Team Partners Research Articles

The university role in the innovative leadership of small to medium sized enterprises

PurposeSociety now expects the universities it funds to work with citizens and communities to enable them to flourish in sustainable ways. One particular aspect of this concerns support for small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) which, more than ever, need universities to help them cost effectively be innovative, and at the leading edge, for markets which are now global in outreach. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the kinds of approach and leadership that academics must put into their academic practices, in order to creatively and constructively lead local partnerships – partnerships that will be both successful and sustainable.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 185 rigorous cases studies were undertaken of successful university outreach activity in 30 universities across Europe. Senior staff of those universities used their collective judgment to determine the 16 “best leaders” of these projects in terms of entrepreneurial skills and wealth‐creating impacts. These leaders were then thematically interviewed and videoed, and their immediate staff indicated what leadership characteristics best described them. All data were content analysed. Then the best practice approaches, which actually helped SMEs, were elicited and the qualities of the 16 leaders were revealed.FindingsBest practice projects, from all studied, clearly showed a “virtuous knowledge sharing” cycle, where holistic and co‐creating inter‐disciplinary team‐working was the norm. Teams of academics and SME partners in these projects worked extremely closely together to co‐produce “real world” solutions. While often “reluctant leaders”, the academics who normally drove these entrepreneurial projects to success had all of the characteristics often ascribed to leaders, as described in the general leadership literature. However, in the case of these university reach‐out leaders, these entrepreneurial academics had a particular focus in striving to be “democratically empowering”; their aspiration was to ensure innovative skills were successfully passed onto others in their teams, including their external partners, to enable powerful and collective co‐creation.Social implicationsThis paper has profound social implications, especially in our present global financial extreme, as it focuses on the kinds of leadership that academics should put into practice in order to work more creatively and effectively with local SME partnerships. The approach has also shown how such leadership can also lead to successful social enterprises in their own right.Originality/valueThe working of universities with SMEs is very much a Cinderella area in higher education research. The approach described in this paper deals with this topic in an evidential and highly innovative way. It uniquely heralds, and describes in some detail, a new kind of university which strives to co‐identify problems worthy of exploration with local partners, the kind of co‐learning that engenders co‐creation and co‐design, and also the co‐production with local SMEs that can lead them to survive and to flourish. This has recently been recognized by the PASCAL International Observatory for place management, social capital and learning regions, which has adopted the approach in its “Universities for a Modern Renaissance programme”.

Sana: democratizing access to quality healthcare using an open mhealth architecture

Introduction: Sana is a cell phone-facilitated clinical information system that connects community health workers and medical specialists, to improve screening and diagnostics in resource-constrained settings. Aims and objectives: The platform allows the transmission of any type of medical data—text, audio, video or photo—from a rural health worker to a remote medical specialist for real-time decision support, and for incorporation into an electronic medical record in order to facilitate care, quality control and allow statistical analysis. By functioning as a portable medical record, Sana also offers the ability to track patients more easily. The point-of-care platform is open source and customizable, allowing doctors to encode new assessments onto smart-phones for a specific application, or to use existing ones. The Sana team partners with universities, social enterprises, governments, NGOs and health organizations in resource-poor countries to assist with implementations of the Sana platform. There are currently eight deployments of Sana in Brazil, Greece, India, the Philippines, Swaziland and Zimbabwe, covering a range of clinical areas. Results: One of the most urgent problems in resource-poor areas of the world is a shortage of doctors, and especially medical specialists. The biggest implementation of the Sana platform so far has been for the early detection of oral cancer in rural south India. It enables frontline community health workers to screen for precancerous and cancerous lesions by using Sana’s clinical decision support tools in dental hospitals and primary health clinics. Diagnosing oral cancer lesions at an early stage can reduce morbidity, mortality and cost of treatment. Screening processes also increase awareness of risk factors for oral cancer among the population, such as smoking and betel nut chewing. The solution was first implemented in June 2010 and more local health workers and support staff were brought on board in February 2011. By August 2010, up to 6000 people had been screened for oral cancer in the state of Karnataka. 300 patients were identified as high risk and their clinical data, including a photo of the inside of their mouth, were reviewed by an oral cancer specialist at a large tertiary care centre. The plan over the next year is to scale the project to screen one and a half million people in the province of Karnataka. The developed world, meanwhile, is facing a crisis of an ageing population and a growing burden of chronic disease. In Greece, Sana has been deployed to treat one of the complications of a chronic disease, diabetes. Diabetes continues to be the most common underlying cause of nontraumatic lower extremity amputations, mainly due to foot ulcerations. Sana has developed a mobile health platform for diabetic foot tele-health and a pilot clinical trial to evaluate it is under development in Central Greece. The patients are offered

