Roundtable Panel Discussions Research Articles

Introduction to round table panel discussion and audience quiz

Abstract Dr. John Gannon is a Public Health Specialist Registrar with HSE Ireland. He has a background working in clinical paediatrics in Ireland, Australia and Zambia. John will introduce the workshop and begin by quizzing the audience using an interactive online tool, to evaluate their perceptions and understanding of the current landscape of screen usage and social media among children and adolescents. In this presentation, he will relay statistics on these metrics and the dramatic upsurge in recent years. He will also touch on the financial implications of these trends for global tech giants.

Abstracts of Scottish Vision Group 2023 Meeting.

Scottish Vision Group has become a yearly event for vision scientists based in Scotland since its inception in 2001. Each year, the conference is hosted at a different location and organised by a different team. The 2023 SVG meeting was hosted in the city of Dundee by Abertay University. Delegates travelled from the United Kingdom, Europe and beyond. The meeting started with a roundtable panel discussion sponsored by Meta Reality Labs. The roundtable, titled The Past, Present and Future of Visual Search, was organised and presented by Árni Kristjánsson (Iceland), Ioan Smart (Abertay) and Ian Thornton (Malta). The MDPI Keynote lecture was introduced by Professor Andrew Parker (Oxford University and Otto-von-Guericke University in Magdeburg, Germany) and presented by Prof. Timothy Ledgeway (Nottingham) on sensory eye dominance and plasticity in adult binocular vision. The remaining two days of the conference hosted a wide range of talks on topics ranging from insect navigation to visual illusions, facial recognition and binocular coding. The Saturday evening saw a special event where delegates explored the sensory properties of a range of single-malt whiskies. Here, we present a selection of abstracts for the various talks and posters.

The Second National Workshop on Marine eDNA: A workshop to accelerate the incorporation of eDNA science into environmental management applications

AbstractThe Second National Workshop on Environmental DNA was held on September 12–15, 2022, at the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project (SCCWRP) in Southern California and was focused on transitioning eDNA from research to management applications. The Workshop was attended by 150 people in‐person and an additional 200 more online. Workshop attendees represented a broad cross‐section of disciplines and backgrounds, including research scientists, state, and federal agencies, and those in the environmental management sector. This diverse collection of attendees assembled with the goal of achieving cross‐sector collaboration and working together to identify the necessary next steps to move eDNA methods into the management application mainstream. The Workshop structure included a Training Day oriented towards environmental managers and those new to eDNA science, to facilitate a common ground for discussions on subsequent days. The Plenary Day focused on case studies about eDNA applications and culminated with a roundtable panel discussion with local, state, and federal agency representatives on eDNA method readiness and the road to method adoption. Among the key takeaways from the Workshop was bridging the communication gap between researchers and managers because scientists often focus on technical details and the unknowns, giving the impression that eDNA science is not yet mature, whereas managers want to hear consensus statements about readiness and a roadmap for method adoption, including standard operating procedures, lab accreditation, and unified sequence libraries. This outcome was a clear directive for many scientists in attendance that it is time to stop letting perfect be the enemy of good and to focus future efforts on method harmonization and a national strategy towards method adoption. The Workshop concluded with a working session of invited participants to identify key priorities and needs to achieve the goals highlighted in the Workshop discussions.

