Creating personas for exposome research: the experience from the HEAP project.

The exposome is a complex scientific field that has enjoyed consistent growth over the last two decades, defined as the composite of every exposure to which an individual is subjected from conception to death. The study of the exposome requires consideration of both the nature of those exposures and their changes over time, and as such necessitates high quality data and software solutions. As the exposome is both a broad and a recent concept, it is challenging to define or to introduce in a structured way. Thus, an approach to assist with clear definitions and a structured framework is needed for the wider scientific and public communication. Results: A set of 14 personas were developed through three focus groups and a series of 14 semi-structured interviews. The focus groups defined the broad themes specific to exposome research, while the sub-themes emerged to saturation via the interviews process. Personas are imaginary individuals that represent segments/groups of real people within a population. Within the context of the HEAP project, the created personas represented both exposome data generators and users. Conclusion: Personas have been implemented successfully in computer science, improving the understanding of human-computer interaction. The creation of personas specific to exposome research adds a useful tool supporting education and outreach activities for a complex scientific field.

BIBBOX, a FAIR toolbox and App Store for life science research.

Data quality has recently become a critical topic for the research community. European guidelines recommend that scientific data should be made FAIR: findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. However, as FAIR guidelines do not specify how the stated principles should be implemented, it might not be straightforward for researchers to know how actually to make their data FAIR. This can prevent life-science researchers from sharing their datasets and pipelines, ultimately hindering the progress of research. To address this difficulty, we developed the BIBBOX, which is a platform that supports researchers publishing their datasets and the associated software in a FAIR manner.

Training Future Leaders: Experience from China-ASEAN Cancer Control Training Program.

Cancer care professionals are pivotal in translating the knowledge into action in the continuum of cancer control process. Unfortunately, in China and the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN), limited training opportunities are available for health professionals in the area of cancer prevention and control. Therefore, the Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (CICAMS), and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) collaboratively designed and held the China-ASEAN Cancer Control and Prevention Training Program to provide continuing education opportunities for cancer professionals from China and ASEAN countries. The aim of this article is to report on the effectiveness and quality of the program and share our experience. A total of 36 participants from 12 countries completed the whole course including 1-month online learning and 1-week face-to-face workshop and cancer control facility tour in October 2017. After completion of the program, all participants were invited to fill out a questionnaire and to provide their comments on the training course. Out of 36 participants, 33 completed the evaluation form and they rated the training course highly in terms of satisfaction, value, and likelihood of recommending it to other colleagues. Additionally, all participants provided very detailed and practical comments on the course. Such an intensive, short-term, and comprehensive training program is expected to help participants establish a broader view of cancer prevention and control within the wider health services and be involved in national cancer control programs in a more efficient way. This training course could serve as a model for other institutes dedicated to nurturing future leaders in cancer control.

Needs assessment for performance improvement of personnel in charge of epidemiological surveillance in Morocco.

BACKGROUND: In line with the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005), the Morocco health surveillance system has been reinforced via infrastructure strengthening and decentralization in its regions. To plan for personnel capacity reinforcement actions, a national workforce needs assessment was conducted by the National Epidemiological Surveillance Service and the World Health Organization. METHODS: The assessment used an ad-hoc method comprising two stages: (1) A survey via a standardized electronic questionnaire, administered to all staff in regional and provincial surveillance teams. Data collected included demographics, basic qualification, complementary training, perceived training needs, and preferred training modalities. Individuals were asked to grade, on a nine-point scale, their perception of importance of a given list of tasks and of their capacity to perform them. The gap between perceptions was quantified and described. (2) Field visits to national, regional and provincial sites for direct observation and opinion gathering on broader issues such as motivators, barriers, and training needs from the local perspective. RESULTS: Questionnaire respondents were 122/158 agents at 78 surveillance units countrywide. Mean age was 43.6 years and job longevity 5.7 years. Only 53% (65/122) had epidemiology training, posted in 62% (48/78) of the structures. Self-assessed capacity varied by basic qualification and by structure level (regional vs. provincial). The gap between the importance granted to a task and the perceived capacity to perform it was sizable, showing an uneven distribution across competency domains, regions, surveillance level and staff's basic qualification. From the opinions gathered, a problem of staff demotivation and high turnover emerged clearly. CONCLUSIONS: Our method was successful in revealing specific details of the training needs countrywide. A national strategy is needed to ensure rational planning of training, personnel motivation and long-term sustainability. In terms of training, an innovative program should target the specific needs per group and per region.

User information seeking behaviour: perceptions and reality. An evaluation of the WHO Labresources Internet portal.

Evaluation on Internet portals is a key component of any online resource development. Understanding user information seeking behaviour and user perceived behaviour is essential to obtain the full picture of user needs, online activities and draw lessons to improve the design of Internet portals to better meet user expectations. This article discusses the evaluation of a WHO Internet portal: the Labresources website. The evaluation investigates user satisfaction with the resource, usability, demographic information about users and how well they could complete specific tasks using the website and compared this with the actual online behaviour revealing a number of discrepancies. An online questionnaire was advertised on the Labresources website during the period 25 November 2005 to 20 February 2006. As the site caters to English and French speakers, the questionnaire was made available in both languages. It consisted of two sections - the first section required the participant to complete three tasks using the website whereas the second section tested user satisfaction, information needs and appropriateness of the content. Weblogs data were compared with the questionnaire results to compare user perceived and actual online behaviour. Twenty one respondents completed the online questionnaire from a total of 18 countries. This was out of a potential 60 website users among whom the questionnaire was promoted. In general, respondents were satisfied with the website layout and navigation. 61.9% of respondents listed WHO among their top 5 and a third listed the Labresources website. The number of sessions where users browse (146) the information resources is almost three times more than the number of users who search (52) the resources. Weblogs revealed most interesting results with differences between what users reported doing when completing tasks and how easy they perceived the tasks and what they actually did. Twelve respondents completed at least one task. Of the remaining nine respondents, three did visit the Labresources website from the link in the questionnaire but did not go on to complete the tasks. Only one of the twelve who completed a task reported it being difficult. Three of the respondents who didn't complete a task reported the tasks to be difficult but only one of these actually followed the link to begin the tasks in the questionnaire. This article described an evaluation study investigating user perceived and actual behaviour at the WHO Labresources Internet portal. Although the questionnaire results demonstrated general satisfaction with the resource, a combination of a weblog evaluation with the questionnaire revealed a clearer picture of the user perception of and satisfaction with the website compared to their actual activity when completing the set tasks.