Multiple Organizations Research Articles

Japanese clinical practice guidelines for prostate cancer 2023.

This fourth edition of the Japanese Clinical Practice Guidelines for Prostate Cancer 2023 is compiled. It was revised under the leadership of the Japanese Urological Association, with members selected from multiple academic societies and related organizations (Japan Radiological Society, Japanese Society for Radiation Oncology, the Department of EBM and guidelines, Japan Council for Quality Health Care (Minds), Japanese Society of Pathology, and the patient group (NPO Prostate Cancer Patients Association)), in accordance with the Minds Manual for Guideline Development (2020 ver. 3.0). The most important feature of this revision is the adoption of systematic reviews (SRs) in determining recommendations for 14 clinical questions (CQs). Qualitative SRs for these questions were conducted, and the final recommendations were made based on the results through the votes of 24 members of the guideline development group. Five algorithms based on these results were also created. Contents not covered by the SRs, which are considered textbook material, have been described in the general statement. In the general statement, a literature search for 14 areas was conducted; then, based on the general statement and CQs of the Japanese Clinical Practice Guidelines for Prostate Cancer 2016, the findings revealed after the 2016 guidelines were mainly described. This article provides an overview of these guidelines.

Mandatory Reporting Laws: A Change in Reporting Behavior?

ABSTRACT Child abuse reporting policies in the form of mandatory reporting continues to expand both in scope and practice across the United States (U.S.). With this development, it is important to understand whether there is a relationship between mandatory reporting laws and reporting behavior while analyzing how any response differs across professional organizations. Mandatory reporting laws serve as a top-down policy used by legislatures to alter the reporting behavior of practitioners, especially within education, law enforcement, and the social services. The reporting behavior of these professionals are important to analyze because they account for the three largest reporting groups in the U.S. After investigating 18 years of child abuse reporting state data from the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect, I find that the reporting response to this policy differs across professional organizations. Both law enforcement and social workers reporting of suspected abuse does not change regardless of whether the reporting law is adopted. Education personnel, on the other hand, do alter their reporting behavior when a mandatory reporting law is enacted. Specifically, the decline in reporting is attenuated after the policy is put in place. These findings demonstrate the challenges associated with designing child abuse protection policies that influence multiple professional organizations.

An Update on Guidelines to Prevent and Manage Atrial Fibrillation After Cardiac Surgery and a Survey of Practice in the UK

ObjectivesPostoperative atrial fibrillation (POAF) is the most common complication after cardiac surgery and affects around 30% of patients. Variable guidelines from multiple organisations exist for the prevention of POAF after cardiac surgery. We conducted a survey of UK practice was conducted to define “usual care” for a platform trial of interventions to prevent POAF after cardiac surgery. To provide context for the survey, we reviewed all current guidelines for the prevention and management of AF after cardiac surgery. DesignOnline survey and literature review SettingSurvey: All 35 UK National Health Service Cardiac Surgery Centres. Literature Review: Guidelines from specialist societies and other guideline making organisations from the UK, Europe and North America. ParticipantsEstablished link network of researchers. Measurements and Main ResultsReview: Five relevant guidelines were identified. All guidelines recommend β-blockade for prevention of AF after cardiac surgery. Treatment of AF is recommended using either rate or rhythm control. Cardioversion is recommended only for the haemodynamically unstable patient. Patients who remain in AF for over 48 hours should be considered for anticoagulation. Patients should be followed up within 60 days to review the need for anti-arrhythmic and anticoagulant therapy. Survey: 31/35 (89%) of centres responded. 11 of 31 (35.5%) centres followed local guidance for prevention of POAF, 4 (13%) centres followed Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists / European Association of Cardiothoracic Anaesthesia guidelines, 4 (13%) followed UK National Institute of Health and Care Excellence guidance and 4 followed “other” guidance. 8 of 31 (26%) followed no guidelines to prevent POAF. 28 of 31 (90%) centres did not risk-stratify their patients for POAF. Most centres (23/31, 74%) do not have a care-package in place to prevent POAF, but 14 of 31 (45%) try in some way to prevent AF in patients presenting in sinus rhythm. The most common interventions to prevent POAF are β-blocker use post-operatively (23/31, 74%), use of magnesium (20/31, 64.5%) and maintaining a serum K+ ≥4.5mmol/L (26/31, 84%). ConclusionsGuidance to prevent AF after cardiac surgery clusters around the use of β-blockade. Although patients in the UK do not appear to be risk-assessed for POAF, the main interventions used to prevent it are similar; β-blockade and maintenance of serum K+ and Mg2+ levels.

