An Agile Digital Platform to Support Population Health-A Case Study of a Digital Platform to Support Patients with Delirium Using IoT, NLP, and AI.

For an organization to be customer centric and service oriented requires that it use each encounter with a customer to create value, leverage advanced technologies to design digital services to fulfill the value, and assess perceived value-in-use to continue to revise the value as customer expectations evolve. The adaptation of value cycles to address the rapid changes in customer expectations requires agile digital platforms with dynamic software ecosystems interacting with multiple actors. For public health agencies focused on population health, these agile digital platforms should provide tailored care to address the distinct needs of select population groups. Using prior research on aging and dynamic software ecosystems, this paper develops a template for the design of an agile digital platform to support value cycle activities among clinical and non-clinical actors, including population groups. It illustrates the design of an agile digital platform to support clients that suffer from delirium, using digital services that leverage Internet of Things, natural language processing, and AI that uses real-time data for learning and care adaption. We conclude the paper with directions for future research.

Approach to High Volume Enrollment in Clinical Research: Experiences from an All of Us Research Program Site.

Clinical trials and cohort studies are required to meet target recruitment of study participants within stipulated timelines, especially when the priority is to include populations traditionally unrepresented in biomedical research. By the third quarter of 2019, the University of Arizona-Banner Health Provider Organization (UA-Banner HPO) has enrolled > 30,000 core participants into the All of Us Research Program (AoURP), the research cohort of the Precision Medicine Initiative. The majority of enrolled participants meet the criteria for individuals under-represented in biomedical research. The enrollment goals were calculated based on a target of 20,000 as set by the National Institutes of Health and our health provider organization achieved enrollment numbers between 17% and 86% above the targeted daily enrollment. We evaluated enrollment methods and challenges to enrollments encountered by the UA-Banner Health Provider Organization into the AoURP. Challenges to enrollment centered around the need for high-touch engagement methods, time investment necessary for stakeholder inclusion, and the use of purely digital enrollment methods especially in populations under-represented in biomedical research. These challenges occurred at the level of the individual, provider, institutions, and community, and cumulatively impacted participant enrollment. Successful strategies for engagement and enrollment leveraged provider partners as advocates for the program. For high-volume enrollment in clinical research, it is important to engage leaders in the healthcare setting, patient providers, and tailor engagement and enrollment to potential participant needs. We emphasize the need for precision engagement and enrollment methods tailored to individual needs.

What about aging? Perspectives from high school teachers and students on integrating aging into the high school curriculum.

Most educational programs on aging target college students in disciplines which might provide services or work with older adults, such as medicine or social work, to the exclusion of students in high school. The purpose of this study is to better understand high school students and teacher's attitudes and perceptions regarding aging. Focus groups were conducted to collect data for this study. A total of 35 teachers and 55 students participated in the study. Findings indicate that attitudes about aging are both positive and negative, however, there is a consensus among both teachers and students that incorporating aging into the high school curriculum would be beneficial. Teachers are in need of strategies to incorporate aging education into the high school curriculum, as there are many barriers. Results from this study can be used to aid in the development of educational modules designed to incorporate aging content into the curriculum.

The Effectiveness and Need for Facility Based Nurse Aide Training Competency Evaluation Programs.

It has become crucial for nursing facilities to rapidly train future nurse aides and remove any barriers to their matriculation into the field of care. Facilities feel the organizational burden of insufficient staffing and need to lever all effective programs to train future employees. The facility-based, Nurse Aide Training Competency Evaluation Programs (NATCEP) serve as a viable option to help fill shortages in the professional medical workforce. Data were analyzed from the National Nursing Assistant Survey to provide an overview of the benefits of using facility-trained nurse aides, versus those trained elsewhere, including their own perceptions of training and abilities. These findings also show the importance of facility based training programs for nurse aides on a global level. Providing training on site increases the efficiency and proficiency of nurse aides, making the transition to caregivers an easier for students, employers and residents.