8.F. Round table: Digital Innovations in Health Financing: Experiences from sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract Background Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is key for reaching Sustainable Development Goal 3. Digital technologies for health financing (DTHF) may help countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) make progress towards achieving UHC. DTHF are increasingly used to strengthen health financing systems across their three key functions, (1) raising revenues, (2) pooling resources, and (3) purchasing services. Objectives To provide an overview of the potential role of DTHF, discuss country case-studies of DTHF, explore possible risks and challenges, and outline a future research agenda. Together with the participants, we intend to discuss policy options to enable maximising the benefits, while mitigating the risks and challenges. Added value: The workshop will (1) identify potential benefits as well as risks and challenges of DTHF; (2) highlight the importance of politics and policies for reaping the benefits and minimizing their risks; and (3) establish the building blocks of a future research agenda on digital health financing technologies. Coherence of workshop: Following a brief presentation of benefits and risks of DTHF from the perspective of the World Health Organisation (WHO), the workshop will present four case studies: (1) Rwanda, where a near universal coverage systems is supported by the digital Mutuelle Membership Management System (3MS) facilitating revenue collection through mobile money; (2) Ghana, where the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) is using a Mobile Renewal system to increase coverage rates, and where an electronic claims management system has been recently introduced; (3) Kenya, where a wide range of digital innovations for revenue raising and purchasing were introduced in the private sector, which are now (partially) integrating the public coverage system; and (4) Madagascar, where experiences with private sector initiatives could support the development of national health insurance. Finally, we will outline the research agenda of the DigitalUHC consortium and collect input on salient topics for policy-makers and researchers. Format The workshop is organised as a round-table panel discussion with panel members giving brief (5 min) introductory presentations before engaging in discussions with other panel members and the audience about cross-cutting issues, including (1) potential benefits of DTHF as well as risks and challenges; (2) the importance of politics and policies for reaping the benefits and minimizing the risks; and (3) the future research agenda. Several polling rounds will engage the audience and collect input on these topics, e.g. by asking participants about (a) examples of digital technologies that they know of, (b) their assessment of potential benefits, risks, and challenges, (c) necessary regulations in different countries, and (d) topics for future research. Funding German Alliance for Global Health Research (GLOHRA) with funds from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Key messages • Digital technologies for health financing may help countries to achieve universal health coverage. • Politics and policies are important to reap the benefits and minimize potential risks. Speakers/Panellists Inke Mathauer WHO, Geneva, Switzerland Regis Hitimana Rwanda Social Security Board, Kigali, Rwanda Daniel Opoku KNUST, Kumasi, Ghana Diana Ratsiambakaina Ministry of Health, Antanarivo, Madagascar Abdhalan Ziraba APHRC, Nairobi, Kenya

Round table: Strengthening capacities in health information for better public health practice in Member States

Abstract According to Sir Michael Marmot: “To address inequalities in health in Europe, our first step must be to address the inequalities in health information (HI). All too commonly where health is poorest, HI tends to be poorest. HI is absent or incomplete just where we need it most.” One of the specific objectives of the Joint Action on Health Information (InfAct) is to reduce HI inequalities between and within EU Member States (MS). InfAct is addressing this through various capacity strengthening exercises including the design of a sustainable EU HI training programme. In this workshop, a first presentation will describe the development of the HI training programme for professionals working in HI within MS institutions. Subsequently, four capacity strengthening exercise will be presented illustrating potential topics to be covered in such a sustainable HI training programme. These 5 short presentations will feed the discussion of the workshop organised as a round table. The first exercise is an assessment of HI systems carried out by InfAct through peer review in 9 countries using an adjusted WHO Europe tool. The exercise builds on the framework of mutual learning and good practice exchange to identify in a standardised way strengths and limitations, and recommendations for direct and long-term improvement of their HI system. The second exercise presents 2 workshops given by InfAct on the European and National Burden of Disease (BoD) methodologies. The effort contributed to harmonising BoD methodologies at national and EU levels, thereby increasing comparability and facilitating knowledge exchange on BoD bilaterally and multilaterally in the EU. The third exercise presents an example of capacity building activities organised in the framework of a national prevention programme on cardiovascular risk assessment, which includes training of health professionals, provision of training material and risk evaluation tools, implementation in clinical practice, health data collection, and feedback of results in the community. The fourth exercise presents examples of capacity building activities by the European Health Examination Survey (EHES) initiative to establish a sustainable European network on nationally representative Health Examination Surveys (HESs), through hands-on training events, online training materials, person-to-person consultations, site visits and networking. This workshop provides participants insights on current activities in HI capacity strengthening in Europe which address health (information) inequalities. Additionally, participants will be able to provide feedback on the development of the sustainable HI training programme and potential elements that could be included based on four practical examples. The participants will be able to highlight their needs in health information training by interacting through a round table panel discussion. Key messages Health information capacity strengthening is essential to address health inequalities. The workshop identifies what a sustainable EU HI training program can provide. Mutual learning, knowledge and good practice exchange can be organised in various ways – we show practical current examples on how it has been done.