Involving the Rural Landscape Environmental Principle in Strategic Planning by Sustainable Symbiosis and Cultural Creativity Involvement

In the context of globalization, urban development's core value, the connotation and the future had the huge transformation and the innovation. If the community planning advances to the international competition city, innovation in populace mobilization, inject new life concept and Change traditional industry management state is a series of urgent execution important work. And impetus community development and professional planners union for and international scene trail connection important interface also for current important development topic. Main topic namely by thorough community actual subject design, strengthens the community development and professional planners new knowledge energy such us the community space society to diagnose ability, the community develops the policy and the resources utilization, community space different specialized cooperation creativity ponder, communication skills, the operation and management of community workshops, international perspective, as well as community planning team and community partnership, continues forever the environment ecology by the specialized community manager and community resident communal development set of brand-new technologies and the life quality's new target, creation in the future turning point. And the new issues of city and countryside region activation and restoration are the key interface in line with the international arena and are the current important development topic.

Preparing Nursing Students to be Effective Health Team Partners through Interprofessional Education

This article will provide an overview of recent significant activities related to interprofessional education to promote care quality through teamwork and collaboration, followed by a discussion of what nursing schools can do to develop the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values to enhance health care team performance and care outcomes.

A New Aging Workforce Productivity Model: Using a New Modification of the QE Staffing and Scheduling Methods

A new model based on a modification of the QE Staffing and Scheduling Methods that solves many of our aging population problems by helping older retired workers re-enter the workforce while at the same time creating more and better jobs for both older and younger workers when they are scheduled togehter into job sharing team partnerships.

Proceso creativo y ready-made en la publicidad

The creation of advertising is the result of a bricolage process between a copywriter and an art director leading to an end result. These professional people work as partnership teams in advertising agencies and are responsible for the development of advertising messages. In this process, they use all forms of cultural material to stimulate them in creating the requested pieces. Both individuals systematically draw from the raw material of existing images and phrases to create meaning in the advertising in a way that makes us think of Duchamp's ready-mades. This article is a reflection on the ready-made as method of advertisement creation and the implications of it in the world of signs.

A community-based participatory approach to a hepatitis B intervention for Korean Americans.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and liver cancer are severe health problems among Korean Americans. Most Korean Americans are neither screened nor vaccinated against HBV owing to substantial access barriers. The primary objective of this article is to highlight how our team of academic researchers and community partners worked together to apply a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach to developing, implementing, and evaluating a culturally appropriate, church-based HBV screening and vaccination intervention program for Korean Americans. Guided by CBPR, multiple strategies were used to form academic-community partnerships in the development and implementation of the culturally appropriate HBV intervention program in the Korean-American community. These include the formation of a community advisory board (CAB) and adoption of CBPR principles, community needs assessment, development and evaluation of the pilot intervention program, and the full-scale community controlled trial. The pilot intervention results indicated significant increases in screening and vaccination rates in the intervention group compared with the control group. With the success of the partnership and pilot study, Korean church leaders, CAB members, and researchers are currently co-leading a full-scale intervention study to further evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention program. The current study highlights the role and contributions of multiple partners through five phases and discusses the challenges and lessons learned for how to sustain intervention programs by emphasizing common vision, trust development, shared recognition, capacity building, long-term commitments to partnership building, and balance between science and community needs.

The QE Staffing and Scheduling Methods

The QE Staffing and Scheduling Methods (QE Methods) were originally developed to optimize staffing and scheduling systems in seven day a week health care facilities, but the methods are applicable to all industries currently operating, or planning to operate, seven days a week.The driving force behind the efficacy of the QE Methods is the uniquely designed dynamic job sharing team partnerships that enable people to work less and produce more (more synergy). The QE Methods also create a uniquely new economically advanced work and leisure time culture, more quality and efficiency (QE), more and better products and services, more and better jobs, more economic growth and a better economy. They also solve unemployment problems, aging population problems, education system problems, and they help reduce our energy consumption and protect our environment in the process.

