Bizzell PD Co-Authors Manuscript in NTR

Bizzell PD Co-Authors Manuscript in NTR

Jenny Twesten, MPH, Project Director of the National Cancer Institute, Tobacco Control Research Branch contract, co-authored a manuscript in the November issue of Nicotine & Tobacco Research (NTR) that was selected as an Editor’s Choice submission. The manuscript details the challenges of measuring cigarette smoking risk perceptions among adult smokers and non-smokers on questionnaires and opportunities for improved measurement based on current scientific evidence. The co-authors provide ten suggestions for researchers and survey developers to consider when assessing cigarette risk perceptions to improve how smoking risk perceptions may influence cigarette smoking behaviors.

Jenny is a public health communicator with more than seven years of experience providing clients with innovative solutions to disseminating research, synthesizing the state-of-the-science, and improving self-report assessments. She contributed to the production of two monographs, managed an extramural research portfolio, and led the early adoption of podcasts to disseminate research. As a Project Director at Bizzell, she provides research and communications guidance on a portfolio of tobacco and cancer-related projects, including co-authoring three tobacco control manuscripts and overseeing the implementation of two digital media campaigns. Her research interests are cancer prevention, early detection and survivorship, modifiable health behaviors such as tobacco use, and risk perception. She holds a Master of Public Health from George Washington University.

Nicotine & Tobacco Research (NTR) is one of the world’s few peer-reviewed journals devoted exclusively to the study of nicotine and tobacco. It aims to provide a forum for empirical findings, critical reviews, and conceptual papers on the many aspects of nicotine and tobacco, including research from the biobehavioral, neurobiological, molecular biologic, epidemiological, prevention, and treatment arenas.

Read Article: https://academic.oup.com/ntr/article/22/11/1937/5688704

Bizzell Senior Associate Featured in JAMDA Article

Bizzell Senior Associate Featured in JAMDA Article

Mark Stewart, MPH, Senior Associate of Health Systems and Services, is an author on an in-press manuscript in The Journal of the Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine (JAMDA). The article details a consensus-based definition for omissions of care in nursing homes that lead to increased risk for harm or adverse outcomes, decreased quality of life for residents, and increased healthcare expenditures. This definition is clear, meaningful, and actionable for nursing homes. Providers and researchers applying this definition can improve harm prevention and increase consistency in research methods.

Mark has more than 20 years of experience leading health innovation projects focused on ensuring the quality of care and improving outcomes. At Bizzell, he provides critical support to the organization managing, advising, and operationalizing projects advancing health systems and services improvements in areas such including person and family-centered care, shared decision making, patient-reported outcomes, healthcare disparities, and quality improvement. In addition, Mark serves as the Program Manager for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Data Validation and Administrative (DVA) contract.

JAMDA is the leading peer-reviewed publication for practical information and research directly applicable to healthcare professionals providing post-acute and long-term care (PA/LTC), as well as policymakers, organizational leaders, educators, and advocates.

Read Article: https://www.jamda.com/article/S1525-8610(20)30706-4/fulltext

Mobile Mental Health Apps: Weighing the Pros and Cons

Mobile Mental Health Apps: Weighing the Pros and Cons

By: Randolph Edmead, MS and Laura LaRue Gertz, MSW, LCSW

As symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression are increasing during the global COVID-19 pandemic, people may be exploring technology-based strategies to relieve symptoms and to supplement mental health care. Increasingly, telehealth is a service covered by insurance providers. In addition, many people are interested in using mobile apps to supplement their care, track and improve their symptoms, and take proactive steps to improve their mental health through strategies such as stress reduction, relaxation, and cognitive behavioral techniques. Yet individuals may also be wondering how to evaluate if a mobile app is useful, evidence-based, and will safeguard their privacy.

Technology-based strategies such as mobile apps for mental health have many potential advantages. Technology has enormous capacity to gather assessment and monitoring data that can provide valuable insights about symptoms, useful strategies and could lead to more effective treatment. Technology can help overcome access barriers for individuals with mobility issues, for individuals living in rural areas or areas with a shortage of providers, and for individuals who have been reluctant to seek conventional mental health services. And now, mobile access is even more important as individuals may be simultaneously coping with increased symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression during the pandemic, while experiencing isolation and reduced access to their usual support systems due to physical distancing.

Although there are many potential advantages of mobile apps to supplement mental health care, there are still many barriers and risks, including lack of effectiveness data; challenges with reproducibility, implementation, and dissemination; concerns about the privacy and confidentiality of data and use or misuse of data; and challenges with integration of technology strategies and data into the treatment plan and the health care system. However, there are useful, accessible strategies that can help people assess the safety and usefulness of a mobile app.

The APA App Evaluation Model is an evaluation roadmap to guide informed decision-making in choosing mobile apps in clinical care. The guideline provides a series of questions, organized by levels, that help consumers and providers decide whether to use a mobile app (Torous et al., 2018). This model does not endorse specific apps, but rather promotes a systematic approach to evaluating apps.

