Onboarding Process Research Articles

Remote app-based management of atrial fibrillation during the COVID-19: The centre characteristics and experiences of the European TeleCheck-AF project

Funding AcknowledgementsType of funding sources: None.OnBehalfTeleCheck-AF InvestigatorsAimsHerein we describe the characteristics, inclusion rates and experiences from participating centres in the European TeleCheck-AF project. TeleCheck-AF is a multicentre international project initiated to maintain care delivery for patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) during COVID-19 through teleconsultations supported by an on-demand photoplethysmography-based heart rate and rhythm monitoring app (FibriCheck®). MethodsTwo surveys exploring centre characteristics (n = 25) and centre experiences (n = 23) were completed.ResultsMost centres were academic (64%) and specialized public cardiology/district hospitals (36%). Majority of centres had AF outpatient clinics (64%) and only 36% had AF ablation clinics. The time required to start patient inclusion and total number of included patients in the project was comparable for centres experienced (56%) or inexperienced in mHealth use. Within 28 weeks, 1930 AF patients were recruited, mainly for remote AF control (31% of patients) and AF ablation follow-up (42%). Average inclusion rate was highest during the lockdown restrictions and reached a steady state at a lower level after easing the restrictions (188 vs 52 weekly recruited patients). Majority (>80%) of the centres reported no problems during the implementation of the TeleCheck-AF approach. Centres agreed that the on-boarding process of their center in the TeleCheck-AF project was simple and access to the patients measurements via stand-alone cloud infrastructure was trouble-free and possible from the first day on. They also agreed that remote heart rate and rhythm assessment by the FibriCheck® app around teleconsulatation supported their medical decision making; that their patients responded positively to use FibriCheck® for seven days; and that they felt comfortable to interpret PPG recordings. ConclusionsDespite different health care settings and mHealth experiences, the TeleCheck-AF approach could be set up within an extremely short time and easily used in different European centres during COVID-19. Figure.

User Perceptions and Privacy Information in the Smart Speaker Onboarding Process

User Perceptions and Privacy Information in the Smart Speaker Onboarding Process

Transitioning to a virtual onboarding process during the COVID-19 pandemic: An interview with Kat Judd, Vice President of People and Culture at Lucid

Transitioning to a virtual onboarding process during the COVID-19 pandemic: An interview with Kat Judd, Vice President of People and Culture at Lucid

Eat Well El Paso!: Lessons Learned From a Community-Level Restaurant Initiative to Increase Availability of Healthy Options While Celebrating Local Cuisine.

Restaurants have the potential to improve nutrition and positively shape social norms. We describe lessons learned and recommended strategies from Eat Well El Paso! (EWEP), a local restaurant initiative. Descriptive case study. EWEP partnered with local restaurants from 2012-2017 in El Paso, Texas, along the US/Mexico border. Our sampling frame included EWEP staff and managers/owners at participating restaurants, of which the majority participated (80% and 85%, respectively). EWEP was a local restaurant initiative led by the city public health department. EWEP contracted registered dietitians to assist locally-owned restaurants to increase availability of healthy menu options. Observation, key informant interviews, and document review assessed participation, barriers, and facilitators to restaurant participation and program sustainability. Thematic and descriptive analyses. 57% of restaurants completed the full on-boarding process, but long-term retention was low (24% of completers). Restaurant managers/owners perceived value in marketing, nutritional analysis, and menu design. Barriers included scheduling, complexity of restaurant culture, fear of food inspections, restaurant turnover, competing responsibilities, and lack of dedicated funding. Although local context and sample size may limit generalizability, lessons learned and recommended strategies are relevant and informative for communities working to increase restaurants' healthy menu options.

