Decoding TikTok: Utilizing Social Media for Difficult Conversations About Ageism

Understanding ageism is a key aspect of gerontological curriculum. Media examples (e.g., television and movies) can be effective tools, and yet gerontological educators should stay updated on new media trends to encourage student interest. This presentation will explore a new social media application (i.e., TikTok) to help students recognize and dismantle their own ageist beliefs. The presenter will describe and explain the classroom activity, instructions for finding and downloading content, as well as the social media application itself. In this activity, students brainstorm their preconceived notion of older adults to catalyze open discussion regarding societal beliefs. Next, a few video examples, with both positive and negative portrayals of older adults are presented for discussion. Students may also bring other examples for participation credit to this class. This symposium presentation will include an interview activity guide, additional breakout group instructions, and other tips for creating impactful class discussion on ageism.

Breakout Group Allocation Schedules and the Social Golfer Problem with Adjacent Group Sizes

The current pandemic has led schools and universities to turn to online meeting software solutions such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams. The teaching experience can be enhanced via the use of breakout rooms for small group interaction. Over the course of a class (or over several classes), the class will be allocated to breakout groups multiple times over several rounds. It is desirable to mix the groups as much as possible, the ideal being that no two students appear in the same group in more than one round. In this paper, we discuss how the problem of scheduling balanced allocations of students to sequential breakout rooms directly corresponds to a novel variation of a well-known problem in combinatorics (the social golfer problem), which we call the social golfer problem with adjacent group sizes. We explain how solutions to this problem can be obtained using constructions from combinatorial design theory and how they can be used to obtain good, balanced breakout room allocation schedules. We present our solutions for up to 50 students and introduce an online resource that educators can access to immediately generate suitable allocation schedules.

The Gut Microbiome and Xenobiotics: Identifying Knowledge Gaps

There is an increasing awareness that the gut microbiome plays a critical role in human health and disease, but mechanistic insights are often lacking. In June 2018, the Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI) held a workshop, “The Gut Microbiome: Markers of Human Health, Drug Efficacy and Xenobiotic Toxicity” (https://hesiglobal.org/event/the-gut-microbiome-workshop) to identify data gaps in determining how gut microbiome alterations may affect human health. Speakers and stakeholders from academia, government, and industry addressed multiple topics including the current science on the gut microbiome, endogenous and exogenous metabolites, biomarkers, and model systems. The workshop presentations and breakout group discussions formed the basis for identifying data gaps and research needs. Two critical issues that emerged were defining the microbial composition and function related to health and developing standards for models, methods and analysis in order to increase the ability to compare and replicate studies. A series of key recommendations were formulated to focus efforts to further understand host-microbiome interactions and the consequences of exposure to xenobiotics as well as identifying biomarkers of microbiome-associated disease and toxicity.

Patient-led identification and prioritization of exercise interventions for fatigue on dialysis: a workshop report

Background Fatigue is one of the most important symptoms among patients receiving dialysis and is nominated as a core outcome to be reported in all clinical trials in this setting. However, few trials of interventions targeting fatigue have been conducted. Patients historically have rarely been involved in the design of interventions, which can limit acceptability and uptake. When asked, they have indicated a preference for lifestyle interventions, such as exercise, to improve fatigue. While some research has focussed on intradialytic exercise for patients receiving haemodialysis, patients have also indicated a preference for a convenient method of exercising with guidance, but on their own time outside of dialysis hours. In response to this, a mobile phone application was proposed as the method of delivery for a home-based exercise intervention targeting fatigue. Methods. We convened a workshop with five breakout group sessions in Australia, with 24 patients on dialysis (16 haemodialysis and 8 peritoneal dialysis) and 8 caregivers to identify, prioritize and discuss exercise interventions for fatigue in patients receiving dialysis and the delivery of this through a mobile application. Results. Of the 21 types of exercise identified, the top-ranked were walking outdoors, walking on a treadmill and cardio and resistance training. Six themes were identified: (i) ‘an expectation of tangible gains from exercise’, including strengthening and protecting against bodily deterioration related to dialysis; (ii) ‘overcoming physical limitations’, meaning that comorbidities, baseline fatigue and fluctuating health needed to be addressed to engage in exercise; (iii) ‘fear of risks’, which reinforced the importance of safety and compatibility of exercise with dialysis; (iv) ‘realistic and achievable’ exercise, which would ensure initial readiness for uptake; (v) ‘enhancing motivation and interest’ , which expected to support sustained use of the exercise intervention and (vi) ‘ensuring usability of the mobile application’ , which would require simplicity, convenience and comprehensibility. Conclusion. Exercise interventions that are expected by patients to improve health outcomes and that are safe, realistic and easy to adopt may be more acceptable to patients on dialysis.

