of routine follow-up. METHODS: MEDLINE and the Cochrane Collaboration Library were searched from database inception to July 16, 2020 for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and prospective cohort studies (PCS) evaluating different frequencies of routine follow-up. Citations were assessed by pairs of independent reviewers. Risk of Bias (RoB) was assessed using the Cochrane RoB tool for RCTs and the Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale for Cohort Studies. Findings were summarized narratively. RESULTS: The literature search identified 3316 studies, of which 7 (6 RCTs and 1 PCS) were eligible. Study endpoints included; quality of life (QoL; 5 RCTs and 1 PCS), disease free survival (DFS) (1 RCT), overall survival (OS) (1 RCT) and cost-effectiveness (1 RCT). The results showed reduction in follow-up frequency had no adverse effect on: QoL (6 studies, n = 920), DFS (1 trial, n = 472) or OS (1 trial, n = 472), but improved cost-effectiveness (1 trial, n = 472). Four RCTs specifically examined follow-up on-demand versus scheduled follow-up visits and found no statistically significant differences in QoL (n = 544). CONCLUSION: While no evidence-based guidelines suggest that follow-up of EBC patients improves DFS or OS, routinely scheduled in-person assessment is common. RCT data suggests that reduced frequency of follow-up has no adverse effects.