Platform Randomised trial of INterventions against COVID-19 In older peoPLE (PRINCIPLE): protocol for a randomised, controlled, open-label, adaptive platform, trial of community treatment of COVID-19 syndromic illness in people at higher risk.

INTRODUCTION: There is an urgent need to idenfy treatments for COVID-19 that reduce illness duration and hospital admission in those at higher risk of a longer illness course and complications. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The Platform Randomised trial of INterventions against COVID-19 In older peoPLE trial is an open-label, multiarm, prospective, adaptive platform, randomised clinical trial to evaluate potential treatments for COVID-19 in the community. A master protocol governs the addition of new interventions as they become available, as well as the inclusion and cessation of existing intervention arms via frequent interim analyses. The first three interventions are hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and doxycycline. Eligible participants must be symptomatic in the community with possible or confirmed COVID-19 that started in the preceding 14 days and either (1) aged 65 years and over or (2) aged 50-64 years with comorbidities. Recruitment is through general practice, health service helplines, COVID-19 'hot hubs' and directly through the trial website. Participants are randomised to receive either usual care or a study drug plus usual care, and outcomes are collected via daily online symptom diary for 28 days from randomisation. The research team contacts participants and/or their study partner following days 7, 14 and 28 if the online diary is not completed. The trial has two coprimary endpoints: time to first self-report of feeling recovered from possible COVID-19 and hospital admission or death from possible COVID-19 infection, both within 28 days from randomisation. Prespecified interim analyses assess efficacy or futility of interventions and to modify randomisation probabilities that allocate more participants to interventions with better outcomes. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval Ref: 20/SC/0158 South Central - Berkshire Research Ethics Committee; IRAS Project ID: 281958; EudraCT Number: 2020-001209-22. Results will be presented to policymakers and at conferences and published in peer-reviewed journals. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN86534580.

Correction: System Architecture for "Support Through Mobile Messaging and Digital Health Technology for Diabetes" (SuMMiT-D): Design and Performance in Pilot and Randomized Controlled Feasibility Studies.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.2196/18460.].

System Architecture for "Support Through Mobile Messaging and Digital Health Technology for Diabetes" (SuMMiT-D): Design and Performance in Pilot and Randomized Controlled Feasibility Studies.

BACKGROUND: Diabetes is a highly prevalent long-term condition with high morbidity and mortality rates. People with diabetes commonly worry about their diabetes medicines and do not always take them regularly as prescribed. This can lead to poor diabetes control. The Support Through Mobile Messaging and Digital Health Technology for Diabetes (SuMMiT-D) study aims to deliver brief messages as tailored interventions to support people with type 2 diabetes in better use of their diabetes medicines and to improve treatment adherence and health outcomes. OBJECTIVE: This paper describes the overall architecture of a tailored intervention delivery system used in the pilot and randomized controlled feasibility studies of SuMMiT-D and reports its performance. METHODS: The SuMMiT-D system includes several platforms and resources to recruit participants and deliver messages as tailored interventions. Its core component is called the clinical system and is responsible for interacting with the participants by receiving and sending SMS text messages from and to them. The personalization and tailoring of brief messages for each participant is based on a list of built-in commands that they can use. RESULTS: For the pilot study, a total of 48 participants were recruited; they had a median age of 64 years (first quartile, third quartile [Q1, Q3: 54.5, 69]). For the feasibility study, a total of 209 participants were recruited and randomly assigned to either the control or intervention group; they had a median age of 65 years (Q1, Q3: 56, 71), with 41.1% (86/209) being female. The participants used the SuMMiT-D system for up to 6 months (26 weeks) and had a wide range of different interactions with the SuMMiT-D system while tailored interventions were being delivered. For both studies, we had low withdrawal rates: only 4.2% and 5.3% for the pilot and feasibility studies, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: A system was developed to successfully deliver brief messages as tailored health interventions to more than 250 people with type 2 diabetes via SMS text messages. On the basis of the low withdrawal rates and positive feedback received, it can be inferred that the SuMMiT-D system is robust, user-friendly, useful, and positive for most participants. From the two studies, we found that online recruitment was more efficient than recruitment via postal mail; a regular SMS text reminder (eg, every 4 weeks) can potentially increase the participants' interactions with the system. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN Registry ISRCTN13404264; http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN13404264.