Distributed Statistical Analyses: A Scoping Review and Examples of Operational Frameworks Adapted to Health Analytics.

Data from multiple organizations are crucial for advancing learning health systems. However, ethical, legal, and social concerns may restrict the use of standard statistical methods that rely on pooling data. Although distributed algorithms offer alternatives, they may not always be suitable for health frameworks. This paper aims to support researchers and data custodians in three ways: (1) providing a concise overview of the literature on statistical inference methods for horizontally partitioned data; (2) describing the methods applicable to generalized linear models (GLM) and assessing their underlying distributional assumptions; (3) adapting existing methods to make them fully usable in health settings. A scoping review methodology was employed for the literature mapping, from which methods presenting a methodological framework for GLM analyses with horizontally partitioned data were identified and assessed from the perspective of applicability in health settings. Statistical theory was used to adapt methods and to derive the properties of the resulting estimators. From the review, 41 articles were selected, and six approaches were extracted for conducting standard GLM-based statistical analysis. However, these approaches assumed evenly and identically distributed data across nodes. Consequently, statistical procedures were derived to accommodate uneven node sample sizes and heterogeneous data distributions across nodes. Workflows and detailed algorithms were developed to highlight information-sharing requirements and operational complexity. This paper contributes to the field of health analytics by providing an overview of the methods that can be used with horizontally partitioned data, by adapting these methods to the context of heterogeneous health data and by clarifying the workflows and quantities exchanged by the methods discussed. Further analysis of the confidentiality preserved by these methods is needed to fully understand the risk associated with the sharing of summary statistics.

Cross-sector partnerships in the South City Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CNI): An exploratory case study of collaboration network structure and process in Memphis, Tennessee

ABSTRACT Mixed-income initiatives represent promising anti-poverty strategies that assist families living in public housing in the United States. However, little is known about the extensive cross-sector partnerships required for implementation. We address these knowledge gaps by exploring partnerships within the South City Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (CNI) in Memphis, Tennessee. The following research questions guide the study: (1) what is the structure of inter-organizational relationships within the South City CNI partner network? and (2) what collaboration processes emerge within the network structure regarding communication, collaboration, and trust? Utilizing an exploratory case study design that leveraged social network analysis (SNA) and in-depth interviews, we found that the South City CNI was relatively dense and moderately centralized. A core group of partners was central for coordinating information and resources, but roles and positionality changed across each network. The presence of a high-capacity lead organization and multiple bridging organizations aided implementation. We conclude by discussing implications for practice, policy, and research.

Hospital Rating Organizations' Quality and Patient Safety Scores: Analysis of Result Discrepancies.

