Identifying Effective Strategies for Combatting COVID Misinformation in the Digital Age

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Description
The unprecedented amount and sources of information during the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an indiscriminate level of misinformation that was confusing and compromised healthcare access and delivery. The World Health Organization (WHO) called this an ‘infodemic’, and conspiracy theories and…

The unprecedented amount and sources of information during the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an indiscriminate level of misinformation that was confusing and compromised healthcare access and delivery. The World Health Organization (WHO) called this an ‘infodemic’, and conspiracy theories and fake news about COVID-19, plagued public health efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. National and international public health priorities expanded to counter misinformation. As a multi-disciplinary study encompassing expertise from public health, informatics, and communication, this research focused on eliciting strategies to better understand and combat misinformation on COVID-19. The study hypotheses is that 1) factors influencing vaccine-acceptance like socio-demographic factors, COVID-19 knowledge, trust in institutions, and media related factors could be leveraged for public health education and intervention; and 2) individuals with a high level of knowledge regarding COVID-19 prevention and control have unique behaviors and practices, like nuanced media literacy and validation skills that could be promoted to improve vaccine acceptance and preventative health behaviors. In this biphasic study an initial survey of 1,498 individuals sampled from Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) assessed socio-demographic factors, an 18-item test of COVID-19 knowledge, trust in healthcare stakeholders, and measures of media literacy and consumption. Subsequently, using the Positive Deviance Framework, a diverse subset of 25 individuals with high COVID-19 knowledge scores were interviewed to identify these deviants’ information and media practices that helped avoid COVID-19 misinformation. Access to primary care, higher educational attainment and living in urban communities were positive socio-demographic predictors of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance emphasizing the need to invest in education and rural health. High COVID-19 knowledge and trust in government and health providers were also critical factors and associated with a higher level of trust in science and credible information sources like the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and health experts. Positive deviants practiced media literacy skills that emphasized checking sources for scientific basis as well as hidden bias; cross-checking information across multiple sources and verifying health information with scientific experts. These identified information validation and confirmation practices may be useful in educating the public and designing strategies to better protect communities against harmful health misinformation.
Date Created
2023
Agent

An Explorative Study Examining Trust, Knowledge, and Social Responsibility on COVID Vaccine Acceptance Among Native American Youth.

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Description
Native American COVID vaccination trends have deviated from the vaccinated trends for other vaccines such as the HPV and flu. Native Americans are reporting the highest vaccinations in the nation compared to all racial and ethnic groups in the country.…

Native American COVID vaccination trends have deviated from the vaccinated trends for other vaccines such as the HPV and flu. Native Americans are reporting the highest vaccinations in the nation compared to all racial and ethnic groups in the country. Despite this, some are still hesitant in taking the vaccine. This study investigates the factors that influence vaccine uptake and hesitancy among Native American Youth in Arizona. The study utilizes data from the Arizona Youth Identity Project, a mixed-methods study examining young adults’ political engagement and sense of identity as Americans. 10 out of 13 individuals at the time of the study had received the COVID vaccine. Three themes, trust, knowledge, and social responsibility were identified. Most of the reasons for hesitancy came from distrust of government and biomedicine. Most participants had no knowledge of vaccine effectiveness, mechanism or effects but viewed getting vaccinated as a social responsibility to protect their families and communities. These findings indicate that the main goal of vaccinations among Native American youth was to protect the most vulnerable elders.
Date Created
2022-05
Agent

Venture Together: The Dire Need for Social Connection

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Description
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has been turned upside down. People everywhere are recommended to self-isolate and social distance to limit the spread of the deadly virus. Older adults specifically are being forced into isolation because…