Policy Challenges and Opportunities to Address Changing Paradigms in Cancer Care Delivery.

Multiple factors are forcing the healthcare delivery system to change. A movement toward value-based payment models is shifting these systems to team-based integration and coordination of care for better efficiencies and outcomes. Workforce shortages are stressing access and quality of care for patients with cancer and survivors, and their families and caregivers. Innovative therapies are expensive, forcing payers and employers to prioritize resources. Patients are advocating for care models centered on their needs rather than those of providers. In response, payment policies have recently focused on the promotion of alternative payment models that incentivize coordinated, high-quality care with consideration for value and controlling the increasing overall costs associated with cancer and its treatment. Given the multitude of factors confounding cancer care, NCCN convened a multistakeholder working group to examine the challenges and opportunities presented by changing paradigms in cancer care delivery. The group identified key challenges and developed policy recommendations to address 4 high-visibility topics in cancer care delivery. The findings and recommendations were then presented at the NCCN Policy Summit: Policy Challenges and Opportunities to Address Changing Paradigms in Cancer Care Delivery in September 2018, and multistakeholder roundtable panel discussions explored these findings and recommendations along with additional items. This article encapsulates the discussion from the NCCN Working Group meetings and the NCCN Policy Summit, including multistakeholder policy recommendations on delivery issues in cancer care designed to help inform national policies moving forward.

Improving Appropriate Basal Insulin Use in Clinical Practice—Impact of Physician Education on T2D Clinical Management

Although insulin is among the most effective antihyperglycemic agents, initiation is often delayed. We studied whether online continuing medical education (CME) could improve the clinical performance and confidence of primary care physicians (PCPs) and endocrinologists (endos) regarding use of basal insulin. The CME activity consisted of an online, 30-minute, video-based roundtable panel discussion. Educational effects were assessed using 3 case-based and 1 self-efficacy repeated pair pre-/post-assessment questions and McNemar’s chi-squared test. The activity launched online August 16, 2016, and data were collected through December 20, 2016. Overall improvements were seen for PCPs (n = 197; P <.001) and endos (n = 27; P =0.014). Relative percent changes from pre- to post-assessment were between 15% and 126% for PCPs and -4% to 40% for endos. While only 7% of PCPs and 19% of endos answered all 4 questions correctly on the pre-assessment, 28% of PCPs and 41% of endos answered all correctly on the post-assessment. The greatest improvements were seen in dosing strategies for preventing hypoglycemia (44% improvement in PCP, P <.001, and 18% in endos, P = 0.025), individualizing therapy in a patient with high glucose variation (23% improvement in PCP, P <.001, and 7% in endos, P = 0.4), and insulin initiation (8% improvement in PCP, P = 0.039, and 22% in endos, P = 0.058). PCPs reported a confidence level of 2.86 on the pre-assessment and 3.45 on the post -assessment, for a total confidence shift of 20.6%. Endos reported a confidence level of 4.04 on the pre-assessment and 4.44 on the post -assessment for a confidence shift of 10.1%. This study demonstrates the success of an online, roundtable activity in improving performance of PCPs and endos regarding use of newer basal insulins. Studies have shown that case questions are an effective way to measure clinical performance in practice; therefore this activity is expected to translate into improved T2D management in clinical care. Disclosure A. Larkin: None. M. LaCouture: None. A. Le: None.