Employing reflective practice to inform adjunct-faculty onboarding

ABSTRACT Reflective practice has long been considered an important part of professional development for educators; however, accounts of utilizing reflective practice with groups of experienced teachers remain scarce. We consider reflective practice to be an important means of fostering professional discourse among experienced teachers regarding their pedagogical beliefs and practices. To that end, this paper describes a reflective practice innovation introduced in an undergraduate English composition program in a Japanese university. In what follows we, as experienced teachers, detail how a reflective-practice routine (RPR) was established and used to evaluate the efficacy of existing curricular materials to inform adjunct-faculty onboarding and professional development. In closing, we make several recommendations related to scheduling, maintaining focused and constructive interactions when implementing an RPR, and we provide examples of how the results of the RPR were applied to improve our onboarding process, teaching practices, and course materials.

Preboarding, Orientation, and Onboarding of New Pharmacy Faculty During a Global Pandemic

Recruitment of new faculty requires a significant investment of time, effort, and money, so it is important to set up new faculty for short- and long-term success in their new role.[1][1] One way to do this is to have new faculty participate in a formal onboarding process as it can increase the

Challenges of early career extension agents in Florida

Extension agents serve a critical role in the land-grant mission as they disseminate research to local clientele in the form of educational programs. However, Extension agents face a myriad of challenges, such as the changing scope of clientele and programming, nature of the job, and burnout. Much research focuses specifically on new agent challenges within the first year, however, few studies have focused on early career Extension agents after the initial onboarding process is complete. We used a phenomenological approach to explore the challenges of early career Extension agents, which yielded eleven major themes, such as a lack of understanding Extension, the nature of the job and understanding their role, and personal pressure. Another major theme was the lack of Extension knowledge of early career Extension agents which could stem from the lack of formalized Extension education programs and professional development programs targeted to early career agents. Social capital theory could be used to better understand the social networks of early career Extension agents, how these networks form over time, and what type of impact social networks have on new Extension agents.

1030 Inferring physicians’ decisional cues for low-dose aspirin eligibility using a prenatal care app

Randomized controlled trials show that taking low-dose aspirin (LDASA) during pregnancy is effective at modifying pre-eclampsia risk. We use data collected through a prenatal care app prescribed to all pregnant patients in a large academic healthcare system to identify those who are eligible for low-dose aspirin and examine which risk factors providers appear to rely on in making a LDASA recommendation. The MyHealthyPregnancyTM (MHP) app was routinely prescribed to pregnant patients at their first prenatal appointment. A secondary analysis of a prospective observational study examined rates of patients meeting US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) risk criteria for taking LDASA through questions administered as part of an app onboarding process. MHP also prompted users with the following monthly question, “Since you've been pregnant, has your provider recommended that you take aspirin?” From November 2019 - Sept, 2020, the MHP app onboarded 2,910 users. Of the 1724 that voluntarily reported USPSTF risk criteria through the app, 17% (295) had at least one high risk factor. Of the 2,056 that reported moderate risk factors, 52% (1,067) had two or more moderate risk factors. Of the 1439 that reported whether they received LDASA recommendation, 13% (184) indicated that their physician recommended LDASA, 85% reported not receiving a recommendation, and 2% expressed uncertainty. Only 41% (53/130) of those who completed the recommendation question and met the USPSTF high risk criteria and 15% (80/530) who met moderate risk criteria were correctly recommended LDASA. Table 1 illustrates the risk criteria associated with patients receiving LDASA recommendation. Using a prenatal app for tracking, the majority of users meeting high and moderate risk criteria reported not receiving LDASA recommendation from their provider, despite evidence-based guidelines for pre-eclampsia prevention. Providers may rely on some cues for LDASA eligibility at the cost of others. Findings suggest opportunities for prenatal app-based identification of those at-risk, as well as intervention.

Talkspace receives NIH grants to conduct telepsychiatry research

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded the teletherapy platform Talkspace two grants worth nearly $7 million to research patients' experiences with digital mental health services. The first grant is almost $4 million and comes from the NIH's National Institute of Mental Health Small Business Innovation Research program. It will support a four‐year randomized controlled trial that compares daily messaging‐only therapy to once‐weekly live video session therapy. The study will track differences in outcomes, engagement, ratings of the therapist, type of treatment provided and more to gauge the effectiveness of the different forms of care. Talkspace was also given a $3 million NIH R01 grant for which it will partner with the University of Washington's School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering, and Mental Health America. Together, the organizations will investigate the types of traits among patients who benefit the most from digital therapy, as well as how to enhance the onboarding and orientation process to improve user engagement and outcomes.