In the USA, multiple organizations rate hospitals based on quality and patient safety data, but few studies have analyzed and compared the rating results. Compare the results of different US hospital-rating organizations. Observational data analysis of US acute care hospital ratings. Four rating organizations: Hospital Compare® (HC), Healthgrades® (HG), The Leapfrog Group® (Leapfrog), and US News and World Report® (USN). We analyzed the level of concordance (similar ranking), discordance (difference of 1 or more rankings), and severe discordance (difference of two or more rankings), as well as differences and correlations between the scores. From Feb 1 to Oct 3, 2023, we analyzed data from 2,384 hospitals. In Leapfrog, there were 688 hospitals (29%) with Grade A, 652 (27.3%) with B, 885 (37.1%) with C, 153 (6.4%) with D, and 6 (0.3%) with F. For HC, 333 hospitals (14%) had five stars, 676 (28.4%) four, 695 (29.2%) three, 502 (21.4%) two, and 171 (7.2%) one-star. In ratings between HC and Leapfrog, discordance was 70%, and severe discordance was 25.1%. USN ranked 469 hospitals (19.7%). Within the USN-ranked hospital group, there was a 62% discordance and 19.8% severe discordance between HC and Leapfrog. The analysis of orthopedic procedures from HG and USN showed discordance ranging from 48 to 61.2%. The rating organizations' reported metrics were highly discordant. A hospital's ranking by one organization frequently did not correspond to a similar ranking by another. The methodology and included timeline and patient population can help explain the differences. However, the discordant ratings may confuse patients and customers.

Cost-benefit analysis of large-scale recycling of treated wastewater for indirect groundwater recharge in a semi-arid region

The large-scale recycling of treated wastewater plays a pivotal role in promoting groundwater sustainability, addressing water scarcity, and ensuring efficient resource utilization to achieve sustainable development goals. This study aimed to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of an innovative large-scale treated wastewater recycling project for indirect groundwater recharge in the Kolar district of Karnataka, India. Data regarding project and cultivation costs were obtained from multiple government organizations. Analysis was based on nine years of agricultural production data (2014–2022). A linear extrapolation was conducted on total production data, using 2018 as a reference point for a business-as-usual case, to quantify the benefits resulting from the project. The study's findings indicated a significant expansion in cultivated land and improved productivity due to the water security, leading to an increase in revenues. There was a significant 3-time increase in raw cocoon production and related revenues. Year-round filled tanks resulted in >24-times increase in fish production and revenues. The cost-benefit analysis confirmed that the project's benefits exceeded the costs, with a net present value of US$ 159.97 million at 8 % interest rates on fixed capital cost and a benefit-cost ratio (BCR) was 4.34. The BCR in the context of the cost of crop cultivation, raw cocoon, and fish production was 3.14. This indicates substantial economic benefits due to the water recycling project. Furthermore, the recycling project has potential to improve employment opportunities, boost local economy and promote sustainability. Results provide evidence for policymakers to design an integrated framework that includes treated wastewater reuse for groundwater recharge and achieve multiple Sustainable Development goal (SDG), mainly SDG - 2 (Zero hunger), 3 (Good health and well-being) and 6 (water and sanitation for all). This approach encourages circular economies, enhances agro-economic systems, and ensures a sustainable balance between development, agriculture, and resource responsibility in developing countries.

Assessing the state of obesity care: Quality, access, guidelines, and standards.

An international panel of obesity medicine experts from multiple professional organizations examined patterns of obesity care and current obesity treatment guidelines to identify areas requiring updating in response to emerging science and clinical evidence. The panel focused on multiple medical health and societal issues influencing effective treatment of obesity and identified several unmet needs in the definition, assessment, and care of obesity. The panel was held in Leesburg, Virginia in September 2019. The panelists recommended addressing these unmet needs in obesity medicine through research, education, evaluation of delivery and payment of care, and updating clinical practice guidelines (CPG) to better reflect obesity's pathophysiological basis and heterogeneity, as well as the disease's health, sociocultural, and economic complications; effects on quality of life; need for standards for quantitative comparison of treatment benefits, risks, and costs; and the need to more effectively integrate obesity treatment guidelines into routine clinical practice and to facilitate more direct clinician participation to improve public understanding of obesity as a disease with a pathophysiological basis. The panel also recommended that professional organizations working to improve the care of people with obesity collaborate via a working group to develop an updated, patient-focused, comprehensive CPG establishing standards of care, addressing identified needs, and providing for routine, periodic review and updating. Unmet needs in the definition, assessment and treatment of obesity were identified and a blueprint to address these needs developed via a clinical practice guideline that can be utilized worldwide to respond to the increasing prevalence of obesity.