Survival After Free Flap Reconstruction in Patients With Advanced Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

I read with great interest the article by deVincente et al. As a clinician active in the management of patients with malignant tumors of the oral cavity, I was hoping for an increased support of the costly and time-consuming interventions undertaken on behalf of patients with oral cancer. Despite its title, however, the article did not identify a survival advantage to treatment by a microvascular free tissue transfer or a locoregional flap. In fact, the article identified rates of recurrence of nearly 50% for either study group. What this indicates to me is that the biologic behavior of the tumor is the determining factor in survival. I have participated in the surgical treatment of patients with oral cancer as the reconstructive team partner with several ablative surgeons. It is clear to me that the ablative surgeon is influenced to use wider margins by the availability of a microvascular free tissue transfer to effectively reconstruct large defects of the oral cavity reliably and with good restoration of function. There is no question in my mind that the ablative surgeon uses wider margins when I am reconstructing with free flaps versus locoregional flaps. I am clearly aware that when I am also the ablative surgeon, the margins are wider, despite a lack of evidence to support the practice. What is apparent to me is that the size of the margins is probably irrelevant. The authors’ article documented positive margins in 12.2% and 8.2% of patients in the study groups, yet 50% (51% and 49%) of patients developed recurrence. I believe there is good evidence to support the ongoing genetic alteration in the tissues adjacent to the primary tumor that are responsible for such a high recurrence rate in patients with histologically negative margins. This clearly indicates that the current

Concentrated heat storage for solar heating

The Independent Solar System (ISS) project was initiated in 2008 in order to develop a solar thermal heating system capable of covering the full-year heat and hot water load of a single family house using high temperature thermal storage. A team of European solar thermal experts, research institutions and industrial partners developed the system by combining innovative technologies (high temperature heat transfer fluid, super-insulated storage tanks and a specialized control system) with standard off-the-shelf components. The aim was to create an efficient, affordable and reliable solar thermal heating and hot water system operating at high temperatures for small and medium sized buildings. In 2009, the first prototype system was produced and installed on a pilot building. Over the 2009-2010 heating period actual performance of the prototype system was monitored using web-based applications and then evaluated against system performance simulations. The data shows promising potential for this renewable energy solution for homes in south and central Europe.

The levels of engagement in sport activity by partners and athletes in the teams of unified football during Special Olympics

Abstract Introduction: Unified Sports are the official programme of Special Olympics, which brings together people with intellectual disabilities (athletes) with their peers with no such disabilities (partners) in teams, in trainings and during competitions. The aim: The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the level of engagement in sport activity by partners and athletes in the teams of unified football programme during Special Olympics. Materials and methods: 206 participants - 113 athletes and 93 partners - from the teams of unified football programme took part in the research in Poland. The average age among the athletes was 15.5, and among the partners 15.7. The results obtained are just a fraction of deeper, international research done with the use of a questionnaire by the University of Ulster in 2009-2010. Results: All the people surveyed like taking part in both trainings and competitions. Around 70% like both of them a lot, 30% enjoy them a bit. In accordance with the answer to the question “How often did you try to do your best in a competition?” one can assume that all the people in the group were highly engaged in the game - 54% all the time, 46% sometimes. All the people questioned claim that their team is competitive - 51% believe it to be very competitive, 48% quite competitive. The partners believed that trainings were more challenging for the athletes than for them. Substantially more partners state that the athletes were doing their best in a competition when compared with the opinion of the athletes themselves. Conclusions: The results prove that the aims of the programme for Unified Sports are realized properly. The fact that all the participants find pleasure in doing sports and that they positively assess the competitiveness of their team explains why all of them are so engaged in sports activity. It means that the programme is really valuable and can develop in a positive way. Research on the motives of taking part in Unified Sports and relations between athletes and partners should, therefore, be continued.