Feasibility and Acceptability of a Remotely Delivered, Web-Based Behavioral Intervention for Men With Prostate Cancer: Four-Arm Randomized Controlled Pilot Trial.

BackgroundDiet and exercise may be associated with quality of life and survival in men with prostate cancer.ObjectiveThis study aimed to determine the feasibility and acceptability of a remotely delivered web-based behavioral intervention among men with prostate cancer.MethodsWe conducted a multi-site 4-arm pilot randomized controlled trial of a 3-month intervention (TrueNTH Community of Wellness). Eligibility included self-reported prostate cancer diagnosis, having a personal device that connected to the internet, age ≥18 years, and ability to read English and receive text messages and emails. Men receiving chemotherapy or radiation, or those who reported contraindications to exercise, could participate with physician clearance. Participants were randomized (1:1:1:1) to additive intervention levels: website; website and personalized diet and exercise prescription; website, personalized prescription, Fitbit, and text messages; and website, personalized prescription, Fitbit, text messages, and 2 30-minute phone calls—one with an exercise trainer and one with a registered dietician. Primary outcomes were feasibility (accrual and attrition) and acceptability (survey data and website use). We described self-reported diet and exercise behavior at the time of enrollment, 3 months, and 6 months as secondary outcomes.ResultsIn total, 202 men consented and were randomized between August 2017 and September 2018 (level 1: 49, level 2: 51, level 3: 50, level 4: 52). A total of 160 men completed the onboarding process and were exposed to their randomly assigned intervention (38, 38, 42, and 42 in levels 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively). The follow-up rate was 82.7% (167/202) at 3 months and 77.2% (156/202) at 6 months. Participants had a median age of 70 years and were primarily White and college educated. Website visit frequency over the 3-month intervention period increased across levels (median: 2, 9, 11, and 16 visits for levels 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively). Most were satisfied or very satisfied with the intervention (20/39, 51%; 27/42, 64%; 23/44, 52%; and 27/42, 64% for levels 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively). The percentage of men who reported being very satisfied was highest among level 4 participants (10/42, 24% vs 4/39, 10%; 5/42, 12%; and 5/44, 11% for levels 1, 2, and 3, respectively). Dissatisfaction was highest in level 1 (5/39, 13% vs 1/42, 2%; 3/44, 7%; and 2/42, 5% for levels 2, 3, and 4, respectively). We observed small improvements in diet and physical activity at 3 months among men in level 4 versus those in level 1.ConclusionsA web-based, remotely delivered, tailored behavioral intervention for men with prostate cancer is feasible. Future studies are warranted to increase the effect of the intervention on patient behavior while maintaining sustainability and scalability as well as to design and implement interventions for more diverse populations.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT03406013; http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03406013

Ehi’s Predictions for the Anti-Money Laundering Sector in 2021

The year 2020 witnessed the introduction of new rules and regulations by the United Kingdom for virtual asset service providers, and for the first time, a Bitcoin “Mixer” was Penalized by the United States Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) for Violating Anti-Money Laundering Laws. The anti-money laundering landscape also witnessed a shift from documentation based procedures to electronic evidence. This was as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The year 2021 will likely continue from where the year 2020 stopped with more regulations and enforcement actions.This paper provides an in-depth review and analysis of the topics that are likely to trend on the anti-money laundering space in 2021. This paper predicts that countries around the world will introduce more rules and regulations for virtual asset service providers along with the adoption of an appropriate mix of on-site and off-site supervision of dealers in precious metals, precious stones or jewels, including the introduction of corporate transparency and register reforms. This paper also predicts that financial institutions will enhance their anti-money laundering systems and controls to accommodate application programming interfaces during the customer onboarding process, and upgrade their anti-money laundering surveillance monitoring systems to a new system that can detect highly suspicious transaction patterns including possible layering schemes, transactions not commensurate with the business’s purpose, and commingling of funds between two independent check cashing entities. This paper concludes that the combined power of robotic process automation, machine learning technology and human intelligence will help to deter and detect money laundering.

