OP277 Rapid Development Of An Evaluation Framework: Capturing The Impact Of COVID-19 Activities By A Health Technology Assessment Body

IntroductionHealth Technology Wales (HTW) is committed to evaluating the impact of our work. In March 2020, HTW directed efforts to support Welsh Government and health and social care providers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We adapted the HTW evaluation framework to specifically capture the impact of our additional COVID-19 work. Here we analyze data collected since the framework was implemented.MethodsBoth formal and informal feedback was analyzed. Formal feedback was obtained through the HTW Impact Questionnaire, which was developed to support more formalized data capture for all HTW workstreams and to facilitate feedback from all stakeholder groups. It was piloted with a targeted list of individuals and responses were received for COVID-19 work. Informal feedback included feedback received via email or through word of mouth.ResultsHTW COVID-19 products to date include Topic Exploration Reports, rapid evidence summaries and an Evidence Appraisal Report (EAR) on COVID-19 diagnostic tests (molecular and antibody tests). Stakeholders were positive about these outputs, describing them as valuable and informative. Reported impacts included informing policy and decision making, reducing duplication of efforts and helping to target development. The EAR received national and international focus, leading to HTW involvement in the European Network for Health Technology Assessment (EUnetHTA) COVID-19 reviews. Survey participants who gave feedback on COVID-19 activities included two members of Health Technology Assessment organizations, a health board representative and an industry representative; all agreed that HTW's COVID-19 work was useful, that the methods were reliable and robust and that HTW is responsive. All participants also felt that HTW's COVID-19 work had a positive impact in the wider health and social care context.ConclusionsHTW was able to respond rapidly to the COVID-19 pandemic and adapt current evaluation practices to capture the impact of COVID-19 work. We will continue to evaluate our COVID-19 activities. Future work will involve following up on the developing impact of our COVID-19 work and expanding our methods for data capture, for example conducting stakeholder interviews.

Educating critically about language and intercultural communication: What and who is at stake?

This paper reflects on the literature on Critical Language and Intercultural Communication Education in light of learnings gained from designing and delivering a course titled ‘Intercultural Communication’ over four years to large cohorts of first-year tertiary students in Australia. It is based on a qualitative research project which involves the analysis of two sets of data: a) ethnographic notes from teaching staff meetings, tutors’ interviews, and tutorial observation, and b) student formal and informal feedback surveys as well as focus group discussions. The paper explores what and who is at stake when teaching and learning about language and intercultural communication from a critical perspective. It unveils from a praxis perspective (theory informed by practice and vice versa) the deeply political and ethical level of engagement that is required of teachers, the kind of metalinguistic and metacultural knowledge, as well as the kind of disposition towards critical thinking and reflexivity, that are called for when teaching and learning in this domain in an Australian tertiary environment.

Improving Neurosurgery Resident Microdissection Through Placental Simulation

ABSTRACT Prior work has shown that the human placenta is an available and realistic model for microdissection simulation. We sought to find a measurable improvement in the technical skills of neurosurgical residents with deliberate practice of microdissection tasks using a placental model. Postgraduate year (PGY) 1 to 3 neurosurgery residents were consented. A 1-min video of each participant's baseline skills skeletonizing placental vessels was recorded. Participants underwent 10 practice sessions with intermittent informal feedback for 30-60 min over 18 mo. Another 1-min video was recorded following the 10th dissection. The videos were blinded and assessed by 3 board eligible or certified microsurgical neurosurgeons using a modified Objective Structured Assessment of Aneurysm Clipping Skills. Performance was compared via t-testing among four domains: instrument handling, time flow and forward planning, quality of dissection, and respect for tissue. Microdissection, instrument handling, and quality of dissection were significantly improved after deliberate practice with the placental simulator (P < .05). Improvement was seen in time flow and forward planning and respect for tissue; however, this failed to be significant. Subjectively, residents expressed enjoyment performing the exercise. They also expressed a desire for demonstrations or videos to watch before practice sessions. The placental simulation model provides microsurgical skill development with minimal deliberate practice sessions. Practice exercises are favorably regarded and interest in continuing them is strong by residents. Residents expressed a desire to make the dissection more deliberate with demonstration, breakdown of steps, and mimicry, which could improve the effectiveness and enjoyment of the skills session.

OER and Management Education in India

This chapter discusses the strategic perspective of OER in Management Education specifically in India. The study is exploratory and descriptive in nature and is based more on the secondary data. The primary data is in the form of informal feedback from the faculty and academic associates of Business Management in the State Open Universities having Management Departments/Schools in India. The primary data has been gathered using awareness, use, innovation methods and content delivery as the basic parameters for the purpose of study. The data was collected using informal questionnaire. The findings of the study show that there is limited awareness regarding the concept and theory of OER and therefore the use of the resource are not as expected. The study is limited to the Distance Learning Universities and the conventional Universities offering distance education have been omitted.

