Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-9-2022
Abstract
Background: On March 11, 2020, the New Mexico (NM) Governor declared a Public Health Emergency in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The NM Medical Advisory Team (MAT) contacted University of New Mexico (UNM) faculty to form a team to consolidate growing information on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its disease to facilitate NM's pandemic management. Thus, faculty, physicians, staff, graduate students, and medical students created the "UNM Global Health COVID-19 Intelligence Briefing."
Objective: We seek to: (1) share how to create an informative briefing to guide public policy and medical practice and manage information overload with rapidly evolving scientific evidence (2) determine the qualitative usefulness of the briefing to its readers, (3) and determine the qualitative effect this project has had on virtual medical education.
Methods: Microsoft Teams™ was used for manual and automated capture of COVID-19 articles and composition of briefings. Multi-level triaging saved impactful articles to be reviewed and priority was placed on randomized controlled studies, meta-analyses, systematic reviews, practice guidelines, and information on healthcare and policy response to COVID-19. The finalized briefing was disseminated by email, a LISTSERV®, and posted on the UNM Digital Repository. A survey was sent to readers to determine briefing usefulness and whether it led to policy or medical practice changes. Medical students, unable to partake in direct patient care, proposed to the School of Medicine that involvement in the briefing should count as course credit, which was approved. The maintenance of medical student involvement in the briefings as well as this publication was led by medical students.
Results: An average of 456 articles were assessed daily. The briefings reached approximately 1,000 people by email and LISTSERV® directly, with an unknown amount of forwarding. Digital Repository tracking showed 5,047 downloads across 116 countries as of July 5, 2020. The survey found 108 of 114 participants (95%) gained relevant knowledge, 90 people (79%) believed it decreased misinformation, 27 respondents (24%) used the briefing as their primary source of information, and 90 (79%) forwarded to colleagues. Specific and impactful public policy decisions were informed based on the briefing. Medical students reported that the project allowed them to improve on their scientific literature assessment, stay current on the pandemic, and serve their community.
Conclusions: The COVID-19 briefings succeeded in informing and guiding NM policy and clinical practice. The project received positive feedback from the community and was shown to decrease information burden and misinformation. The virtual platforms allowed for the continuation of medical education. Variability in subject matter expertise was addressed with training, standardized article selection criteria, and collaborative editing led by faculty.
Recommended Citation
Jarratt L, Situ J, King RD, Montanez Ramos E, Groves H, Ormesher R, Cossé M, Raboff A, Mahajan A, Thompson J, Ko RF, Paltrow-Krulwich S, Price A, Hurwitz AM, CampBell T, Epler LT, Nguyen F, Wolinsky E, Edwards-Fligner M, Lobo J, Rivera D, Langsjoen J, Sloane L, Hendrix I, Munde EO, Onyango CO, Olewe PK, Anyona SB, Yingling AV, Lauve NR, Kumar P, Stoicu S, Nestsiarovich A, Bologa CG, Oprea TI, Tollestrup K, Myers OB, Anixter M, Perkins DJ, Lambert CG. A Comprehensive COVID-19 Daily News and Medical Literature Briefing to Inform Health Care and Policy in New Mexico: Implementation Study. JMIR Med Educ. 2022 Feb 23;8(1):e23845. doi: 10.2196/23845. PMID: 35142625; PMCID: PMC8908195.