286645
Community health kiosks in district of Columbia: A health disparities information system
With the gridlocked climate in health care reform and increasing growth of diverse and underserved populations in the U.S., more local communities are utilizing alternative methods to connect residents with up-to-date information on health risk behaviors and chronic diseases. One method is through neighborhood-level health kiosks.
Objective:
The program utilizes technology to centrally locate information for multiple chronic diseases that significantly impact racial and ethnic populations; and links residents to accessible and appropriate preventive services for early detection, screening, and testing.
Methods:
Three touch screen, interactive kiosks were strategically placed at community-selected locations in Ward Four of DC. The kiosks are designed as an easy-to-use tool to provide residents with convenient access to evidence-based health risk assessments and prevention information. Each kiosk is equipped with a printer, a directory of partnering healthcare organizations, and telephones to facilitate calls to schedule appointments with local healthcare providers.
Results:
The kiosks were utilized by 3,160 users who viewed a total of 9,287 medical topic pages with an average session time of 3.3 minutes from April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2012. 216 participants used the telephones provided to contact a physician's office. Heart disease was the most viewed topic. Finally, participants started to view their disease risks more frequently despite a combined trend with all kiosks declining in usage from the start to end of the year.
Conclusion:
While public health programs are struggling to find best practices that are cost effective to promote prevention efforts for chronic disease, it is reasonable to promote programs that are multipurpose in terms of improving health literacy, delivering care, and collecting epidemiological data. While kiosk programs can deliver all three, more discussion and research is needed to improve the quality and quantity of such methods.
Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programsCommunication and informatics
Epidemiology
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Provision of health care to the public
Public health or related education
Learning Objectives:
Describe three ways kiosks can be used for community health promotion.
Explain two methods on how kiosks can be tailored to deliver culturally and linguistically appropriate messages.
Analyze or debate two pros and two cons of using health kiosks with the focus on improving such programs.
Keyword(s): Information System Integration, Underserved Populations
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I serve as a volunteer board member of the Community Health Partnership, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing inequities in access to care while improving health outcomes among underserved communities. Among my scientific interests is the development of innovative strategies for delivering evidence-based, culturally competent health education with the ultimate goal being an increase in health literacy, the adoption of preventative behaviors, and improved access to care.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.