Knowledge Gaps Identified in a Survey of Maine Physicians' Firearm Safety Counseling Practices.

Numerous medical associations have identified firearm injuries as a public health issue, calling on physicians to provide firearm safety counseling. Data suggest that while many physicians agree with this, few routinely screen and provide counseling. We aimed to survey Maine physicians to assess their current firearm safety counseling practices and knowledge of a new state child access prevention (CAP) law. We conducted an anonymous cross-sectional survey of Maine primary care and psychiatry physicians. We recruited multiple statewide medical organizations, residency programs, and two major health systems to distribute the survey to their membership. Group differences were compared by physician rurality and years in practice using Fisher's Exact and Chi Squared tests. Ninety-five surveys were completed. Though most participants agreed that firearm injury is an important public health issue that physicians can positively affect (92%), few had received prior firearm safety counseling education (27%). There were significant differences in firearm screening frequency, with rural physicians screening more often. More rural physicians and physicians with > 10 years of clinical practice felt they had adequate knowledge to provide meaningful counseling, compared with non-rural and early career physicians, respectively. Overall, 62% of participants were unaware of the 2021 Maine CAP law. This study highlights significant differences in firearm safety counseling practices among Maine physicians based on rurality and years of experience. Participants also reported a significant gap in knowledge of a recent state child access prevention law. Next steps include development of firearm safety counseling education tailored to Maine physicians.

Analyzing Misinformation Claims During the 2022 Brazilian General Election on WhatsApp, Twitter, and Kwai

Abstract This study analyzes misinformation claims sent to fact-checking organizations on WhatsApp during the 2022 Brazilian general election and compares them with content from Twitter and Kwai (a popular video-sharing application similar to TikTok). Given the democratic importance of accurate information during elections, multiple fact-checking organizations collaborated to collect and respond to misinformation via WhatsApp tiplines and power a fact-checking feature within a chatbot operated by Brazil’s election authority, the Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (TSE). We partnered with TSE and three fact-checking organizations and collected social media data to study how misinformation claims propagate across platforms. We observed little overlap between the users of different fact-checking tiplines and a high correlation between the number of users and the amount of unique content, suggesting that WhatsApp tiplines are far from reaching a saturation point. Similarly, we also found little overlap in content across platforms, indicating the need for further research with cross-platform approaches to identify misinformation dynamics.

The Influence of Dr. Rima Rudd's Organizational Health Literacy Scholarship in Maryland.

This article analyzes and reflects on Dr. Rima Rudd's organizational health literacy ideas and tools and their influence on the field generally and on four projects over 12 years in Maryland specifically. We present four organizational health literacy projects - two from oral health and two from COVID-19 vaccination - that used or were influenced by Dr. Rudd's the Health Literacy Environment of Hospitals and Health Centers. In the oral health projects, we describe the organizational assessments we conducted, the assessment results, and the actions organizations took in response. In a Frederick, Maryland, COVID-19 project, we worked with multiple organizations in a single city to train them in the organizational assessment process, and we report the activities and results of this training. In the Baltimore, Maryland COVID-19 project, we provided general information about organizational health literacy and trained key health professionals in local organizations. Our results confirm that Dr. Rudd's tools work mainly as intended because they help organizations or third-party evaluators identify health literacy barriers and create health literacy insights. Also, we observed that organizational health literacy tools can support organizations' interest in equity goals and increase their willingness to spend time on health literacy projects. Translating knowledge and skills to actions can require more time than organizations can commit or be more difficult than they can handle. In our projects, the four most positive examples were driven by a collaboration between our team and a change champion who had the power to institute new ideas and actions. While it can take time and money to gain traction, our Maryland work shows that organizational assessments are accessible, practical and tangible. We conclude that Dr. Rudd's influence extends beyond specific tools and is reflected in the field's acceptance of organizational and professional responsibility for health literacy as an equity and justice issue. [HLRP: Health Literacy Research and Practice. 2024;8(3):e151-e158.].