Epilogue: the new frontiers of behavioral research on the interrelationships between ICT, activities, time use and mobility

This special issue is a product of the international symposium on “ICT, Activities, Time Use and Travel” that was hosted by Nanjing University from 16 to 18 July 2016. The symposium brought together leading scholars from all over the world to congregate with Chinese scholars and students and to share and discuss the research frontiers at this nexus. It was motivated by a recognition of the changing goals and scope of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) research in conjunction with the development of new ICTs and the emergence of new ICT-enabled behaviors. Consequently, the symposium and later this special issue have drawn together significant scholarly contributions that provide new behavioral insights as well as new theoretical and methodological advances. The symposium culminated in three roundtable panel discussions addressing the following cross-cutting themes: (1) time use while travelling (led by Glenn Lyons); (2) ICT and travel behavior (led by Pat Mokhtarian); and (3) Big Data, activities and urban space (led by Eran Ben-Elia). In this epilogue to the special issue we offer a distillation of these discussions.

Value Tools for Patients in Cancer Care.

In order to empower patients as partners in their healthcare decisions, there is an identified need for value tools that provide enough information to help them make decisions regarding their cancer care journey. NCCN convened a multistakeholder working group to identify the gaps and needs of current value tools and develop a set of findings and recommendations for the evolution of value tools for patients. The findings and recommendations of the working group were then presented at the Value Tools for Patients in Cancer Care Patient Advocacy Summit in December 2016, and multistakeholder roundtable panel discussions explored these findings and recommendations along with additional items. This article encapsulates the discussion from the NCCN Working Group meetings and the NCCN Patient Advocacy Summit, including identified gaps and needs in defining value in cancer care, identified principles and parameters of value tools for patients in cancer care, and consensus statements and recommendations offered by the NCCN Working Group.

Value, Access, and Cost of Cancer Care Delivery at Academic Cancer Centers.

Key challenges facing the oncology community today include access to appropriate, high quality, patient-centered cancer care; defining and delivering high-value care; and rising costs. The National Comprehensive Cancer Network convened a Work Group composed of NCCN Member Institution cancer center directors and their delegates to examine the challenges of access, high costs, and defining and demonstrating value at the academic cancer centers. The group identified key challenges and possible solutions to addressing these issues. The findings and recommendations of the Work Group were then presented at the Value, Access, and Cost of Cancer Care Policy Summit in September 2015 and multi-stakeholder roundtable panel discussions explored these findings and recommendations along with additional items.

Everything Old is New Again: Reflections on Panel Discussion of the Supervisory Relationship

This article offers a response to the preceding Supervisory Roundtable Panel Discussion from a relational perspective. While outlining a relational approach to the supervisory process, it addresses ruptures in the supervisory relationship, the intricacies of the teach/treat boundary, and the use of the supervisor’s self in the supervisory setting.

Screening, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Management of Hepatitis C: A Novel, Comprehensive, Online Resource Center for Primary Care Providers and Specialists

Current initiatives focusing on hepatitis C (HCV) screening and diagnosis, together with the advent of oral interferon (IFN)-free treatment regimens have prompted Elsevier Multimedia Publishing and the American Journal of Medicine (AJM) to develop a novel, comprehensive, online Resource Center dedicated to providing both primary care providers and specialists with the latest information on the screening, diagnosis, treatment, and management of HCV. To date, only 25% of infected patients have been diagnosed and only 5% cured. With the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the US Prevention Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendation of one-time screening for all individuals born between 1945 and 1965, and the availability of safe and effective therapy, it is anticipated that primary care providers and community practices will become increasingly responsible for the screening, diagnosis, and management of infected patients, as well as providing access to care by specialists when needed. The AJM Hepatitis C Resource Center site will have two major channels; one channel tailored to specifically address the needs of internal medicine physicians and other primary care providers, and one channel tailored to address the needs of specialists including hepatologists, gastroenterologists, and infectious disease specialists. Systematic surveys of these clinician audiences are being conducted by Elsevier to assess educational gaps, and ensure that the content of each channel of the Resource Center satisfies the needs of the intended audiences. In a recent Elsevier survey of primary care physicians (PCPs) who had screened and/or participated in the care of patients with HCV within 6 months of participating in the survey, 60% of PCPs stated that they were not very confident or only somewhat confident about screening patients for chronic HCV infection. A recent Elsevier survey of specialists revealed low levels of satisfaction with the treatment options available in 2013, with “no therapy” being selected for up to 38% of patients. This survey also showed that experience with newly-approved options for HCV including IFN-free regimens is currently limited, but the likelihood that a variety of patient types will be treated with these options is high. This provides an impetus for educational opportunities focusing on optimizing treatments for the different HCV genotypes and for patients with comorbidities. Further results of the PCP and specialist surveys will be published on the Resource Center. Each channel of the Resource Center will be comprised of a variety of specific communication elements, which are open to sponsorship, and include roundtable panel discussions, case studies, and direct links to relevant original research, review articles, and guidelines. All Resource Center components are peer-reviewed for publication on the Resource Center by the AJM Editorial Office and the Resource Center Guest Editor, Edward Lebovics, MD. The AJM Hepatitis C Resource Center will be accessible from the AJM online home page (http://www.amjmed.com) and will be launched immediately prior to the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) Liver Meeting to be held from November 7 to 11, 2014 in Boston, Massachusetts.