Resumption of Elective Orthopaedic Surgery in the US Epicenter of COVID-19.

On March 1, 2020, New York State confirmed its first case of COVID-19. This state has had the largest initial mortality in the United States with more than 479,000 confirmed cases and over 25,000 deaths as of October 10, 2020. All elective surgeries in New York State were suspended on March 23, 2020, due to the national state of emergency. Syosset Hospital is a 75-bed community hospital dedicated primarily to elective surgery. During the COVID-19 surge, the hospital was converted to provide needed beds for the treatment of COVID-19 illness. In anticipation of the resumption of urgent elective procedures, this hospital became one of the two designated sites within the Northwell Health system to be “non-COVID.” Once the hospital was emptied of all inpatients, a complete and thorough cleaning and disinfection was performed on the entire building. All equipment was thoroughly decontaminated following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines. In anticipation of the resumption of elective surgery, each surgeon evaluated their cancelled case list to determine patient priority, based on a scale of 1 (elective, non-urgent), 2 (semi-urgent), 3 (urgent), to 4 (highly urgent). Site-specific disaster credentialing was expedited so that emergent surgeries could be performed by surgeons located at other Northwell sites. To ensure a structured and informative onboarding process, each visiting surgeon received a “welcome” email which requested pertinent information to facilitate the surgical process. Presurgical, surgical, and postoperative protocols were revised based on federal and local guidance and regulations. Resumption of elective surgery post COVID-19 placed the hospital into uncharted territory.

Telemedicine for cancer care: implementation across a multicenter community oncology practice.

To describe onboarding and utilization of telemedicine across a large statewide community oncology practice and to evaluate trends, barriers, and opportunities in care delivery during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. We describe telemedicine onboarding and utilization across a statewide oncology practice, covering 221 sites of service and more than 650 practitioners. We describe qualitatively the onboarding process of a diverse set of administrative, technical, and clinical partners. We describe quantitatively utilization throughout the practice. We describe a survey conducted to enlighten barriers and opportunities for optimal utilization. Multistakeholder education was directed to clinical teams, administrative and technical support staff, and patients through webinars and team meetings. Utilization was high from April through October 2020, representing 15% to 20% of new-patient visits and 20% to 25% of established-patient visits. In a survey offered to all clinicians, 96% of respondents indicated they are using telemedicine, with 33% using it for more than 25% of patient encounters. Among respondents, 59% reported that the use of telemedicine helps expedite diagnosis and treatment more than seeing patients in person in the clinic, 55% of respondents managed urgent issues by telemedicine, 80% believed that patients benefited From urgent assessment by telemedicine, and 57% believed an emergency department visit or a hospitalization was avoided because of a telemedicine visit. Most clinicians reported that patients enjoy benefits of telemedicine because of decreased exposure risk, decreased transportation requirements, and ease of including caregivers in the visit with the treating clinician. The most common barriers to patients accessing telemedicine were technical challenges and broadband access. Despite this, less than 5% of respondents routinely use telephone-only communication, as most typically use bimodal audio/video communication. Many clinicians have expansion ideas on how telemedicine can further expand the longitudinal care delivery for our patient population. Telemedicine can be implemented successfully across a large statewide oncology practice and service a high volume of patients. Clinicians utilize telemedicine for new and established patients with minimal dysfunction. Clinicians believe patients benefit From telemedicine For new, established, and urgent care visits. Broadband access functionality should be explored to optimally serve our patient population.