Podcast Interview Transcript

Podcast Interview Transcript Susan Sommer, Laurie Stillman, Polly Hoppin, and Leandris Liburd In each volume of the Journal, the editors select one article for our Beyond the Manuscript post-study interview with the authors. Beyond the Manuscript provides the authors the opportunity to tell listeners what they would want to know about the project beyond what went into the final manuscript. The associate editors who handled the articles conduct our Beyond the Manuscript interviews. Beyond the Manuscript podcasts are available for download at the Journal’s website at http://pchp.press.jhu.edu. This issue’s Beyond the Manuscript podcast was conducted by REACH special issue Guest Editor Leandris Liburd and features Susan Sommer, Laurie Stillman, and Polly Hoppin, the lead author and community partners for “Children’s Hospital Boston Community Asthma Initiative: Partnerships and Outcomes Advance Policy Change” The following is an edited transcript of the Beyond the Manuscript podcast. Leandris Liburd Susan, can you provide a brief summary of your asthma project, including its purpose and any results you’ve found for everybody who is listening to give them an orientation to the project? Susan Sommer The Children’s Hospital Boston Community Asthma Initiative was founded as the result of an extensive community needs assessment back in 2003 and 2004. At that time, the community identified asthma as one of their four major pediatric concerns; in addition, from Children’s perspective, asthma was the number one cause of hospitalizations, and 70% of those children came from the five low-income neighborhoods very close to the Hospital. We also noted that there were very high rates for Latino and Black children, and in fact, three to five times the rate for White children. So there was a very marked health disparity that needed to be addressed and many social determinants of health that were underlying these statistics. We identified four ZIP Codes within inner city Boston, largely African American and Latino communities, who were the populations hardest hit by these asthma rates. And at that point consulted, (and then we’ll get into this more) with many of our already existing partners and people working on asthma issues throughout the city and region as to how to go about addressing these disparities. As a result, we developed a case management model with a strong home visiting component. Home visits were conducted by both nurses and community health workers, and delivered tailored asthma education as well as home environmental assessments, and a moderate level of remediation. Thanks to our partners, we had built in a strong evaluation component including cost analysis, and had very positive results, with a 79% reduction in hospitalizations, and a 64% reduction in emergency department visits after 1 year as well as a return on investment of 1.46. [End Page 337] Susan Sommer We realized from the beginning that there were larger, systemic, policy issues that needed to be addressed. Certainly, many of them housing issues—a lot of substandard housing with many environmental triggers. We are active in coalitions working on that, but also looking for sustainable payment models for these kinds of asthma programs that clearly were very effective, but were really limited by grant funding. That’s where we turn to our partners and coalitions to work on that policy issue. Leandris Liburd These are quite impressive findings. You had a team of partners, and I know they included community as well as academic partners, that represented different disciplines and backgrounds. How was this an asset for the project? Susan Sommer We did, in fact, have a strong group of partners even before our particular project started, including the Boston Public Health Commission that was doing a lot of work around home environmental triggers, and in particular pests and mold in the houses. Inspectional Services, Boston Medical Center, and then a local advocacy group, Boston Urban Asthma Coalition was its name at the time. And then in addition, the Asthma Regional Council which is represented by Laurie Stillman today, and UMass Lowell represented by Polly Hoppin, who were instrumental in helping us set the policy agenda Laurie Stillman The Asthma Regional Council of New England is a coalition of governmental, academic, and...

Selecting the Best Design Team Partners

Choosing the right design partner is a critical step in planning a new hospital, new addition or in remodeling an existing facility. This facility design department aims to expand nurse leaders' knowledge and competencies in health facility design and enables them to take leadership roles in design efforts. This article focuses on the nurse leaders' role in selecting the best possible design partner to ensure a collaborative working relationship throughout the project.

The tender trap: back to the future?

Consultancy has a bad press in the NHS and is the subject of allegations about wasted expenditure. External consultants cover many fields, range in size and focus and operate in a variety of ways. Central to the work of consultants is the tendering process—enshrined in the culture and never questioned. There are, however, a number of flaws and deficiencies associated with tendering and these reflect a series of underlying assumptions. An alternative ‘partnership team’ model which is outcome-based, relationship-focused and for the longer-term offers a better future by adopting pre-tendering approaches.

Co-Creation for Impact Investment in Microfinance

The boom of microfinance and its high profits in emerging countries has raised interest in this sector of investors in developed countries. The question to be addressed is how venture capital will help this MFI scale its business and profits? Can developed country investors, facing a lack of profitable investment opportunities in the wake of the financial crisis, marry their business acumen with social responsibility towards the poor? The paper uses a case study of Riskebiz, a venture capital fund that is investing in the microfinance sector. Microfinance is a tool, among others, in development and poverty alleviation. The value of the tool is enhanced if technology and technical services are provided to the MFI as well as to the poor entrepreneur. The case illustrates that the poor are not only requiring microcredit, but also micropayments and microinsurance, as well as health check-ups. A team of complimentary partners who can standardize and deliver these services could be very useful to provide a rich experience to the customer to co-create value, growth, new revenue opportunities and new delivery opportunities to the MFI. Donors and social investors who do not have specific knowledge of emerging country markets should consider such issues before investing in microfinance funds. The receiving MFI should also try to partner with VCs who can provide the required advice.

An Early Look At A Four-State Initiative To Reduce Avoidable Hospital Readmissions

Launched in 2009, the State Action on Avoidable Rehospitalizations initiative, known as STAAR, aims to reduce rates of avoidable rehospitalization in Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, and Washington by mobilizing state-level leadership to improve care transitions. With the program two years into its four-year cycle, 148 hospitals are working in partnership with more than 500 cross-continuum team partners. Although there are no publicly available data on whether the project is achieving its primary goal of reducing avoidable rehospitalizations, the effort has so far been successful in aligning numerous complementary initiatives within a state, developing statewide rehospitalization data reports, and mobilizing a sizable number of hospitals to work on reducing rehospitalizations. More than 90percent of participating hospitals have formed teams to routinely review rehospitalizations with their community-based colleagues.