Designing a course model for distance-based online bioinformatics training in Africa: The H3ABioNet experience.

Africa is not unique in its need for basic bioinformatics training for individuals from a diverse range of academic backgrounds. However, particular logistical challenges in Africa, most notably access to bioinformatics expertise and internet stability, must be addressed in order to meet this need on the continent. H3ABioNet (www.h3abionet.org), the Pan African Bioinformatics Network for H3Africa, has therefore developed an innovative, free-of-charge "Introduction to Bioinformatics" course, taking these challenges into account as part of its educational efforts to provide on-site training and develop local expertise inside its network. A multiple-delivery-mode learning model was selected for this 3-month course in order to increase access to (mostly) African, expert bioinformatics trainers. The content of the course was developed to include a range of fundamental bioinformatics topics at the introductory level. For the first iteration of the course (2016), classrooms with a total of 364 enrolled participants were hosted at 20 institutions across 10 African countries. To ensure that classroom success did not depend on stable internet, trainers pre-recorded their lectures, and classrooms downloaded and watched these locally during biweekly contact sessions. The trainers were available via video conferencing to take questions during contact sessions, as well as via online "question and discussion" forums outside of contact session time. This learning model, developed for a resource-limited setting, could easily be adapted to other settings.

Health coaching integration into primary care for the treatment of obesity.

Obesity (and its related comorbidities) is one of the fastest-growing health concerns facing the United States and shows no sign of abating.(1) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calculated that nearly 36% of American adults were obese in 2010 and estimates that this number will reach 44% by 2018. The current standard of care for the management of patients with obesity in primary care is often a general recommendation by the physician to lose weight through improved nutrition and increased physical activity. Educational materials may be provided along with a referral to a dietician, nutritionist, or weight management program. Health coaching as an obesity intervention has yet to be fully integrated into primary care practice but has proven to be effective in corporate wellness and behavioral weight loss programs.(2) (-) (5.)

iAnn: an event sharing platform for the life sciences.

SUMMARY: We present iAnn, an open source community-driven platform for dissemination of life science events, such as courses, conferences and workshops. iAnn allows automatic visualisation and integration of customised event reports. A central repository lies at the core of the platform: curators add submitted events, and these are subsequently accessed via web services. Thus, once an iAnn widget is incorporated into a website, it permanently shows timely relevant information as if it were native to the remote site. At the same time, announcements submitted to the repository are automatically disseminated to all portals that query the system. To facilitate the visualization of announcements, iAnn provides powerful filtering options and views, integrated in Google Maps and Google Calendar. All iAnn widgets are freely available. AVAILABILITY: http://iann.pro/iannviewer CONTACT: manuel.corpas@tgac.ac.uk.

Bioinformatics training: a review of challenges, actions and support requirements.

As bioinformatics becomes increasingly central to research in the molecular life sciences, the need to train non-bioinformaticians to make the most of bioinformatics resources is growing. Here, we review the key challenges and pitfalls to providing effective training for users of bioinformatics services, and discuss successful training strategies shared by a diverse set of bioinformatics trainers. We also identify steps that trainers in bioinformatics could take together to advance the state of the art in current training practices. The ideas presented in this article derive from the first Trainer Networking Session held under the auspices of the EU-funded SLING Integrating Activity, which took place in November 2009.

Improving EMR Usability: a method for both discovering and prioritizing improvements in EMR workflows based on human factors engineering.

An effective electronic medical record (EMR) design will not only bolster the traditional benefits associated with such systems but also foster acceptance of the EMR throughout the work environment. This paper presents an approach to improve EMR usability in an environment where resources are limited and task prioritization is necessary. The main objective of this approach is to evaluate EMR usability and recommend specific changes to the EMR design, based on human factors principles, that would improve EMR workflow efficiency.

Workflow analysis in primary care: implications for EHR adoption.

Within busy practice settings, it is difficult to provide adequate provider training on evolving electronic health record (EHR) functionality. As a result, providers may not reap the full benefits of EHR. This poster presents a systematic workflow study conducted to enhance the adoption of advanced EHR features. This study led us to develop new adoption and training strategies, which resulted in statistically significant (p<0.03) improvement in the adoption of advanced results management features.