Allocation of Funds in Bilevel Subsidy Welfare Programs

Problem definition: Most subsidy welfare programs operate in a bilevel hierarchical structure, wherein a funding agency allocates funds to multiple service organizations. These service organizations invest in activities within their areas to generate societal impact for beneficiaries by enhancing the quantity and quality of services at local providers. The funds allocation decisions in such programs are complicated by the funding agency’s equity consideration, intricate relationships among contextual factors in societal impact generation, and information asymmetry between different entities about availability of additional funds for an agency. Methodology/results: We propose a model to analyze how the funding agency should allocate funds to generate the most societal impact equitably across areas. We show that the funding agency should direct more funds toward an area with a relatively balanced mix of subsidy-accepting and nonaccepting providers, or with fewer nonaccepting providers, and outreach activity is more likely to yield a higher investment return. Further, comparing the inequity levels and total societal impact under the proposed equity-ensuring method with those under other methods, we find that an efficiency-focused method enhances total societal impact, but can result in greater inequity, especially when there is a large across-area disparity in the size of beneficiaries. A simple formula-based method could achieve greater total societal impact, while not severely sacrificing equity in certain situations. Conversely, the equity-ensuring method always eliminates inequity by not severely sacrificing the total societal impact under a wide range of parameter values. Managerial implications: Given the growing impetus to consider equity within their operations, our equity-ensuring method helps the funding agencies adjust their allocation strategies to generate the greatest equitable impact. Finally, using a case study based on Massachusetts’ child care subsidy program, we illustrate that the proposed method achieves equity while enhancing the overall societal impact by approximately 3% versus the current formula-based method. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2022.0474 .

Antineoplastic Therapy Administration Safety Standards for Adult and Pediatric Oncology: ASCO-ONS Standards.

To update the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)-Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) standards for antineoplastic therapy administration safety in adult and pediatric oncology and highlight current standards for antineoplastic therapy for adult and pediatric populations with various routes of administration and location. ASCO and ONS convened a multidisciplinary Expert Panel with representation of multiple organizations to conduct literature reviews and add to the standards as needed. The evidence base was combined with the opinion of the ASCO-ONS Expert Panel to develop antineoplastic safety standards and guidance. Public comments were solicited and considered in preparation of the final manuscript. The standards presented here include clarification and expansion of existing standards to include home administration and other changes in processes of ordering, preparing, and administering antineoplastic therapy; the advent of immune effector cellular therapy; the importance of social determinants of health; fertility preservation; and pregnancy avoidance. In addition, the standards have added a fourth verification. Standards are provided for which health care organizations and those involved in all aspects of patient care can safely deliver antineoplastic therapy, increase the quality of care, and reduce medical errors.

CPSign: conformal prediction for cheminformatics modeling

Conformal prediction has seen many applications in pharmaceutical science, being able to calibrate outputs of machine learning models and producing valid prediction intervals. We here present the open source software CPSign that is a complete implementation of conformal prediction for cheminformatics modeling. CPSign implements inductive and transductive conformal prediction for classification and regression, and probabilistic prediction with the Venn-ABERS methodology. The main chemical representation is signatures but other types of descriptors are also supported. The main modeling methodology is support vector machines (SVMs), but additional modeling methods are supported via an extension mechanism, e.g. DeepLearning4J models. We also describe features for visualizing results from conformal models including calibration and efficiency plots, as well as features to publish predictive models as REST services. We compare CPSign against other common cheminformatics modeling approaches including random forest, and a directed message-passing neural network. The results show that CPSign produces robust predictive performance with comparative predictive efficiency, with superior runtime and lower hardware requirements compared to neural network based models. CPSign has been used in several studies and is in production-use in multiple organizations. The ability to work directly with chemical input files, perform descriptor calculation and modeling with SVM in the conformal prediction framework, with a single software package having a low footprint and fast execution time makes CPSign a convenient and yet flexible package for training, deploying, and predicting on chemical data. CPSign can be downloaded from GitHub at https://github.com/arosbio/cpsign.Scientific contribution CPSign provides a single software that allows users to perform data preprocessing, modeling and make predictions directly on chemical structures, using conformal and probabilistic prediction. Building and evaluating new models can be achieved at a high abstraction level, without sacrificing flexibility and predictive performance—showcased with a method evaluation against contemporary modeling approaches, where CPSign performs on par with a state-of-the-art deep learning based model.