A symposium of seven sages of the world in cardiovascular surgery; the revival of the ancient symposium

The wisdom of the Seven Sages of Antiquity, who were philosophers and scientists, played a catalytic role in the exchange of ideas and in bringing the people of different Greek city states together in the process of forming an organized society. In today’s world, facing the side effects of globalization (commercial exploitation, the influence of the internet and mass media, immigration, etc.) we should revive the ancient Symposium of the Seven Sages seeking to share the experience and the wisdom of the Sages of the modern world of all Arts and Sciences for guidance in solving the immense challenges of the third millennium. The theme of the cardiovascular surgery for the first Symposium was chosen because the heart symbolizes love and life, from time it first begins beating inside the mother’s womb, until it finally ceases to beat at death. Seven legends of cardiovascular surgery of the world were invited to participate in the symposium. They were innovators and great teachers who paved the way for the next generation of Cardiac Surgeons, enabling them to continue their efforts to improve and prolong life, and relieve pain and suffering. The Seven Sages, who participated in the first modern symposium, were, in alphabetical order: Alain Carpentier (France), Denton Colley (USA), Adib Jatene (Brazil), Donald Ross (UK), Albert Starr (USA), Juro Wada (Japan) and Magdi Yacoub (UK). In two round table panel discussions which took place in Athens and in Delphi on May 6 & 7, 2007, the seven wise men answered questions regarding general and medical issues like the environmental research, war, space exploration, to name a few, as well as answering questions related to Cardiovascular Surgery. The purpose of this communication is to present this unique event, particularly to young colleagues, giving an opportunity to share the wisdom of these seven legends of our specialty in a special forum. Secondly, the purpose is to revive the Symposium of the Seven Sages of Antiquity in our modern era, creating a forum by which to examine the wisdom of other individuals in all the Arts and Sciences.

Insert [Chitlin Circuit] Here: Teaching an Inclusive African American Theatre Course

