RESUMEN
User-centered models for the development of digital health interventions are not consistently applied in healthcare settings. This study used a five-phase, user-centered approach to develop HEARTPrep©, a psychosocial intervention delivered via mobile app and telehealth to mothers expecting a baby with congenital heart disease (CHD) to promote maternal, family, and child well-being. Phases of intervention development were: (I) establishing partnerships; (II) creating content; (III) developing prototype and testable intervention; (IV) conducting think-aloud testing; and (V) completing beta testing. Partnerships with parents, clinicians, and design/technology experts were integral throughout the development of HEARTPrep©. Parents of children with CHD also served as participants in Phases II-V, contributing to the creation of content and providing feedback to inform the iterative refinement of HEARTPrep©. These five phases produced a refined digital health intervention with promising feasibility, usability, and acceptability results. This user-centered approach can be used to develop digital health interventions targeting various health outcomes.
RESUMEN
School officials and community citizens in Georgia were concerned about the airborne trichloroethylene (TCE) that was emanating from a nearby industrial facility that used TCE as a degreaser. No measurements of airborne TCE in the community were taken by public health officials or the industrial facility. The regulation of release of TCE from this facility was governed, in part, by mathematical model predictions of dispersion into the community. In support of community health concerns, the authors collected a limited number of outdoor and indoor air samples in the affected community, including those from a school, a small business, and three homes, for the analysis of TCE. The mean outdoor air concentration of TCE for all affected sites was 0.96 microg/m3 with a peak TCE concentration of 4.59 microg/m3. The mean indoor air concentration of TCE for all affected sites was 1.40 microg/m3 with a peak TCE concentration of 4.66 microg/m3. All collected air samples were below the guideline level of 5 microg TCE/m3 of air as used by the state of Georgia in the United States, but sample levels were greater than those found in large population studies of TCE in indoor and outdoor air in Minnesota in the United States and in Ottawa in Canada. Additional air samples are needed to better characterize the exposure of the community to TCE.