What Should We Do Different, More, Start and Stop? Systematic Collection and Dissemination of Massage Education Stakeholder Views from the 2017 Alliance for Massage Therapy Educational Congress†

Introduction: The Future of MT and Bodywork Forum, held July 27 during the 2017 Alliance for Massage Therapy Education (AFMTE) Educa-tional Congress in Tucson, Arizona, systematically gathered the thoughts and opinions of various massage education stakeholders through an exercise following the principles of the World Café model.Methods: Forum attendees participated in three, concurrent 30-minute Breakout Group Sessions (Rounds) in three different adjacent rooms, focused on Continuing Education, Schools, or Employment. During each session, participants rotated for 3, 2.5, 2, and 1.5 min-utes between four tables, asking what should be stopped, started, done differently, or changed in massage education related to the focus topic. Participants recorded their responses in marker on large Post-it® notes (3M, Maplewood, MN). These were reviewed by each of that round’s participants who awarded “importance points” to each response, with 6 blue and 3 orange dots each worth 1 and 3 points, respectively. The Post-it® notes with comments and point alloca-tions were transcribed into a data spreadsheet and analyzed for descriptive statistics and top scoring comments from each room.Results: 85–91 attendees participated in the three breakout sessions resulting in 674 comments with 3,744 assigned value points. The top five scor-ing comments from each room per session (N = 45) determined stakeholder’s most critical views. Stop comments made up the smallest total comments proportion (19%), yet largest top scoring com-ment proportion (36%)—potentially highlighting unified frustration for various massage education practices. Comparatively, Start comments made up 26% of total comments, but the smallest high-est scoring proportion (18%)-perhaps suggesting stakeholders feel it more important to improve what is already being done rather than beginning new endeavors in these areas.Conclusion: Stakeholder opinions on the future of massage therapy education can be system-atically gathered in large conference settings and organized, analyzed, and disseminated to inform field decision-making.

Review of the Psoriatic Arthritis Working Group at OMERACT 12: A Report from the GRAPPA 2014 Annual Meeting

At the 2014 annual meeting of the Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (GRAPPA), the psoriatic arthritis (PsA) working group of OMERACT (Outcome Measures in Rheumatology) presented a review of the progress made at the OMERACT 12 meeting, held in 2014. Members of the PsA OMERACT working group presented work from the Patient Involvement in Outcome Measures for PsA initiative to improve the incorporation of patient research partners in PsA outcomes research, the results of discussions within the OMERACT breakout groups, and finally the voting results. The OMERACT 12 participants had endorsed the need to update the PsA core set according to the Filter 2.0 framework. The breakout group discussions identified potential opportunities for revising the core set, including consolidating existing redundancy within the core set, improving incorporation of the patient perspective, and including disease effects such as fatigue as a core criterion. GRAPPA members of the OMERACT working group now have a program of research to update the core set with the goal of seeking endorsement at OMERACT 13, to be held in 2016.

More than Just Minutes of Stiffness in the Morning: Report from the OMERACT Rheumatoid Arthritis Flare Group Stiffness Breakout Sessions

Objective.Stiffness was endorsed within the rheumatoid arthritis (RA) flare core domain set at the previous Outcome Measures in Rheumatology meeting (OMERACT 11). Two stiffness breakout groups at the present OMERACT 12 RA flare workshop discussed results of new qualitative studies in RA stiffness.Methods.Results from 2 independent studies of RA stiffness were presented to breakout group participants, followed by group discussions about stiffness measurement.Results.Both studies identified stiffness as complex, variable with the level of disease activity, and as encompassing concepts of impact, intensity, timing, location, and duration. That stiffness has an effect on multiple dimensions of health was a common finding. Participants agreed that stiffness is an important aspect of RA flare. Whether measuring only morning stiffness duration, the traditional approach in RA, was sufficient in coverage of the concept was unclear. Groups agreed that more research on stiffness measurement is needed considering the importance patients place on the effect of stiffness.Conclusion.Results from independent studies highlight stiffness effect as an important feature of RA, in addition to intensity, timing, location, and duration. Additional work is needed to identify optimal ways to assess stiffness in RA and other rheumatologic diseases.

Arthritis Mutilans: A Report from the GRAPPA 2012 Annual Meeting

Arthritis mutilans is often described as the most severe form of psoriatic arthritis. However, a widely agreed on definition of the disease has not been developed. At the 2012 annual meeting of the Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (GRAPPA), members hoped to agree on a definition of arthritis mutilans and thus facilitate clinical and molecular epidemiological research into the disease. Members discussed the clinical features of arthritis mutilans and definitions used by researchers to date; reviewed data from the ClASsification for Psoriatic ARthritis study, the Nordic psoriatic arthritis mutilans study, and the results of a premeeting survey; and participated in breakout group discussions. Through this exercise, GRAPPA members developed a broad consensus on the features of arthritis mutilans, which will help us develop a GRAPPA-endorsed definition of arthritis mutilans.