Facilitating Real-Time, Multidirectional Learning for Clinicians in a Low-Evidence Pandemic Response.

As COVID-19 was declared a health emergency in March 2020, there was immense demand for information about the novel pathogen. This paper examines the clinician-reported impact of Project ECHO COVID-19 Clinical Rounds on clinician learning. Primary sources of study data were Continuing Medical Education (CME) Surveys for each session from the dates of March 24, 2020 to July 30, 2020 and impact surveys conducted in November 2020, which sought to understand participants' overall assessment of sessions. Quantitative analyses included descriptive statistics and Mann-Whitney testing. Qualitative data were analyzed through inductive thematic analysis. Clinicians rated their knowledge after each session as significantly higher than before that session. 75.8% of clinicians reported they would 'definitely' or 'probably' use content gleaned from each attended session and clinicians reported specific clinical and operational changes made as a direct result of sessions. 94.6% of respondents reported that COVID-19 Clinical Rounds helped them provide better care to patients. 89% of respondents indicated they 'strongly agree' that they would join ECHO calls again.COVID-19 Clinical Rounds offers a promising model for the establishment of dynamic peer-to-peer tele-mentoring communities for low or no-notice response where scientifically tested or clinically verified practice evidence is limited.

Building global capacity for COVID-19 vaccination through interactive virtual learning.

BACKGROUND: To support the introduction of the COVID-19 vaccine, the World Health Organization and its partners developed an interactive virtual learning initiative through which vaccination stakeholders could receive the latest guidance, ask questions, and share their experiences. This initiative, implemented between 9 February 2021 and 15 June 2021, included virtual engagement between technical experts and participants during a 15-session interactive webinar series as well as web and text-messaging discussions in English and French. METHODS: This article uses a mixed-methods approach to analyze survey data collected following each webinar and a post-series survey conducted after the series had concluded. Participant data were tracked for each session, and feedback surveys were conducted after each session to gauge experience quality and content usability. Chi-square tests were used to compare results across professions (health workers, public health practitioners, and others). RESULTS: The COVID-19 Vaccination: Building Global Capacity webinar series reached participants in 179 countries or 93% of the WHO Member States; 75% of participants were from low- and middle-income countries. More than 60% of participants reported using the resources provided during the sessions, and 47% reported sharing these resources with colleagues. More than 79% of participants stated that this initiative significantly improved their confidence in preparing for and rolling out COVID-19 vaccinations; an additional 20% stated that the initiative "somewhat" improved their confidence. In the post-series survey, 70% of participants reported that they will "definitely use" the knowledge derived from this learning series in their work; an additional 20% will "probably use" and 9% would "possibly use" this knowledge in their work. CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 Vaccination: Building Global Capacity learning initiative used a digital model of dynamic, interactive learning at scale. The initiative enhanced WHO's ability to disseminate knowledge, provide normative guidance, and share best practices to COVID-19 vaccination stakeholders in real time. This approach allowed WHO to hear the information needs of stakeholders and respond by developing guidance, tools, and training to support COVID-19 vaccine introduction. WHO and its partners can learn from this capacity-building experience and apply best practices for digital interactive learning to other health programs moving forward.

Transgenic Drosophila lines for LexA-dependent gene and growth regulation.

Conditional expression of short hairpin RNAs with binary genetic systems is an indispensable tool for studying gene function. Addressing mechanisms underlying cell-cell communication in vivo benefits from simultaneous use of 2 independent gene expression systems. To complement the abundance of existing Gal4/UAS-based resources in Drosophila, we and others have developed LexA/LexAop-based genetic tools. Here, we describe experimental and pedagogical advances that promote the efficient conversion of Drosophila Gal4 lines to LexA lines, and the generation of LexAop-short hairpin RNA lines to suppress gene function. We developed a CRISPR/Cas9-based knock-in system to replace Gal4 coding sequences with LexA, and a LexAop-based short hairpin RNA expression vector to achieve short hairpin RNA-mediated gene silencing. We demonstrate the use of these approaches to achieve targeted genetic loss-of-function in multiple tissues. We also detail our development of secondary school curricula that enable students to create transgenic flies, thereby magnifying the production of well-characterized LexA/LexAop lines for the scientific community. The genetic tools and teaching methods presented here provide LexA/LexAop resources that complement existing resources to study intercellular communication coordinating metazoan physiology and development.

Virtual Peer-to-Peer Learning to Enhance and Accelerate the Health System Response to COVID-19: The HHS ASPR Project ECHO COVID-19 Clinical Rounds Initiative.

Tasked with identifying digital health solutions to support dynamic learning health systems and their response to COVID-19, the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response partnered with the University of New Mexico's Project ECHO and more than 2 dozen other organizations and agencies to create a real-time virtual peer-to-peer clinical education opportunity: the COVID-19 Clinical Rounds Initiative. Focused on 3 "pressure points" in the COVID-19 continuum of care-(1) the out-of-hospital and/or emergency medical services setting, (2) emergency departments, and (3) inpatient critical care environments-the initiative has created a massive peer-to-peer learning network for real-time information sharing, engaging participants in all 50 US states and more than 100 countries. One hundred twenty-five learning sessions had been conducted between March 24, 2020 and February 25, 2021, delivering more than 58,000 total learner-hours of contact in the first 11 months of operation.