Coaching and Mentoring Experiences of Early Career Extension Agents in Florida Received from County Extension Directors

County Extension directors (CEDs) are Extension agents who have both programmatic and administrative responsibilities. A critical role of Florida CEDs is to coach and mentor new Extension agents in their county office. Most literature surrounding the onboarding process of new Extension hires focuses on Extension agents within their first year on the job, with little attention on their subsequent years on the job. This study sought to understand the coaching and mentoring experiences of early career Extension agents (one to three years on the job) received from CEDs. Findings revealed eight major themes, including CED years of experience as an agent, lack of CED onboarding, and intentionality of meeting regularly. Overall, CEDs were substantially more optimistic about their early career agents’ coaching and mentoring experiences than the agents themselves, revealing a major difference in perception regarding the impact of this critical CED role. UF/IFAS Extension should provide more resources to create needed onboarding training for new CEDs and tools to help CEDs be more effective coaches and mentors for new and early career Extension agents.

User Experience Evaluation Methodology in the Onboarding Process: Snapchat Case Study

User experience (UX) has been a hot topic and should be an integral part of the design process – from the early concept to the final product. This article introduces a UX evaluation methodology that helps collect the pragmatic and hedonic attributes of an application in the onboarding process. Moreover, the presented method helps not just to understand the UX (including customers’ unconscious need, desire, and pain points) but also to make the development points clear and straightforward to everyone in the product management team. We focus on a social media platform – Snapchat.

Remote onboarding and training of new program coordinators into the medical education office during Covid-19 social distance quarantine: process and recommendations

ABSTRACT Background The Medical Education Office at Rochester Regional Health was required to remotely onboard and train its new program coordinators using telework during the Covid-19 quarantine restrictions mandating all non-clinical administrative staff work from home. Objective To implement a remote onboarding and training process for new program coordinators that would introduce solutions for learning new tasks, maintain business operations effectively, and prevent employee feelings of isolation. Method The System Director of Medical Education implemented eight actionable items to remotely train the new program coordinators, consisting of creating a virtual workday, planning for purposeful learning, developing spreadsheets for process flow, engaging other staff for mini-tutorials, scheduling remote meet and greets, assigning supplemental self-learning modules, establishing standard virtual meeting formats, and conducting regular one to one check-ins. Results Recommendations for successful results during training are to be specific in communication, think a step ahead and reassure the employee. Conclusion The Medical Education Office successfully used the eight actions as a remote onboarding and training platform for new hires.

Editorial introductions

Editorial introductions

Rapid Deployment of a Free, Privacy-Assured COVID-19 Symptom Tracker for Public Safety During Reopening: System Development and Feasibility Study.

BackgroundSince the emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the number of cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the United States has exponentially increased. Identifying and monitoring individuals with COVID-19 and individuals who have been exposed to the disease is critical to prevent transmission. Traditional contact tracing mechanisms are not structured on the scale needed to address this pandemic. As businesses reopen, institutions and agencies not traditionally engaged in disease prevention are being tasked with ensuring public safety. Systems to support organizations facing these new challenges are critically needed. Most currently available symptom trackers use a direct-to-consumer approach and use personal identifiers, which raises privacy concerns.ObjectiveOur aim was to develop a monitoring and reporting system for COVID-19 to support institutions conducting monitoring activities without compromising privacy.MethodsOur multidisciplinary team designed a symptom tracking system after consultation with experts. The system was designed in the Georgetown University AvesTerra knowledge management environment, which supports data integration and synthesis to identify actionable events and maintain privacy. We conducted a beta test for functionality among consenting Georgetown University medical students.ResultsThe symptom tracker system was designed based on guiding principles developed during peer consultations. Institutions are provided access to the system through an efficient onboarding process that uses clickwrap technology to document agreement to limited terms of use to rapidly enable free access. Institutions provide their constituents with a unique identifier to enter data through a web-based user interface to collect vetted symptoms as well as clinical and epidemiologic data. The website also provides individuals with educational information through links to the COVID-19 prevention recommendations from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Safety features include instructions for people with new or worsening symptoms to seek care. No personal identifiers are collected in the system. The reporter mechanism safeguards data access so that institutions can only access their own data, and it provides institutions with on-demand access to the data entered by their constituents, organized in summary reports that highlight actionable data. Development of the system began on March 15, 2020, and it was launched on March 20, 2020. In the beta test, 48 Georgetown University School of Medicine students or their social contacts entered data into the system from March 31 to April 5, 2020. One of the 48 users (2%) reported active COVID-19 infection and had no symptoms by the end of the monitoring period. No other participants reported symptoms. Only data with the unique entity identifier for our beta test were generated in our summary reports.ConclusionsThis system harnesses insights into privacy and data sharing to avoid regulatory and legal hurdles to rapid adaption by entities tasked with maintaining public safety. Our pilot study demonstrated feasibility and ease of use. Refinements based on feedback from early adapters included release of a Spanish language version. These systems provide technological advances to complement the traditional contact tracing and digital tracing applications being implemented to limit SARS-CoV-2 transmission during reopening.

