Setting sail and returning home. Research voyaging in Aotearoa

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 341-346
Author(s):  
Rosalina Richards ◽  
Justine Camp ◽  
Jesse Kokaua ◽  
Terina Raureti ◽  
Albany Lucas ◽  
...  

We are drawn to this Talanoa in response to the call from Pacific Health Dialogue for frank and open discussion. Our contribution to the conversation is some reflections about our experience of academic health research as a collective of Māori and Pacific researchers trying to navigate within a large national research programme. Alongside this we will share the voyaging framework we developed to help locate ourselves as a collective, and articulate our needs and aspirations as early to mid-career researchers. Our collective met in the context of working with A Better Start – E tipu e rea, a National Science Challenge created by the New Zealand government.1 Better Start focuses on the health of children and young people across five key areas; healthy weight, resilient teens, successful literacy and learning, big data and Vision Mātauranga. Our team came together as collaborators within the Big Data theme, to explore the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI) as an area of possibility and challenge for both Māori and Pacific communities.

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 76-85
Author(s):  
Dharma Akmon ◽  
Margaret Hedstrom ◽  
James D. Myers ◽  
Anna Ovchinnikova ◽  
Inna Kouper

SEAD – a project funded by the US National Science Foundation’s DataNet program – has spent the last five years designing, building, and deploying an integrated set of services to better connect scientists’ research workflows to data publication and preservation activities. Throughout the project, SEAD has promoted the concept and practice of “active curation,” which consists of capturing data and metadata early and refining it throughout the data life cycle. In promoting active curation, our team saw an opportunity to develop tools that would help scientists better manage data for their own use, improve team coordination around data, implement practices that would serve the data better over time, and seamlessly connect with data repositories to ease the burden of sharing and publishing. SEAD has worked with 30 projects, dozens of researchers, and hundreds of thousands of files, providing us with ample opportunities to learn about data and metadata, integrating with researchers’ workflows, and building tools and services for data. In this paper, we discuss the lessons we have learned and suggest how this might guide future data infrastructure development efforts.


Author(s):  
Vineta Viktorija Vinogradova ◽  
Jeļena Vrubļevska ◽  
Elmārs Rancāns

Abstract Depression is among the most common mental disorders in primary care. Despite high prevalence rates it remains to be under-diagnosed in primary care settings over the world. This study was aimed to identify Latvian family physicians’ (FPs) experience and attitude in diagnosing and managing depression. It was carried out within the framework of the National Research Programme BIOMEDICINE 2014–2017. After educational seminars on diagnosing and managing depression, FPs were asked to complete a structured questionnaire. In total 216 respondents were recruited. Most of the doctors, or 72.2% (n = 156), agreed with the statement that patients with depression use primary care facilities more often than other patients. More than a half of physicians, or 66.3% (n = 143) quite often asked their patients about their psycho-emotional status and 65.7% (n = 142) of clinicians thought that they can successfully assess a patient’s psychoemotional status and possible mental disorders. The majority, or 91.6 % (n = 198), supposed that routine screening for depression is necessary in Latvia. Despite the fact that a significant number, or 62.6% (n = 135) of FPs thought that their practice was well suitable for the treatment of depressive patients, half of the respondents, or 50.9% (n = 110), assessed their ability to build a trustful contact and to motivate patients for treatment as moderate. Although FPs acknowledged the importance and necessity to treat depression, current knowledge and management approaches were far from optimal. This justifies the need to provide specific training programmes for FPs.


Author(s):  
Elmārs Rancāns ◽  
Anda Ķīvīte-Urtāne

Abstract Annually, 7.9% of the general population in Latvia are suffering from depression. According to the official statistics, less than 8000 persons a year have been treated for depression in the state-paid health care services while the National Research Programme (NRP) BIOMEDICINE 2014–2017 found that more than 70 000 depressed patients annually are coming to family physicians (FPs) in Latvia. Within NRP researchers have developed an algorithm for diagnostics and treatment of depression and carried out ten educational courses for FPs all over Latvia in 2016. Data on the treatment of depression have been collected from the National Health Service (NHS) database from 01.01.2015 till 30.06.2017. Changes between the trained and control groups have been calculated for the time period before intervention — 2015–2016 and six months right after it. The “Depression School” was attended by 210 (15.2%) out of 1382 FPs, in contract with the NHS, who signed in for the course on first-to-come basis. There were no statistically significant demographic differences between trained and control groups, except, a larger proportion of FPs from rural places vs. the capital city attended the courses. Comparing the trained and control groups, during the period before the intervention there were on average 0.96 vs. 0.83 depressive episodes (F32) and 3.26 vs.1.74 recurrent depressive disorder (F33) episodes in 1/2 year (p < 0.001). Statistically significant increase was observed for F33 episodes (+1.42, p < 0.001), and numeric for F32 episodes (+0.18, p = 0.36) in the trained group of FPs in 2017. In total this gave a statistically significant (p < 0.001) increase by 43.6% of F33 diagnoses following the education course on depression for family physicians. Further analysis of data to access sustainability of training effect after 12 and 24 months are underway.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinjun Chen ◽  
Honggang Wang

Author(s):  
Bob Jessop

This chapter explores the origins and aims of the two phases of the WISERD; research programme on civil society. It examines the first phase research agenda and some research results on: locality, community and civil society; individuals, institutions and governance; economic austerity, social enterprise and inequality; generation, life course and social participation. It also outlines the second phase concern with frontiers of civic exclusion and expansion; polarization, austerity and civic deficit; contentious politics of civic gain; material resources, social innovations and civil repair; and data infrastructure and data integration. The influence of David Lockwood’s account of civic stratification is also explored.


BMJ Open ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. e032218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Deml ◽  
Kristen Jafflin ◽  
Sonja Merten ◽  
Benedikt Huber ◽  
Andrea Buhl ◽  
...  

IntroductionVaccine hesitancy is a complex public health issue referring to concerns about the safety, efficacy or need for vaccination. Relatively little is known about vaccine hesitancy in Switzerland. This ongoing study (2017–2021) focuses on biomedical and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) providers and their patients since healthcare professionals play important roles in vaccination decision-making. This national research programme seeks to assess the sociocultural determinants of vaccine hesitancy regarding childhood and human papillomavirus vaccines in Switzerland. We aim to provide a detailed characterisation of vaccine hesitancy, including CAM and biomedical perspectives, patient–provider interactions, and sociocultural factors, to establish the mediating effects of vaccine hesitancy on underimmunisation, and to design an intervention to improve vaccination communication and counselling among physicians, parents and adolescents.Methods and analysisOur transdisciplinary team employs a sequential exploratory mixed-methods study design. We have established a network of more than 150 medical providers across Switzerland, including more than 40 CAM practitioners. For the qualitative component, we conduct interviews with parents, youth, and biomedical and CAM providers and observations of vaccination consultations and school vaccination information sessions. For the quantitative component, a sample of 1350 parents of young children and 722 young adults (15–26 years) and their medical providers respond to questionnaires. We measure vaccine hesitancy with the Parent Attitudes about Childhood Vaccines 15-item survey and review vaccination certificates to assess vaccination status. We administer additional questions based on findings from qualitative research, addressing communication with medical providers, vaccine information sources and perceptions of risk control vis-à-vis vaccine-preventable diseases. The questionnaires capture sociodemographics, political views, religion and spirituality, and moral foundations.Ethics and disseminationThe study was approved by the local ethics committee. The results will be published in peer-reviewed journals and disseminated to healthcare professionals, researchers and the public via conferences and public presentations.


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