In this poster proposal we analyze 113M tweets from the Twitter Public API over a two -month period from the African and European continents and the United States to determine whether, and how, users are talking about the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We found 3391 tweets from all sources related to EVD, with 1378 of them originating from the African continent. While social media platforms have the potential to be valuable tools in analyzing public discourse related to an infectious epidemic, our study reveals potential limitations of this tool on the African continent.

An interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP) environment was implemented in four inpatient acute care unit accountable care teams (ACT) through an academic-practice partnership. An action research methodology was implemented to empower healthcare professionals and promote ownership and sustainment of the IPCP strategies. Healthcare professionals on the ACT units, students, and faculty engaged in the multi-year project. Interventions included staff engagement exercises and coaching and support of individual ACT unit IPCP strategies and education. Healthcare professional outcome data were collected in the form of participant surveys, measuring collaboration about care decisions and the extent to which professionals engaged in a culture of safety, collected at baseline and 6-month intervals. Healthcare outcome measures of the ACT units were also collected at baseline and 6-month intervals. Students had clinical learning experiences in the IPCP settings and completed post clinical surveys. Implementation of the interventions resulted in a positive trend in the healthcare professionals, although statistical significance was not observed. Student outcome data demonstrated statistically significant positive learning outcomes. Healthcare outcome measures demonstrated a significant decrease in readmissions and an overall decrease in catheter-associated urinary tract infections over time. Other measures were not significantly impacted. In conclusion, an academic - practice partnership can strengthen and support an IPCP environment by allowing healthcare clinicians to be directly involved in the selection and implementation of IPCP strategies and contribute to improved professional, healthcare and student outcomes.

The paper presents the activity trends for a novel series of phenoxyacetyl amides as human TRPM8 receptor agonists. This series encompasses in vitro activity values ranging from the micromolar to the picomolar levels. Sensory evaluation of these molecules highlights their relevance as cooling agents for oral applications. The positive outcome of the complete evaluation of N-(1H-pyrazol-3-yl)-N-(thiophen-2-ylmethyl)-2-(p-tolyloxy)acetamide resulted in its approval for Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) status by the Flavor & Extract Manufacturer Association (FEMA) as FEMA 4809.

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Curiosity about sex, or a need to understand sexual feelings and behaviors, is often a private experience needing immediate resolution. Adolescents’ use of information technology, especially cellular phones, provides a venue for addressing sexual health issues. Understanding adolescents’ use of online resources to obtain information about sex will inform the design and accessibility of online sexuality information resources. The purpose of this study was to examine adolescents’ questions about sex in order to characterize the breadth of sexual health information they seek online.

Decker, Kim A. PhD, RN, CNS; Hensel, Desiree PhD, RN, PCNS-BC, CNE; Kuhn, Thomas M. MSN, RN, APN-BC, COHN-S, CCM; Priest, Chad JD, MSN, RN Author Information

BACKGROUND:The development of effective health care and public health interventions requires a comprehensive understanding of the perceptions, concerns, and stated needs of health care consumers and the public at large. Big datasets from social media and question-and-answer services provide insight into the public's health concerns and priorities without the financial, temporal, and spatial encumbrances of more traditional community-engagement methods and may prove a useful starting point for public-engagement health research (infodemiology).OBJECTIVE:The objective of our study was to describe user characteristics and health-related queries of the ChaCha question-and-answer platform, and discuss how these data may be used to better understand the perceptions, concerns, and stated needs of health care consumers and the public at large.METHODS:We conducted a retrospective automated textual analysis of anonymous user-generated queries submitted to ChaCha between January 2009 and November 2012. A total of 2.004 billion queries were read, of which 3.50% (70,083,796/2,004,243,249) were missing 1 or more data fields, leaving 1.934 billion complete lines of data for these analyses.RESULTS:Males and females submitted roughly equal numbers of health queries, but content differed by sex. Questions from females predominantly focused on pregnancy, menstruation, and vaginal health. Questions from males predominantly focused on body image, drug use, and sexuality. Adolescents aged 12-19 years submitted more queries than any other age group. Their queries were largely centered on sexual and reproductive health, and pregnancy in particular.CONCLUSIONS:The private nature of the ChaCha service provided a perfect environment for maximum frankness among users, especially among adolescents posing sensitive health questions. Adolescents' sexual health queries reveal knowledge gaps with serious, lifelong consequences. The nature of questions to the service provides opportunities for rapid understanding of health concerns and may lead to development of more effective tailored interventions.

ABSTRACT Objective This study aimed to identify the indirect benefits of health care preparedness funding as perceived by current and former recipients of the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response’s Hospital Preparedness Program. Methods This was a qualitative inductive content analysis of telephone interviews conducted with regional stakeholders from several health care coalitions to identify their perceptions of the indirect benefits of preparedness funding. Results Content analysis of interviewee responses resulted in 2 main categories of indirect benefits of federal health care preparedness funding: (1) dual-use technology and programs and (2) impact of relationships on day-to-day operations. Within the dual-use technology and programs category, 3 subcategories were identified: (1) information systems, (2) clinical technology, and (3) health care operations. Similarly, 3 subcategories relating to the indirect benefits in the impact of relationships on day-to-day operations category were identified: (1) cooperation, (2) information sharing, and (3) sense of community. Conclusion This study identified indirect benefits of federal investment in hospital and health care preparedness in day-to-day operations. Major categories of these benefits included dual-use technology and programs and impact of relationships on day-to-day operations. Coalition members placed a high value on these benefits, even though they were not direct outcomes of grant programs. Further research is needed to quantify the economic value of these indirect benefits to more accurately measure the total return on investment from federal grant funding. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2015;9:704–711)

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Physicians and some hospitals have exhibited considerable enthusiasm for the implementation of Google Glass in the healthcare environment. However, current uses of Google Glass for data display, recording and transmitting, or data storage raise several challenging ethical and legal questions. Some of the innovative uses of Glass may raise as yet unmeasured risks such as distraction. More concretely, Glass users face informed consent requirements and legal and ethical limits on recording patients even for educational purposes. Most seriously, Glass is not yet HIPAA compliant (although some apps developed for it are). Some uses of Glass will therefore be subject to privacy and security constraints. The authors describe the issues raised by Glass in detail and recommend some initial risk-management strategies.

Dr. Sam Brisbane, the emergency department director at JFK Memorial Medical Center in Monrovia, Liberia, recently died from Ebola. The authors believe that like other clinicians who've sacrificed themselves caring for patients with this horrible disease, he died a good death.

During disasters, health care providers are faced with limited resources, harsh environments, and an increased amount of sick and injured patients. These conditions sometimes require health care providers to deviate from existing treatment protocols. Deviating from these protocols results in a perception of increased legal risk for health care providers. This has led to a national debate regarding the necessity of establishing altered standards of care for health care providers during crisis events. This chapter explores the development of disaster preparedness, the issue of health care provider liability, and national and local efforts to protect providers in disaster situations.