Supervisor Perceptions of Newly Credentialed Athletic Trainers' Transition to Practice

Context Transition to practice for newly credentialed athletic trainers (ATs) has been described through the perspective of educators, supervisors of graduate assistant ATs, students, and recent graduates; however, the opinion of supervisors of full-time ATs has not been thoroughly investigated. Objective (1) Describe supervisor perceptions of the transition to full-time practice for newly credentialed ATs and (2) describe current onboarding processes used by employers. Design Phenomenological qualitative study. Setting Semistructured interviews. Patients or Other Participants Purposive sample of 10 (4 men, 6 women) supervisors of newly credentialed ATs. Supervisors reported an average of 13.5 years of supervisory experience (range, 5–26 years). Data Collection and Analysis Questions addressed supervisor expectations, strengths and weaknesses of newly credentialed ATs, and the organization's onboarding process. The primary researcher transcribed audio recordings and each participant reviewed transcripts. Two researchers coded themes using an inductive process; a peer auditor completed an independent review. Disagreements were negotiated until consensus was reached. Results Two categories emerged: (1) characteristics of newly credentialed ATs and (2) onboarding strategies. The first category was organized into 2 subcategories: (1) knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) and (2) unrealistic job expectations. The majority of supervisors felt that newly credentialed ATs were knowledgeable; however, the translation of knowledge into practice was viewed as an area requiring mentorship. Participants also reported that newly credentialed ATs often were poorly informed of the work schedule and time demands. In regard to onboarding processes, the researchers identified 7 different strategies reported by supervisors. Conclusions Newly credentialed ATs were perceived as knowledgeable but struggling to transition knowledge to clinical practice and often did not understand the work demands. Seven onboarding strategies were reported by participants; each of these can be used to develop KSAs of newly credentialed ATs. The KSAs should be addressed through a yearlong process consisting of orientations, shadowing, mentorship, seminars, and skill assessments.

Evaluating and strategizing the onboarding of software developers in large-scale globally distributed projects

The combination of scale and distribution in software projects makes the onboarding of new developers problematic. To the best of our knowledge, there is no research on the relationship between onboarding strategies and the performance evolution of newcomers in large-scale, globally distributed projects. Furthermore, there are no approaches to support the development of strategies to systematically onboard developers. In this paper, we address these gaps by means of an industrial case study. We identified that the following aspects seem to be related to the observed onboarding results: the distance to mentors, the formal training approach used, the allocation of large and distributed tasks in the early stages of the onboarding process, and team instability. We conclude that onboarding must be planned well ahead and should consider avoiding the aspects mentioned above. Based on the results of this investigation, we propose a process to strategize and evaluate onboarding. To develop the process, we used business process modeling. We conducted a static validation of the proposed process utilizing interviews with experts. The static validation of the process indicates that it can help companies to deal with the challenges associated with the onboarding of newcomers through more systematic, effective, and repeatable onboarding strategies.