Pre-Paid Phone Distribution: A Tool for Improving Healthcare Engagement for People with Substance Use Disorder.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic drove significant disruptions in access to substance use disorder (SUD) treatment and harm reduction services. Healthcare delivery via telemedicine has increasingly become the norm, rendering access to a phone essential for engagement in care. METHODS: Adult patients with SUD who lacked phones (n = 181) received a free, pre-paid phone during encounters with inpatient and outpatient SUD programs. We evaluated changes in healthcare engagement including completed in-person and telemedicine outpatient visits and telephone encounters 30 days before and after phone receipt. We used descriptive statistics, where appropriate, and paired t-tests to assess the change in healthcare engagement measures. RESULTS: Patients were predominantly male (64%) and white (62%) with high rates of homelessness (81%) and opioid use disorder (89%). When comparing 30 days before to 30 days after phone receipt, there was a significant increased change in number of telemedicine visits by 0.3 (95% CL [0.1,0.4], p < 0.001) and telephone encounters by 0.2 (95% CL [0.1,0.3], p = 0.004). There was no statistically significant change in in-person outpatient visits observed. CONCLUSIONS: Pre-paid phone distribution to patients with SUD was associated with an increased healthcare engagement including telemedicine visits and encounters.

Adapting emerging digital communication technologies for resilience: evidence from Nigerian SMEs

Drawing on the Diffusion of Innovation Theory, this study explores how emerging digital communication technologies (EDCT) affected SMEs’ resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. We employed an inductive and qualitative approach to investigate 42 SME operators in a weak institutional developing country—Nigeria. Our findings show that EDCT played a critical role in activating SMEs’ resilience during the crisis through four drivers: facilitating connections and bonding with staff, clients, and suppliers;enabling collaborations;activating process diversification;and enhancing supply chain flexibility. Furthermore, we highlight the distinct ability of Nigerian SMEs to buffer themselves against misinformation arising from the use of EDCT. This study sheds light on an EDCT Diffusion Model for resilience.