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has been turned upside down. People everywhere are recommended to self-isolate and social distance to limit the spread of the deadly virus. Older adults specifically are being forced into isolation because they are at the highest risk for severe illness—illness that can result in hospitalization, intensive care, or even death. But this isolation is not new. Even before COVID-19, the older adult population has been suffering through a social isolation epidemic. And now, with social distancing measures in place, even more adults are being socially isolated to remain safe and healthy. But when individuals are isolated for long periods of time and no longer have an active social network to connect with, this social isolation can become harmful. Social isolation is known to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, obesity, and stroke, and it is associated with anxiety, depression, and cognitive decline. Furthermore, the risk of premature death from any cause increases because of social isolation. With all these negative consequences, it is crucial that we confront the toll that COVID-19 countermeasures have taken on older adults and look for ways to prevent social isolation. Venture Together, a multi-user social media platform designed for older adults, attempts to do just this and more.
Date Created
2022-05
Agent

Navigational Complexity Framework for EHR-Mediated Workflow in Perioperative Care

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Description
Usability problems associated with electronic health records can adversely impact clinical workflow, leading to inefficiencies, error, and even clinician burnout. The work presented in this dissertation is concerned with understanding and improving clinical workflow. Towards that end, it is necessary…

Usability problems associated with electronic health records can adversely impact clinical workflow, leading to inefficiencies, error, and even clinician burnout. The work presented in this dissertation is concerned with understanding and improving clinical workflow. Towards that end, it is necessary to model physical and cognitive aspects of task performance in clinical settings. Task completion can be significantly impacted by the navigational efficiency of the electronic health record (EHR) interface. Workflow modeling of the EHR-mediated workflow could help identify, diagnose and eliminate problems to reduce navigational complexity. The research goal is to introduce and validate a new biomedical informatics methodological workflow analysis framework that combines expert-based and user-based techniques to guide effective EHR design and reduce navigational complexity. These techniques are combined into a modified walkthrough that aligns user goals and subgoals with estimated task completion time and characterization of cognitive demands. A two-phased validation of the framework is utilized. The first is applied to single EHR-mediated workflow tasks, medication reconciliation (MedRec), and medication administration records (MAR) to refine individual aspects of the framework. The second phase applied the framework to a pre/post EHR implementation comparative analysis of multiple workflows tasks. This validation provides evidence of the framework's applicability and feasibility across several sites, systems, and settings. Analysis of the steps executed within the interfaces involved to complete the medication administration and medication reconciliation and patient order management tasks have provided a basis for characterizing the complexities in EHR navigation. An implication of the work presented here is that small tractable changes in interface design may substantially improve EHR navigation, overall usability, and workflow. The navigational complexity framework enables scrutinizing the impact of different EHR interfaces on task performance and usability barriers across different sites, systems, and settings.
Date Created
2021
Agent

EHR-mediated Workflow Analysis and Optimization Framework in PreOp Settings

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Description
Perioperative care has a direct and crucial impact on patient safety and patient outcomes, as well as the financial viability of the healthcare facility. The time pressure and workload of caring patients facing surgery are heavier than caring inpatients of…

Perioperative care has a direct and crucial impact on patient safety and patient outcomes, as well as the financial viability of the healthcare facility. The time pressure and workload of caring patients facing surgery are heavier than caring inpatients of other departments. This workload raises requirements for PreOp nurses, the primary PreOp caregiver, to complete information gathering, screening, and verification tasks accurately and efficiently. EHRs (Electronic Health Record System) have evolved continuously with increasing features to meet newly raised needs and expectations. Many healthcare institutions have undergone EHR conversion since the introduction of first-generation EHRs. Thus, the need for a systematic evaluation of changed information system workflow following conversion is becoming more and more manifest. There are a growing number of methods for analyzing health information technology use. However, few studies provide and apply a standard method to understand the impact of EHR transition and inspire opportunities for improvement. This dissertation focuses on PreOp nurse’s EHR use in PreOp settings. The goals of this dissertation are to: (a) introduce a systematic framework to evaluate EHR-mediated workflow and the impact of the EHR transition; (b) understand the impact of different EHR systems on PreOp nurse’s workflow and preoperative care efficiency; (c) transform the evaluation results into practical user-centered EHR designs. This research draws on computational ethnography, cognitive engineering process and user-centered design concepts to build a practical approach for EHR transition-related workflow evaluation and optimization. Observational data were collected before and after a large-scale EHR conversion throughout Mayo Clinic’s different regional health systems. For a structured computational evaluation framework, the time-efficiency of PreOp nurses’ work were compared quantitatively by means of coding and segmenting nurses’ tasks. Interview data provided contextual information, reflecting practical challenges and opportunities before and after the EHR transition. The total case time, the time spent on EHR, and the task fragmentation were improved after converting to the new EHR system. A trend of standardization of information-related workflow and EHR transition was observed. Notably, the approach helped to identify current new system challenges and pointed out potential optimization solutions.
Date Created
2021
Agent

Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults During COVID-19

Description

For our thesis, we analyzed a set of data from the on-going longitudinal study, “Aging In the Time of COVID-19” (Guest et al., ongoing) from the Center for Innovation in Healthy and Resilient Aging at Arizona State University. This study…

For our thesis, we analyzed a set of data from the on-going longitudinal study, “Aging In the Time of COVID-19” (Guest et al., ongoing) from the Center for Innovation in Healthy and Resilient Aging at Arizona State University. This study researched how COVID-19 and the resulting physical/social distancing impacted aging individuals' health, wellbeing, and quality-of-life. The survey collected data regarding over 1400 participants’ social connections, health, and experiences during COVID-19. This study gathered information about participants’ comorbid conditions, age, sex, location, etc. We presented this work in the form of a website including the traditional elements of an Honors Thesis as well as a visual essay with the data analysis portion coded with the JavaScript library D3 and a list of resources for our target audience, older adults who are experiencing social isolation and/or loneliness.

Date Created
2021-12
Agent

Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults During COVID-19

Description

The purpose of this Honors Thesis was to first, understand the implications of social isolation and loneliness on an individuals’ physical and mental health and second, uncover successful strategies that individuals used to overcome social isolation and loneliness. This thesis…

The purpose of this Honors Thesis was to first, understand the implications of social isolation and loneliness on an individuals’ physical and mental health and second, uncover successful strategies that individuals used to overcome social isolation and loneliness. This thesis used two primary data sets to draw conclusions about individuals’ subjective feelings of loneliness and isolation and to further understand what strategies were used to overcome these feelings. The results from this thesis demonstrated that individuals who successfully avoided feelings of social isolation and loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic took up new activities, used strategies to facilitate communication, participated in community engagement, completed acts of service, practiced mindfulness and reflection, and made new connections.

Date Created
2021-12
Agent

Healthcare Leadership Strategies during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Description

COVID-19 has been challenging for nearly everyone in different ways. Healthcare organizations have had to quickly change policy, modify operations, reorganize facilities, hire, and train staff to overcome COVID-19 related challenges to be able to still provide care for patients,…

COVID-19 has been challenging for nearly everyone in different ways. Healthcare organizations have had to quickly change policy, modify operations, reorganize facilities, hire, and train staff to overcome COVID-19 related challenges to be able to still provide care for patients, all while being mindful of the protection of their staff. Some healthcare organizations have responded particularly well, perhaps due to preparedness, planning, or exceptional leadership in times of crisis. To explore this, we invited seven healthcare system leaders from three different organizations in Arizona to talk about how they overcame challenges at the beginning of this pandemic with effective strategies and any leadership tips they had for the future. After the interviews were conducted, the interviews were transcribed, coded qualitatively, and separated into themes and categories to analyze their answers to the questions asked. The results and conclusions included strategies such as having open and honest communication, teamwork, rapidly developing communicating policies, and widely adopting new work practices like Telemedicine, Zoom, and working at home as crucial. This report is designed to assist in aiding and inspiring future or other leaders to be better prepared for solving various challenges with other emergencies that arise in the future.

Date Created
2021-05
Agent
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