Structural modeling of soluble CD80 glycoprotein and its role in immunotherapy

Students participating in the Students Modeling A Research Topic (SMART) Team partnership program involving Henry E. Lackey High School, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and Milwaukee School of Engineering used 3D printing technology to create a physical model of the soluble form of CD80 glycoprotein and researched its role in regulating proteins known to prevent T‐cell activation. The CD80 glycoprotein has two immunoglobulin‐like (Ig‐like) domains connected by an interdomain linker region. These Ig‐like domains bind to CD28, CTLA‐4 and programmed death ligand‐1 (PDL‐1) proteins. The expression of PDL‐1 on human cancer cells prevents tumor cells from T‐cell attack and elimination. In recent experiments, CD80 was shown to play a role in the cell surface expression of PDL‐1. Specifically, the transfection of the gene coding for CD80 into human cancer cells has inhibited expression of PDL‐1, the mechanism of which is unclear. Further exploration of soluble CD80 may improve understanding of its interactions with PDL‐1 and aid the development of a soluble CD80 immunotherapy for cancer. Supported by a grant from the HHMI Pre‐College Program School and NIH #RO1CA84232 to Ostrand‐Rosenberg.

The influence of brace type on the success rate of the Ponseti treatment protocol for idiopathic clubfoot

The success of the Ponseti method for treating idiopathic clubfoot deformity is dependent on the casting techniques and the adherence of the patient to the foot abduction brace protocol. Newly developed brace designs claim to be more comfortable, to be easier to use and to prevent dislodgement of the foot from the brace, making them more efficient and improving patient compliance. They are, however, more costly, and, therefore, accessible to fewer patients. We compared the compliance and treatment outcome using two brace designs, the traditional simple brace of pre-walking shoes attached to a Dennis Browne (DB) bar and the new sophisticated Mitchell brace. We compared the functional outcome and compliance with the post-corrective bracing protocol of 38 children with idiopathic clubfoot treated in our institution using two brace designs. Twenty-one chose the DB brace and 17 chose the Mitchell brace. There was no difference in the compliance rate or in the final clinical and radiological outcomes of the two groups after a minimum of 2years of follow-up. A positive correlation was found between the Pirani score at the beginning of treatment and the final functional score for both groups. Both groups were satisfied with the selected brace. Both groups were equally compliant with the brace protocol. We conclude that new and more expensive brace designs do not necessarily provide better clinical results. Fully corrected foot and a strong family-treating team partnership are crucial to adherence with the brace protocol.

Design of timber gridded shell structures

Engineering and architecture are close disciplines with much overlap. Co-operation between design team partners to combine their experience leads to successful building structures. The paper discusses the key issues in the design of shells, giving methods of categorisation to aid communication within the design team. There has been a recent move towards freeform shells and the paper shows the necessity of working these up from clear rational parameters rather than relying on a computer-generated image alone. It shows the key material parameters that need to be addressed in grid shell design and shows how results from model tests and smaller-scale precedents can inform choice of material and size of structural elements. A review of recent shell structures includes references to timber gridshells (Downland, Savill) comparing their form-finding, modelling and construction techniques with the Pods, Scunthorpe (construction start September 2009)

Underserved Farmers With Disabilities: Designing an AgrAbility Program to Address Health Disparities

ABSTRACT Awareness of health disparities is crucial for individuals with disabilities to minimize additional health-related challenges. Adding rural residence and age to disability creates a triple threat in terms of potential health disparities. Kentucky AgrAbility is developing innovative new partnerships with the goal of expanding service provision to underserved populations with disabilities in Kentucky: women, minority, and Appalachian small farmers. Kentucky AgrAbility is evolving to include a more focused approach to the needs of underresourced and underserved regions and populations of farmers in Kentucky. Through new partnerships and a commitment to addressing potential health disparities, farmers and families who can benefit from AgrAbility services will be broadly identified. It is concluded that health disparities need to be recognized and addressed in all health care service provision and education. Kentucky AgrAbility is attempting to develop and implement an innovative, multidisciplinary team of partners with a goal of providing one of a kind service and education to all Kentucky farmers with disabilities. This includes underserved farmers who are at risk of not receiving the appropriate services due to limited resources and lack of awareness.