Innovation Showcases (Asynchronous Session)
Talk to Me - a Multilingual Health Application: Providing Cultural Safety through Language Specific Healthcare View Digital Media
Innovation Case Studies Monita Mascitti Meuter
At St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne (SVHM) approximately 20% of patients require an interpreter of which on average 70% will have an interpreter provided at vital points of care. This lowers to 51% in mainstream residential facilities due to longer length of stay. The reduction potentially has a direct impact on increased risk. Growing data suggests that failure to provide language specific healthcare may cause miscommunication, often resulting in inappropriate or inadequate care provision and, in some cases, serious adverse events. Added to this, the COVID-19 pandemic poses further challenges: reduced interpreter services delivery and visitor allowance to hospitals and residential aged care facilities has meant the already fragile sense of cultural safety of patients and residents who speak little or no English has dissipated, exacerbating their vulnerability. This case study introduces and explores the benefits of the SVHM Talk to Me Progressive Web Application which addresses the need for low risk, language specific care for the ageing Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CaLD) communities in Australia. The application assists communication during the continuum of patient care, between the key moments when an interpreter would be accessed. Consisting of over 500 curated phrases with audio and translations provided by certified translators and interpreters, the communication centers on day-to-day healthcare topics and is available in 12 community languages. Most notably, it includes user interface for both healthcare professionals and patients/residents allowing two-way conversation.
Appropriate Technology in Rural Health Innovation: Multidisciplinary Collaborations and Partnerships with Vulnerable Populations View Digital Media
Innovation Case Studies Modjadji Choshi
The purpose of this project was the embodiment design of a modern technology based mobile health education and awareness system in rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa. This vehicular system is conceived as a sustainable, culturally appropriate means to effecting positive personal and community health outcomes and broad STEM education in resource-limited communities. Through the collaboration between faculty in the College of Health and Behavioral Studies and the College of Integrated Science and Engineering and in partnership with various stakeholders in Marowe, a rural community in South Africa, we completed an interdisciplinary course on Rural Health Innovations in Fall 2021. The course, designed for engineering and nursing students, challenged students to develop viable ideas for effecting measurable positive health outcomes in Marowe. Based on a thorough understanding of the social and cultural context and norms in Marowe, student teams applied the creative design process to develop feasible solutions. One viable solution that has received significant stakeholder approval and thus likely to be adopted is a mobile health education system featuring modern technology. True interdisciplinary problem-solving aims to produce solutions that work in the real world, with all the attendant constraints. Yet many students have limited engagement with socio-cultural norms that are different from their own, and thus may not consider those differences in the problem-solving process. This project aimed to ameliorate this situation.
Purdue Institute for Racial Equity: Linking Student and Faculty Success View Digital Media
Innovation Case Studies Megha Anwer, Nastasha Johnson, Christopher Munt
Purdue Institute for Racial Equity (PIRE) was created in response to student and faculty demands for professional development that embeds equity in Purdue University’s campus community. PIRE recognizes the need for professionals in higher education to grapple with issues of race and equity in new and explicit ways. Thus, the PIRE curriculum addresses racial bias in everyday settings in higher education; works with both faculty and graduate students to identify the impacts of systemic bias on student outcomes; as well as develop principles and measures that interrupt bias in interactions with students and with other faculty and staff. PIRE’s central goal is to integrate and embed equity-minded practices throughout the Purdue landscape. In the session, the PIRE team will briefly share the story of PIRE’s launch, the obstacles this innovation faced at a mid-west PWI, and data from the assessment of PIRE’s sessions so far. These include post-module reflections, and quantitative and qualitative results from a third-party survey conducted with 25 award winning faculty who participated in PIRE’s 6-part “Inclusive Pedagogy” pilot. In sharing the survey outcomes, the team reflects on the overall strengths and weaknesses of PIRE’s workshops; how we promoted active engagement in a virtual environment; participant feedback about the value of learning about inclusive pedagogy in a multi-disciplinary cohort; as well as plans for revision and future directions of PIRE.