Understanding barriers and facilitators to palliative and end-of-life care research: a mixed method study of generalist and specialist health, social care, and research professionals

BackgroundPalliative care provision should be driven by high quality research evidence. However, there are barriers to conducting research. Most research attention focuses on potential patient barriers; staff and organisational issues that affect research involvement are underexplored. The aim of this research is to understand professional and organisational facilitators and barriers to conducting palliative care research.MethodsA mixed methods study, using an open cross-sectional online survey, followed by working groups using nominal group techniques. Participants were professionals interested in palliative care research, working as generalist/specialist palliative care providers, or palliative care research staff across areas of North West England. Recruitment was via local health organisations, personal networks, and social media in 2022. Data were examined using descriptive statistics and content analysis.ResultsParticipants (survey n = 293, working groups n = 20) were mainly from clinical settings (71%) with 45% nurses and 45% working more than 10 years in palliative care. 75% were not active in research but 73% indicated a desire to increase research involvement. Key barriers included lack of organisational research culture and capacity (including prioritisation and available time); research knowledge (including skills/expertise and funding opportunities); research infrastructure (including collaborative opportunities across multiple organisations and governance challenges); and patient and public perceptions of research (including vulnerabilities and burdens). Key facilitators included dedicated research staff, and active research groups, collaborations, and networking opportunities.ConclusionsProfessionals working in palliative care are keen to be research active, but lack time, skills, and support to build research capabilities and collaborations. A shift in organisational culture is needed to enhance palliative care research capacity and collaborative opportunities across clinical and research settings.

Organizational Bricolage and Insurgent Group Effectiveness in Cities: The Formation and Initial Urban Campaign of the Movement of the 19th of April in Colombia (1973–1980)

Abstracts How do rebel groups form in cities? What makes urban-based insurgent organizations effective? Urban armed conflicts have become an important subject of research due to the political, economic, and demographic significance of cities. Yet, we know little about the mechanisms of insurgent group formation and effectiveness in urban contexts. Building on the case of the formation and initial urban campaign of M-19 in Colombia (1973–1980), this article argues that rebel leaders originating from multiple organizations and confronted with intramovement competition have strong motives to employ organizational bricolage to form their organization. Organizational bricolage shapes insurgent effectiveness by producing structures that are fit for achieving certain objectives but not others. M-19’s organizational bricolage combined the armed vanguard, intellectual collective, and populist party forms. This structure was effective to foster public support but ineffective to establish a robust social base and maintain urban operations under repression. The research employs the analysis of organizational repertoires and process tracing to retrace M-19’s formation and initial urban campaign. Empirical material includes an original dataset comprising M-19 founders’ biographical data, archival documents, and interviews with ex-combatants. Studying how rebel leaders employ organizational bricolage sheds light on how insurgent organizations form, behave, and transform after war.

