Using a Warm Hand-Off Approach to Enroll African American Caregivers in a Multi-Site Clinical Trial: The Handshake Protocol

“Testing Tele-Savvy” was a three-arm randomized controlled trial that recruited participants from four National Institute on Aging (NIA)–funded Alzheimer’s Disease Centers with Emory University serving as the coordinating center. The enrollment process involved each center providing a list of eligible caregivers to the coordinating center to consent. Initially, the site proposed to recruit primarily African American caregivers generated a significant amount of referrals to the coordinating center, but a gap occurred in translating them into enrolled participants. To increase the enrollment rate, a “Handshake Protocol” was established, which included a warm handoff approach. During preset phone calls each week, the research site coordinator introduced potential participants to a culturally congruent co-investigator from the coordinating center who then completed the consent process. Within the first month of implementation, the team was 97% effective in meeting its goals. This protocol is an example of a successful, innovative approach to enrolling minority participants in multi-site clinical trials.

STUDI DESKRIPTIF MINAT BACA ANAK DI RUMAH BACA INDONESIA (RBI) DI WILAYAH PADANG, SURABAYA DAN MAKASSAR

This research aims to analyze the reading interest of children and the factors that influence it. This research was conducted in three different regions, at Padang, Surabaya, and Makassar. Therespondents are children using RBI services. RBI is a free library-building movement in rural areas to provide reading access for children. The location of RBI is usually far from the economic center. The data collection employs questionnaire to 98 RBI visitors, 17 parents, and 8 RBI administrators from the three regions. The result shows that although living in economic limitation, the children have a high interest in reading, influenced by factors including: parent support, type, variety and number of books, the short distance to location of the reading house, and the attitude of the site coordinator in providing services to children. Based on the results, RBI needs to maintain and increase reading interest of children by providing activities, such as science olympics program, and periodically collect responses from children to improve their reading interest. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis minat baca anak dan faktor-faktor yang memengaruhinya. Penelitian dilakukan di tiga lokasi yaitu di Padang, Surabaya, dan Makassar. Responden penelitian adalah anak-anak yang menggunakan layanan Rumah Baca Indonesia, fasilitas membaca yang disediakan oleh gerakan membangun perpustakaan gratis di wilayah pedesaan untuk menyediakan akses membaca bagi anak-anak. Lokasi yang dijangkau oleh RBI seringkali jauh dari pusat ekonomi. Pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan memberikan kuesioner kepada para responden penelitian yang terdiri dari: 98 anak pengunjung RBI, 17 orang tua dan 8 pengurus RBI di tiga wilayah Indonseia. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa meskipun dalam kondisi terbatas dan berkekurangan, anak-anak memiliki minat baca yang tinggi. Minat baca yang tinggi tersebut dipengaruhi oleh beberapa faktor di antaranya: dukungan orang tua, jenis, ragam dan jumlah buku yang tersedia, lokasi rumah baca yang tidak jauh dari tempat tinggal dan sikap pengelola RBI dalam memberikan layanan kepada anak. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian, RBI perlu memelihara dan meningkatkan minat baca anak dengan melakukan kegiatan tertentu, misalnya program olimpiade sains dan secara berkala mengumpulkan informasi tanggapan dan masukan dari anak untuk meningkatkan minat baca anak.

Logistical aspects of large telemedicine networks. 1: Site directories

summary We carried out a survey of the site coordinators in a mature telemedicine network of about 200 sites. The site directory contained information about 221 videoconference facilities. There were 191 site coordinators in all (i.e. some coordinators were responsible for more than one site). Of the 221 sites, we were able to contact 87 on first attempt and 155 by the fourth attempt. Thus there were 66 sites (30%) which were not contactable. We asked each site coordinator to describe any videoconference activity that had taken place over the previous five working days. Of the contacted 155 sites, 78 reported some videoconference activity during the period in question. The total reported videoconference activity was 12,800 min during the one-week monitoring period, that is, an estimated 924 h per month. The most common categories of work were education or training (511 h) and management or administration (225 h), which between them accounted for 80% of all reported videoconference activity. Fifty of the 155 sites (32%) reported that the equipment was not located in an area suitable for patient consultations. In addition, 20 sites (13%) volunteered that their videoconferencing facilities were not in working order at the time of the survey. We did not ask this question in the survey, so that this result represents a lower bound for the true number of inoperable systems.

Preparing International Relief Workers for Health Care in the Field: An Evaluation of Organizational Practices

The growth of the humanitarian aid industry has led to the proliferation of relief programs and the rapid rise in the number of relief personnel working in the field. One major necessity in developing successful international programs is appropriately trained field personnel. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the educational practice and training methods for field workers by non-government organizations (NGO).Of the 53 organizations surveyed, 64% responded that they sent health care workers to acute human emergencies. A majority of organizations, 31/53 (59%), used manuals as the primary method of training for workers before going into the field. Eighty-five percent of organizations (45/53) supplied their workers with trip briefings from prior personnel before going into the field, and 91% (48/53) had an on-site coordinator. Only 34% (18/53) provided classroom teaching or orientation prior to departure. The average number of months spent by workers abroad was ≤1 for nearly half (49%) of the NGOs. Only 34% (18/53) of the NGOs required that personnel had previous international experience.Training of humanitarian workers varies significantly between nongovernmental organizations. Lack of standardization in training programs and wide variation of provider preparedness indicates the need by NGOs for enhanced training for field personnel.