Insert [Chitlin Circuit] Here: Teaching an Inclusive African American Theatre Course Rashida Z. Shaw (bio) David Krasner: Do you teach . . . the Chitlin Circuit, and should black theater courses discuss this theater that is truly—or perhaps—“by, for, and about black people”? Why or why not? Margaret Wilkerson: I would applaud it. I’ve taught a little bit about [Chitlin Circuit plays], because I’m intrigued with the fact that they are so popular. Whenever something is that popular with a developing black audience, we who are in black theater and are attentive to it need not look down our noses at it but try to understand their standpoint.1 The above exchange between David Krasner and Margaret Wilkerson took place during a roundtable panel discussion on the “state” of African American Theater at the 1997 Association for Theatre in Higher Education Conference (ATHE). Twelve years later, the contemporary narratives of African American urban life contained within the gospel musical theatre productions of the Chitlin Circuit have grown in popularity. There are more productions. Circuit routes have been extended. Recordings of plays are widely available in VHS and DVD formats, and the plays themselves have been successfully adapted into network television shows and major Hollywood films. These developments necessitate a reconsideration of Krasner’s question. If, as Wilkerson replied, the plays and productions of the Chitlin Circuit should be addressed in African American theatre courses, then the question becomes, how and in what ways are they to be incorporated? Stated differently, how do we create inclusive African American theatre courses that take into account not only what we have established as the plays, playwrights, and critical perspectives that are fundamental to the discipline, but also those plays and performances, like those of the Chitlin Circuit, that seemingly fall outside of our purview? In this essay, I offer my upper-division undergraduate course, “African American Musicals in Theatre and Film,” as a model of an inclusive approach to teaching African American theatre as it considers the ways in which the contemporary Chitlin Circuit participates in the history and development of African American musicals since the late 1930s. A Forgotten Substitution In his famous 1996 keynote address titled “The Ground on Which I Stand”2 at the Theatre Communications Group’s eleventh biannual conference, playwright August Wilson seemed to assert that black theatre could be divided into two categories: 1) theatre, in Du Boisian terms3—that is “by us,” “for us,” and “about us”; and 2) theatre that is created for the entertainment of whites. Wilson stated: There are and have always been two distinct and parallel traditions in black art. That is art that is conceived and designed to entertain white society and art that feeds the spirit and celebrates the life of Black America by designing its strategies for survival and prosperity. . . . This entertainment for whites consisted of whatever the slave imagined or knew that his master wanted to see and hear. This tradition has its present counterpart in the crossover artists that slant their material [End Page 67] for white consumption. The second tradition occurred when the African in the confines of the slave quarters sought to invest his spirit with the strength of his ancestors by conceiving in his art, in his song and dance, a world in which he was the spiritual center and his existence was a manifest act of the creator from whom life flowed. He then could create art that was functional and furnished him with a spiritual temperament necessary for his survival as property and the dehumanizing status that was attendant to that.4 Wilson positioned his work “squarely” within the category of the “second tradition.”5 He used his address as a platform to demand funding for the support and development of black theatres that would cater to the work of black artists, proclaiming: “We do not need colorblind casting. We need some theatres to develop our playwrights. We need those misguided financial resources to be put to a better use. We cannot develop our playwrights with the meager resources at our disposal.”6 Furthermore, he condemned the League of Resident Theatres (LORT) system for having only one member theatre dedicated...

Multiple interfaces of the European Landscape Convention

The multiple interfaces of the European Landscape Convention were the topic of a roundtable panel discussion held at the meeting of the Permanent European Conference for the Study of the Rural Landscape in September 2006. The roundtable was convened by Kenneth R. Olwig, who together with four other speakers presented the main topics for discussion. Their presentations are given here as a series of short articles. Initially a brief historical background and the main provisions of the European Landscape Convention (Florence Convention) of 2000, in force 2004, are presented. The interfaces with law, landscape ecology, heritage, and globalisation are then successively discussed. Finally, the European Landscape Convention itself is examined as a discursive interface, with contradictory as well as synergetic aspects.

Health policy roundtable panel discussion: translating health insurance studies into policy proposals.

Researchers often wonder whether and how their studies are translated into policy or practice. AcademyHealth convened a roundtable of experts at the organization's 2003 Annual Research Meeting in Nashville to discuss how research on health insurance enters the policy process. The participants drew on their experience at the state, federal, and local levels to suggest ways that policy researchers can maximize the likelihood that their work will be used by decision‐makers. The following report is based on the transcript from this 90‐minute discussion; it captures the panel's answers to a series of questions posed by session‐chair, Sherry Glied.

MEETING OF THE NEW ZEALAND ECONOMETRIC STUDY GROUP (NZESG)

The inaugural meeting of the NZESG was held in February 1997 and comprised 14 papers, a software demonstration, and a roundtable panel discussion. Around 15 participants attended throughout, with stronger attendance on the first day.