Differential Private Federated Learning in Geographically Distributed Public Administration Processes

Public administration frequently deals with geographically scattered personal data between multiple government locations and organizations. As digital technologies advance, public administration is increasingly relying on collaborative intelligence while protecting individual privacy. In this context, federated learning has become known as a potential technique to train machine learning models on private and distributed data while maintaining data privacy. This work looks at the trade-off between privacy assurances and vulnerability to membership inference attacks in differential private federated learning in the context of public administration applications. Real-world data from collaborating organizations, concretely, the payroll data from the Ministry of Education and the public opinion survey data from Asia Foundation in Afghanistan, were used to evaluate the effectiveness of noise injection, a typical defense strategy against membership inference attacks, at different noise levels. The investigation focused on the impact of noise on model performance and selected privacy metrics applicable to public administration data. The findings highlight the importance of a balanced compromise between data privacy and model utility because excessive noise can reduce the accuracy of the model. They also highlight the need for careful consideration of noise levels in differential private federated learning for public administration tasks to provide a well-calibrated balance between data privacy and model utility, contributing toward transparent government practices.

Laying the ground for future cross-organizational process mining research and application: a literature review

Purpose Process mining (PM) has emerged as a leading technology for gaining data-based insights into organizations’ business processes. As processes increasingly cross-organizational boundaries, firms need to conduct PM jointly with multiple organizations to optimize their operations. However, current knowledge on cross-organizational process mining (coPM) is widely dispersed. Therefore, we synthesize current knowledge on coPM, identify challenges and enablers of coPM, and build a socio-technical framework and agenda for future research.Design/methodology/approach We conducted a literature review of 66 articles and summarized the findings according to the framework for Information Technology (IT)-enabled inter-organizational coordination (IOC) and the refined PM framework. The former states that within inter-organizational relationships, uncertainty sources determine information processing needs and coordination mechanisms determine information processing capabilities, while the fit between needs and capabilities determines the relationships’ performance. The latter distinguishes three categories of PM activities: cartography, auditing and navigation.Findings Past literature focused on coPM techniques, for example, algorithms for ensuring privacy and PM for cartography. Future research should focus on socio-technical aspects and follow four steps: First, determine uncertainty sources within coPM. Second, design, develop and evaluate coordination mechanisms. Third, investigate how the mechanisms assist with handling uncertainty. Fourth, analyze the impact on coPM performance. In addition, we present 18 challenges (e.g. integrating distributed data) and 9 enablers (e.g. aligning different strategies) for coPM application.Originality/valueThis is the first article to systematically investigate the status quo of coPM research and lay out a socio-technical research agenda building upon the well-established framework for IT-enabled IOC.

From a Spark, a Mighty Flame: How Germinal Networks Support Teachers of Color to Promote Change in Activist Organizations and Beyond

Background: Recent research has demonstrated that social justice teacher activist networks provide vital support to teachers of Color, reducing feelings of isolation and providing high-quality professional learning opportunities. Yet, there is a need for broader scaled research that looks across multiple activist organizations to add to our understandings of these findings. Focus of Study: Our study examines the network participation characteristics of 26 activist teachers of Color across 14 activist organizations in the United States. Our research questions were: (1) How do activist teachers of Color foster social capital in networks to influence policies and actions in their organizations and beyond? (2) What relationship exists between the participation structures of networks and the involvement of teachers of Color in the activist organizations? Research Design: Our research design used a critical social network research approach informed by Black feminist thought (BFT) and research on teacher activism. Our data included interviews from the 26 teachers and documents from their activist organizations. Our analysis involved a macro-to-micro qualitative network analysis of data, which afforded a broad view of network characteristics and deep descriptions of the stories of a subset of teachers. Conclusions: We found that the teachers of Color who were involved in affinity-based groups and subgroups were often the germinators of policy and action shifts, usually related to racial and intersectional justice in their organization. We call this network phenomenon a germinal network. We explore other features of germinal networks, such as a tendency toward reflexivity and mentorship-seeking and support. This study has implications for future critical research on social networks and the design of radically inclusive and humanizing social infrastructures in education-related organizations.

Design, rationale and protocol for Glycemic Observation and Metabolic Outcomes in Mothers and Offspring (GO MOMs): an observational cohort study

IntroductionGiven the increasing prevalence of both obesity and pre-diabetes in pregnant adults, there is growing interest in identifying hyperglycaemia in early pregnancy to optimise maternal and perinatal outcomes. Multiple organisations...