RESUMO
Conducting mixed methods research is critical for healthcare researchers to understand attitudes, behaviors, and experiences on health-related topics, such as vaccine acceptance. As the COVID-19 pandemic has made it difficult to employ traditional, face-to-face qualitative methodologies, this paper describes the use of a virtual platform to conduct person-centered research. To overcome these challenges and better understand the attitudes and behaviors of vaccine-eligible individuals in the United States, an online health community called the Virtual Engagement Research Community (VERC) was designed and implemented. Using the Health Belief Model as a framework, the VERC employed a mixed methods approach to elicit insights, which included discussion topics, rapid polls, and surveys. Throughout the initial enrollment period of April-October 2021, continuous improvement efforts were made to bolster recruitment and member engagement. This agile research strategy was successful in utilizing mixed methods to capture community sentiments regarding vaccines. While this community focused on vaccination, the methodology holds promise for other areas of health research such as obesity, HIV, mental health disorders, and diabetes.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made it difficult to conduct research in person, but qualitative and quantitative data remain critical for developing research design. To gather and understand vaccine perceptions, opinions, and behaviors in a real time manner, The Virtual Engagement Research Community (VERC) was launched. As of October 2021, the VERC had 72 members who had the opportunity to participate in research events such as surveys, polls, discussion topics, and moderated chats in a private, invitation-only virtual community. The online format offered researchers the opportunity to adapt the types and frequency of engagements, fine-tune the research questions based on community responses and current events, and adjust the analysis and reporting methodology as needed to increase participation and maximize the value of the VERC. The success of the VERC and the lessons learned support the use of online communities to enhance mixed methods research as a valuable strategy for other health researchers.
RESUMO
Copyright provides the creator of an original work, such as a journal article or a scientific poster, with exclusive rights to authorize and reproduction and sharing copies of the work. Issues regarding copyright have become more prominent as digital technologies have made copying and distributing information easier. In a research environment, there is ample opportunity to share print and electronic resources among colleagues, which may represent noncompliance with copyright law. The desire to remove the paywall from the published literature has led to several versions of open access (OA), differentiated by the fees charged to the author as article processing charges, where the article is stored, and when the published article becomes freely available as OA. A number of government agencies and major research funders in the U.S.A. and the EU have implemented specific guidelines as to where and how their funded research can be published. Although OA publications can be read for free, they are still subject to various license limitations regarding sharing and reuse.
RESUMO
Ongoing continuing medical education is an essential component of life-long learning and can have a positive influence on patient outcomes. However, some evidence suggests that continuing medical education has not fulfilled its potential as a performance improvement (PI) tool, in part due to a paradigm of CME that has focused on the quantity of continuing medical education credits attained rather than the quality of outcomes. The Joslin Diabetes Center has undertaken a new performance-based CME program model that offers performance improvement and continuing medical education as a unified entity that is convenient and accessible for the overburdened primary care physician. This paper describes the origins of the Joslin Professional Educational Continuum as well as its infrastructure and intended outcomes.