The five levels of the APA App Evaluation Model are:

  1. Access and Background: Assesses background information needed prior to evaluation
  2. Privacy and Security: Considers many aspects of app security and privacy
  3. Clinical Foundation: Evaluates any evidence for potential benefits
  4. Usability: Evaluates how usable the app is for the consumer
  5. Data Integration towards Therapeutic Goal: Examines whether the app’s output can be used in a clinically meaningful way

The PsyberGuide, developed through Northwestern University’s Center for Behavioral Intervention Technologies with funding from the One Mind Institute, reviews and rates apps that claim to treat mental health conditions. The publicly available guide helps consumers make informed choices. PsyberGuide provides app ratings based on three metrics:

  1. Credibility: Evaluates the strength of the scientific research for the app, as well as the therapeutic interventions provided by the app
  2. User Experience: Uses the Mobile App Rating Scale (MARS) developed by Stoyanov et al. (2015) to assess the design and user interface
  3. Transparency: Evaluates the clarity of the app’s privacy policy regarding data storage and collection procedures of the app and associated servers

Technology will not replace the human connection that is a central part of the care of individuals experiencing stress, anxiety, and depression. But when technology-based strategies are thoughtfully developed, evaluated, and implemented, they have tremendous potential to augment and expand care, to enhance engagement and treatment, and to improve the quality of life for individuals living with mental health conditions.

Randolph Edmead, MS, Vice President of Federal Government Programs. Randolph Edmead has an extensive background managing large teams in the mental health treatment, substance abuse prevention and treatment, policy, and evaluation service areas. Mr. Edmead has over 18 years of experience developing, implementing, and managing the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA’s) Centers for Mental Health Services and Substance Abuse Treatment and Prevention programs; providing curricula and training to SAMHSA and health care providers and staff on leading practices, human resources, accreditation survey support, skills development, and cultural competency; and consulting with healthcare organizations and treatment facilities. Mr. Edmead holds a Master of Science Degree in Clinical Psychology.

Laura LaRue Gertz, MSW, LCSW, Public Health Analyst/Scientific Writer. Laura LaRue Gertz has over 30 years of experience in health and mental health, as a clinician, analyst, writer, researcher, and project manager. She developed literature reviews and reports on evidence-based treatments for individuals with serious mental illness for a federal contract with the SAMHSA Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS). She has also worked on contracts with the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and numerous other U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) agencies. Ms. Gertz holds a Master of Social Work Degree and is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker.

The Bizzell Group (Bizzell) was founded by President & CEO Anton C. Bizzell, M.D., a leading behavioral health expert and former Medical Officer for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Bizzell’s team of public health experts have created and led comprehensive behavioral health prevention and treatment initiatives and education and training programs. Bizzell’s recent work includes systematic, integrated approaches designed to effect lasting change in health and behavioral health care through work with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Department of Defense (DOD). Learn more about how Bizzell advances data-driven, research-informed, innovative solutions to solve complex-real-world challenges: https://BizzellUS.com/

References

Stoyanov, S. R., Hides, L., Kavanagh, D. J., Zelenko, O., Tjondronegoro, D., & Mani, M. (2015). Mobile app rating scale: A new tool for assessing the quality of health mobile apps. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 3(1), e27.

Torous, J. B., Chan, S. R., Gipson, S. Y. M. T., Kim, J. W., Nguyen, T. Q., Luo, J., & Wang, P. (2018). A hierarchical framework for evaluation and informed decision making regarding smartphone apps for clinical care. Psychiatric Services, 69(5), 498-500.

Bizzell Supports CMS COVID-19 National Nursing Home Training Series

Bizzell Supports CMS COVID-19 National Nursing Home Training Series

The global COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the vital role of infection prevention, particularly in nursing homes. A dedicated infection preventionist role within long-term care (LTC) settings is now a regulatory mandate. However, infection prevention personnel and supplies are strained due to the demands of COVID-19 control and mitigation.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has partnered with the Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) Program to present a series of trainings on infection prevention issues tailored specifically to nursing homes. The Bizzell Group (Bizzell) is proud to work with CMS and the QIO Program to facilitate this training, focused on protecting vulnerable nursing home residents and promoting patient safety throughout these unprecedented public health challenges.

The National Nursing Home Training Series weekly live webcast is open to health care providers and to the public. Initial trainings included: Implementation Strategies for COVID-19 Surveillance and Early Detection; Cohorting: Effective Management of Residents and Staff; and Clinical Care: Managing COVID-Positive Residents.

The Bizzell Group (Bizzell), as the Data Validation & Administrative Contractor (DVAC) facilitates cross-network collaboration, data analysis, learning and support for the Network of Quality Improvement and Innovation Contractors (NQIIC) program for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Bizzell is committed to data-driven, research-informed, innovative solutions that improve health and public health outcomes across the nation and around the globe, through CMS, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA), U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA), U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and National Institutes of Health (NIH). Learn more at: https://BizzellUS.com.