Smartphone technology for communications between clinicians - A scoping review.

OBJECTIVES: This scoping review aims to review explore, assess, and map the literature to inform clinical practice regarding communication between clinicians. Specific Apps/channels used were identified and assessed with a focus on data security with key concepts and knowledge gaps identified. DATA: The Joanna Briggs Institute framework is followed, with search results reported as per the PRISMA ScR for scoping reviews guidelines. SOURCES: A systematic search strategy encompassing EBSCO and OneSearch databases was conducted - two identical searches, (June and October 2020) limited to English language articles published 2016-2020. A narrative synthesis was used to integrate and report the findings. STUDY SELECTION: Sixty-six publications were selected. Twelve from EBSCO, thirty-five from OneSearch, nineteen were hand searched. Sixteen of the publications were research studies, nine were literature reviews, twenty-six were editorial, one was a newspaper article and fourteen were grey literature. Instant Messaging (40%, n = 23), image sharing (41%, n = 24), and video conferencing (19%, n = 11) were functions most popular with clinicians. WhatsApp, generic instant messaging, Facebook messenger, ZOOM, and Skype are evidenced as channels for communication between clinicians within the EU. A sizeable proportion of the publications (38%; n = 25) failed to identify or adequately address technical security concerns and requirements around privacy and data protection. CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians use smartphones /Apps to communicate clinical information with each other. The security and privacy issues arising from their communication of sensitive data is absent or only superficially acknowledged within the literature. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Clinician's need clearer guidance on the use of smartphone technology for clinical communications.

The Significance of Kinship for Medical Education: Reflections on the Use of a Bespoke Social Network to Support Learners' Professional Identities.

BACKGROUND: Social media can support and sustain communities much better than previous generations of learning technologies, where institutional barriers undermined any initiatives for embedding formal and informal learning. Some of the many types of social media have already had an impact on student learning, based on empirical evidence. One of these, social networking, has the potential to support communication in formal and informal spaces. OBJECTIVE: In this paper we report on the evaluation of an institutional social network-King's Social Harmonisation Project (KINSHIP)-established to foster an improved sense of community, enhance communication, and serve as a space to model digital professionalism for students at King's College London, United Kingdom. METHODS: Our evaluation focused on a study that examined students' needs and perceptions with regard to the provision of a cross-university platform. Data were collected from students, including those in the field of health and social care, in order to recommend a practical way forward to address current needs in this area. RESULTS: The findings indicate that the majority of the respondents were positive about using a social networking platform to develop their professional voice and profiles. Results suggest that timely promotion of the platform, emphasis on interface and learning design, and a clear identity are required in order to gain acceptance as the institutional social networking site. CONCLUSIONS: Empirical findings in this study project an advantage of an institutional social network such a KINSHIP over other social networks (eg, Facebook) because access is limited to staff and students and the site is mainly being used for academic purposes.

Effect of larval crowding on mating competitiveness of Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes.

BACKGROUND: The success of sterile or transgenic Anopheles for malaria control depends on their mating competitiveness within wild populations. Current evidence suggests that transgenic mosquitoes have reduced fitness. One means of compensating for this fitness deficit would be to identify environmental conditions that increase their mating competitiveness, and incorporate them into laboratory rearing regimes. METHODS: Anopheles gambiae larvae were allocated to three crowding treatments with the same food input per larva. Emerged males were competed against one another for access to females, and their corresponding longevity and energetic reserves measured. RESULTS: Males from the low-crowding treatment were much more likely to acquire the first mating. They won the first female approximately 11 times more often than those from the high-crowding treatment (Odds ratio = 11.17) and four times more often than those from the medium-crowding treatment (Odds ratio = 3.51). However, there was no overall difference in the total number of matings acquired by males from different treatments (p = 0.08). The survival of males from the low crowding treatment was lower than those from other treatments. The body size and teneral reserves of adult males did not differ between crowding treatments, but larger males were more likely to acquire mates than small individuals. CONCLUSION: Larval crowding and body size have strong, independent effects on the mating competitiveness of adult male An. gambiae. Thus manipulation of larval crowding during mass rearing could provide a simple technique for boosting the competitiveness of sterile or transgenic male mosquitoes prior to release.

Redressing the sex imbalance in knowledge of vector biology.

The recent development of transgenic mosquitoes that are resistant to infection by the Plasmodium malarial parasite is a promising new tool in the fight against malaria. However, results of large-scale field releases of alternatively modified mosquitoes carried out during the 1970s and 1980s suggest that this approach could be difficult to implement in the field. These past attempts to control mosquito populations largely floundered as a result of our insufficient understanding of the behavioural ecology of released males. In spite of this, contemporary research on genetic control strategies has concentrated predominantly on molecular aspects, with little progress being made toward resolving key ecological uncertainties, male mosquito ecology being the most important. Here, we review the state of knowledge of male mosquito ecology, and highlight priorities for further research. Case studies of two crop pests, the Mediterranean fruit fly and melon fly, are given as examples of how knowledge of male ecology facilitates successful control in other species. Unless similar information becomes available for mosquitoes, any future genetic control strategy will risk failure.