Patient Engagement

African immigrants are underrepresented in health research in the United States. Barriers to research participation may include limited access to culturally and linguistically appropriate information, concerns about privacy, distrust of research institutions, stigma, and difficulty participating in traditional in-person activities. WhatsApp is commonly used within African immigrant communities, but there is limited evidence about how it can support meaningful engagement throughout the research process. This study will develop and test the WhatsApp Immigrant-Centered Research Engagement (WI-CARE) protocol. WI-CARE will provide researchers and community partners with structured guidance for using WhatsApp to engage African immigrants in research planning, recruitment, data collection, interpretation, and dissemination. The study has three aims. First, the research team will conduct surveys and focus groups to identify the WhatsApp features and engagement practices that facilitate or hinder participation in research. Second, the study team and African immigrant partners will use these findings to develop and refine the WI-CARE protocol. Third, the protocol will be tested through structured scenarios that simulate activities conducted during different stages of research. Participants will provide feedback about the acceptability, usability, feasibility, cultural relevance, privacy, trustworthiness, and quality of engagement supported by WI-CARE. The study will include adult African immigrants living in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. Findings will be used to refine WI-CARE and inform the use of digital platforms to support equitable engagement of African immigrant communities in health research.

We will conduct a two-group randomized controlled trial to examine the eMocha DOT intervention with pediatric HT recipients.In this population, medication nonadherence remains a primary cause of late acute rejection (LAR) episodes, increased number of hospitalizations, graft failure, and patient mortality. Herein, we propose an innovative approach to promote medication adherence and improve patient and graft outcomes.

The goal of this clinical study is to improve the outcome of outpatient PTSD treatment at two clinics treating majority ethnic Danes and refugees with PTSD respectively. The study will consist of two similar randomized controlled trials. The main questions the study aims to answer are: * Does an added motivation enhancement module as a precursor for PTSD treatment reduce dropout and increase treatment outcome? * Does an added Shared Decision-Making session which facilitate individualized treatment yield a superior outcome compared to PTSD treatment and PTSD treatment supplemented by motivation enhancement? Participants are recruited at two different clinics, Psychotherapeutic Unit (PU) and Competence Centre for Transcultural Psychiatry (CTP). At PU the participants are randomized to one of two arms, and at CTP to one of three arms. One arm is the control group where participants will receive treatment as usual (TAU), one arm is the first intervention group where the participants will receive an Introductory PTSD module consisting of four sessions focusing on enhancing motivation for PTSD treatment, before continuing in TAU. The last arm is the second intervention group, which will only take place at CTP. Here the patient will receive the Introductory PTSD module followed by a session of Shared Decision Making, where the participant together with the MD decides which of four standardized treatment courses they will receive. The treatment for all patients will last between 8-13 months.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death among women in the United States, and women with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy have a 2-fold higher risk for cardiovascular disease later in life compared to women with uncomplicated pregnancies. This research investigates a patient-centered intervention during the postpartum period to promote engagement in cardiovascular preventive care.

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted healthcare service delivery, highlighting the need for high quality virtual patient care. Our team has developed a multi-dimensional remote eHealth solution for newly diagnosed breast cancer patients and their practitioners to use during the diagnostic and follow-up period. The ABODE study involved development of a Breast Cancer Treatment Application (app) which will facilitate virtual consultations, deliver patient education material, and collect patient reported outcome measures (PROMs). Using a randomized controlled trial design, the team will evaluate a variety of outcomes for breast cancer patients who will use the app throughout their diagnosis and treatment period. Primary Objective: To compare changes in patient activation (assessed by PAM-13) over 1 year among newly diagnosed breast cancer patients between those using the app and those receiving standard care. Secondary Objectives: 1. Compare additional PROMs between the standard care and intervention groups 2. Describe health service outcomes among app users 3. Explore end-user experience of using the app 4. Measure activity levels using wearable devices

In the routine treatment procedure after coronary angiography (CAG), the patients remain in the supine position for a long time, which leads to decreased venous return and back pain. In addition, lying in the same position for 2 hours or more in the back area causes an increase in pressure. Increased pressure disrupts cell and tissue blood supply. The resulting pain may increase sympathetic stimulation. Therefore, sympathetic stimulation increases heart rate, blood pressure, myocardial oxygen consumption and cardiac workload. After the transfemoral coronary angiography (CAG) procedure, which is frequently applied to adults for both diagnosis and treatment, the back support to be applied to ensure that the vital signs (pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate and blood oxygen saturation) of the patients remain stable and to increase their comfort level can prevent the deviation of the vital signs of the patients from normal and contribute to the treatment process with patient satisfaction.

This study will examine the impact of training primary care providers (PCPs) in motivational interviewing (MI) using artificial intelligence (AI) to augment the training process. MI is a patient-centered approach to engaging patients in their own care. There will be a control group and two intervention groups, with the intervention groups receiving a different amount of MI training. The hypothesis is that the AI-augmented MI training will result in improved patient outcomes, improved clinician wellbeing, and reduced behavioral manifestation of clinician biases. This mixed-methods project will also collect qualitative data from structured interviews and focus groups with participating PCPs to examine perceived facilitators and barriers to the use of the MI approach in primary care.

The goal of this study is to compare the level of engagement in the Hispanic and Latino parents of autistic children and culturally adapt the protocol of Ayres Sensory Integration to improve participation and health outcomes. The main questions it aims to answer are: Does the Design Thinking process result in higher stakeholder engagement and satisfaction in the research process in comparison to Focus Groups? Secondary question: Do cultural adaption using DT data yield higher scores of acceptability and implementation feasibility in comparison to FG methods? Participants will: * Be randomized into two groups of engagement (focus groups and design thinking) * Be blinded (clinicians, selected caregivers, autistic persons, and cultural experts) and will rate the acceptability, feasibility, and cultural appropriateness of the protocol based on DT data higher than the protocol based on FG data.