The document describes 4 electronic tools - visual text messages, Podio project management app, a network recruitment dashboard, and a diary app - that researchers at Tulane University have incorporated into their work engaging youth in research on STI/HIV and unintended pregnancy among hard to reach populations in order to improve participation and the success of their programs. It provides details on how each tool is used and their advantages and disadvantages.

1. April 6-8, 2014
San Francisco, CA
Annual Conference on Youth + Tech + Health
What’s in your toolbox? Simple and cost
effective electronic tools for facilitating
research with youth
Scott White, MPH
Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine
New Orleans, Louisiana

2. • Member of the research team in the Infectious Diseases
Section of the Dept. of Epidemiology at Tulane
University School of Public Health and Tropical
Medicine, New Orleans, LA
• Research projects focus on STI/HIV and unintended
pregnancy among hard to reach populations
– Young African American men
– Young African American women
– Latino migrant men and women
– Patients at a public STI clinics
My background

3. • Formative research to understand the context,
perspectives and priorities of the community
• Work with community partners to refine protocols and
build trust
• Learn the language
• How to communicate the project?
• How to interest the target population?
• How to establish rapport?
• How to stay relevant and meaningful to youth?
• Social media
• see Jakevia Green’s presentation on ‘Tweet Intercepts”
How do we engage youth in our research?

4. • Field recruitment
• Go to community events
• Work with community partners
• Street intercept
• Peer referral
• Clinic recruitment
• Potential participants referred
to us from staff
Traditional methods used for recruitment

5. • What can we add to our toolbox to engage youth?
– Smart phones and other mobile devices are increasingly used in
research as more and more young people have them
– Voicemail and email use are minimal
– Social media is growing and growing
– Translating traditional research methods and tools to new
technologies must make sense to youth, address privacy and
data management concerns, and be cost-effective in order to be
adopted and successful
• This presentation will outline 4 electronic tools that we
have incorporated in our research to help us improve the
experience of youth and the success of our programs
Now + technology

6. 1) Visual text messages
2) Podio – project management app
3) Dashboard for network recruitment
4) Diary app
4 tools

7. • Translation of paper cards/email messages to
electronic visual texts
• NO COST TO YOU!
• Easy to create and update often to keep fresh
1) Visual Text Messages
• Simple way to reach participants or potential
participants that youth find relevant and convenient
• May be especially effective with hard to reach
populations where social/sexual network recruitment
(i.e., snowball recruitment) is key

8. Visual texts
• Simple way to provide recruitment information at events
• Facilitates social/sexual network recruitment
• As referral cards

9. Visual texts Use for checking in
with participants to
recognize their
progress
Can quickly and easily
notify people of
changes in venues or
events

10. 1) Reformat your paper referral cards so that they optimally
use the dimension of smart phones
• In our cases we went from horizontal to vertical format
• Use any photo editor or publishing program
• Save as an image file (i.e., .jpeg or .png)
2) Email the image to yourself and open on your
smartphone
3) Save the image on your smartphone
4) Text away!
How to create visual texts in 4 EASY steps

11. • Free and low cost options
• Point and click app building functionality
– No knowledge of coding required
– 700 pre-built apps available for free
• Online dashboard and mobile enabled apps
– Enables real-time monitoring of study activities on smartphones
• Additional coordination and communications
functionality
– Task management, file sharing, calendaring, team commenting
2) Podio – Project Management Software
with App building Capabilities

12. Podio – App Building

13. Podio – Real-time monitoring

14. • Built by Apptitude for Tulane to manage recruiters, link
participants, and automatically send text message
referrals for social network recruitment
• Utilized for Check It! – community test and treat project for
chlamydia and gonorrhea infections
• Designed to be user friendly for the staff
• Designed to overcome barriers in participation
• Immediate feedback
• Potential referral acceptability (i.e., not recognized as SPAM)
3) Dashboard for Network Recruitment

15. Referral Dashboard

16. Referral Activation
Par$cipant
Receives
Referral
Receives
Immediate
feedback
to
par0cipant!
Naming
the
par0cipant,
their
neighborhood
and
the
university
establishes
trust
with
the
poten0al
referral!

17. Referral Coupon
• Coupon includes public
health message, eligibility
criteria, contact information
and activation code
• Activation code is based on
the referring participant,
which allows us to monitor
referral success

18. Referral Monitoring Dashboard
• When referrals present with their coupon, we can quickly
activate them and repeat the process
• Export functionality for data analysis

19. • Need for a weekly diary that is easy to use
• Behaviors related to Trichomonas vaginalis treatment and
exposure
• Diary taken each week between baseline and follow up visit
at 4 weeks
• Needed secure, mobile base option
• App based vs. internet based
• Phone is easier to access
• Push notifications can be sent easily as reminders
4) The Diary App

20. • App developer – Apptitude worked
with research team to design the app
• Simplified content for phone
• Discrete icon used
• Password protected
• Push notifications on day of survey
• HIPAA compliant server
TWS sexual diary app

21. TWS sexual diary app
• Interactive survey design
• Study team imports user specific
variables to create unique skip patterns
• Survey dynamically responds to
participant responses to skip additional
questions
• Various question types
• Samples in next slides

22. Question example 1: Calendar function

23. Question example 2: Multiple choice
function

24. Question example 3: Enter initials of
partners

25. Pros and Cons
UPSIDE
DOWNSIDE
Visual
Text
Messages
-­‐ No
cost
-­‐ Easily
customizable
-­‐ Can
embed
in
social
media
-­‐ Manual
distribu0on
Podio
–
Project
Management
App
-­‐ No/low
cost
-­‐ No
coding
required
-­‐ Various
tools
-­‐ Not
a
good
op0on
for
study
par0cipants
Dashboard
for
Network
Recruitment
-­‐ Automa0c
tex0ng
-­‐ Link
par0cipants
with
ac0va0on
codes
-­‐ Cost
-­‐ Par0cipants
don’t
recognize
phone
number
TWS
Sexual
Diary
App
-­‐ Easy
to
use
and
access
by
par0cipants
-­‐ Push
No0fica0ons
as
reminders
-­‐ Cost
-­‐ Time
to
develop

26. Conclusion
• Collaborations between innovative technology
companies, health researchers, and youth community
advisory panels can result in the development of
research tools that are cost effective for researchers
and relevant to youth
• Solutions like these are translatable to other projects to
improve the health of young people.

27. • Apptitude, New Orleans, LA
• Podio, San Francisco, CA (US Office)
Technology partners

28. For more information contact Scott White
swhite1@tulane.edu, 504-988-2392
Thank you to the co-authors of this presentation:
Patricia Kissinger, PhD
Norine Schmidt, MPH
Jakevia Green, MPH
Jen Latimer, MPH
Steffani Bangel, BA
and all of the staff and students who helped develop
these tools and used them in the field.