USBCaptchaIn: Preventing (un)conventional attacks from promiscuously used USB devices in industrial control systems1

Industrial Control Systems (ICS) are sensible targets for high profile attackers and advanced persistent threats, which are known to exploit USB thumb drives as an effective spreading vector. In ICSes, thumb drives are widely used to transfer files among disconnected systems and represent a serious security risks, since, they may be promiscuously used in both critical and regular systems. The threats come both from malware hidden in files stored in the thumb drives and from BadUSB attacks. BadUSB leverages the modification of firmware of USB devices in order to mimic the behaviour of a keyboard and send malicious commands to the host. We present a solution that allows a promiscuous use of USB thumbs drives while protecting critical machines from malware, that spreads by regular file infection or by firmware infection. The main component of the architecture we propose is an hardware, called USBCaptchaIn, intended to be in the middle between critical machines and connected USB devices. We do not require users to change the way they use thumb drives. To avoid human-errors, we do not require users to take any decision. The proposed approach is highly compatible with already deployed products of a ICS environment and proactively blocks malware before they reach their targets. We describe our solution, provide a thorough analysis of the security of our approach in the ICS context, and report the informal feedback of some experts regarding our first prototypes.

Improving Quality of Care in Rheumatoid Arthritis Through Mobile Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement: Focus Group Study

Background Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) for chronic disease management can be integrated into the routine workflow by leveraging mobile technology. Objective The objective of our study was to describe the process of our quality improvement (QI) efforts using tablets for PRO collection in a busy, academic rheumatology practice to support a treat-to-target (TTT) approach for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) management. Methods Our QI team designed a process for routine collection of PROs for RA patients at the Arthritis Center, employing information technology and an electronic medical record (EMR) system. Patients received a tablet at the clinic check-in desk to complete the Routine Assessment of Patient Index Data 3 (RAPID3) survey, a validated RA PRO. RAPID3 scores were uploaded to the EMR in real time and available for use in shared decision making during routine office visits. Weekly data were collected on RAPID3 completion rates and shared with front desk staff and medical assistants to drive improvement. Patients in our patient family advisory council and focus groups provided informal feedback on the process. Results From May 1, 2017, to January 31, 2019, a total of 4233 RAPID3 surveys were completed by 1691 patients. The mean age of patients was 63 (SD 14) years; 84.00% (1420/1691) of the patients were female, and 83.00% (1403/1691) of the patients were white. The rates of RAPID3 completion increased from 14.3% (58/405) in May 2017 to 68.00% (254/376) in September 2017 and were sustained over time through January 2019. Informal feedback from patients was positive and negative, relating to the usability of the tablet and the way rheumatologists used and explained the RAPID3 data in shared decision making during the office visit. Conclusions We designed a sustainable and reliable process for collecting PROs from patients with RA in the waiting room and integrated these data through the EMR during office visits.

Performance of the Final Year Medical Students - Universiti Malaysia Sabah in the End Surgical Senior Posting (SSP) Examination

Introduction: Assessment methods are used to provide students with both formal and informal feedback on their progress, and should be congruent with the objectives of the curriculum. To achieve this, it is necessary to bring the theories of learning and assessment together. Senior surgical posting is an intensive eight weeks attachment with overall surgical revision, provide an opportunity for the students to develop clinical skills, knowledge and attitudes, at it’s end the students will be evaluated through three forms of assessment, their knowledge by MCQs, MEQs, and essay and their clinical skills by OSCE, short case and long case examination together with that there was continues assessment (log book and two handwritten case reports), the passing marks is 65 of 100, and passing the clinical section is mandatory. Materials and Methods: This paper studied the performance of final year (Year 5) medical students Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS)-school of medicine in the end senior surgical posting examination. Results and Conclusion: Through analysis of the data of their assessment results in this examination, it shows that the continuous assessment have strong effect on the final results of the students, and students have defect in theory back ground reflected by their poor MCQs performance, and the mode of UMS students learning is more towards deep approach.

Multidisciplinary Development of Mobile Radiography Guidelines Reduced the Number of Inappropriate Mobile Exams in Patients Receiving Chest Radiographs in British Columbia

Aim: To decrease the number of mobile chest radiograph requests for inpatients in British Columbia who are medically able to tolerate transport to the main department by introducing and implementing request criteria. Method: Concerns regarding inappropriate mobile exam requests in patients receiving chest radiography were surveyed at 28 medical imaging sites. In response, a multidisciplinary team composed a set of mobile radiography request guidelines incorporating feedback from all sites. These were successfully implemented along with in-person education to 21 sites. The number of adult annual mobile chest radiographs was tracked from 2014 to 2018, and informal feedback was obtained from participating sites. Results: The percentage of mobile chest radiographs of all chest radiographs performed between 2014 and 2018 decreased by 3.2%, while the total number of all chest radiographs performed during this time, including both departmental and mobile, increased by 1.9%. Sites reported positive engagement with the initiative and expressed need for ongoing education to optimize its effect. Conclusion: Implementation of request guidelines with in-person education helped to reduce inappropriate mobile exams in patients receiving chest radiographs in British Columbia between 2014 and 2018. These guidelines promote patient safety through reduced radiation exposure, empower radiographers to mitigate inappropriate requests, and help to optimize use of limited hospital resources by reducing inappropriate mobile exams where routine departmental exams are more suitable.