Riding the Mobile Wave:What Local Health Departments Need in order to

Adopt Social Media and Mobile Health Technologies for Emergency Preparedness

Disaster Information Specialists Program

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Sara Rubin, MPH, MA

NACCHO

Trends in Social Media and Mobile Device Use:

Daily Communications & Emergencies

What Research Tells Us: Increasing Use

Communities are increasingly communicating via mobile technologies and social media to share and find information:

89% of American adults own cell phones80% use their phones to send or receive text messages56% use them to access the internet31% use them to look up health or medical information online

67% of adults who use the internet also use social networking sites Data from Pew Research Center

Considerations Regarding Factors Affecting Access to Mobile Apps and

Social Media

1. Age• 55+ has at least 45% lower uptake

than youngest age bracket2. Geographic Location

• Almost 20% difference in urban vs. rural use

3. Household Income• Slight correlation between higher

income and use – 19% difference between lowest and highest brackets

4. Education Level• Slight correlation between higher

education and use – 18% difference between lowest and highest brackets

What Research Tells Us: Application During Disasters

Mobile health (mHealth) and social media are influential tools during responses to disasters and public health emergencies (PHEs):

Communities are increasingly communicating via these platforms to share and find information during emergencies;

Some technologies are more widely used than others in different stages of an emergency;

Public officials benefit from using these technologies for emergency communications.

What Research Tells Us:Increasing Use and Expectations

American Red Cross Survey (2012)

The public has a growing expectation that public officials will use these technologies in disasters.

There is an increasing number of “emergency social users.”

Research Gaps: What Remains Unclear

1.How can local health departments (LHDs) capitalize on these technologies for emergency communications?

2.How can these technologies specifically be applied to preparedness and planning communications?

Overview of Our Study

Overview of our study (2)Purpose: Identify factors that enable or hinder the adoption and use of mHealth and social media among select LHDs, particularly for preparedness.

Outcome: Fill a research gap by identifying factors that are necessary to build and improve organizational capacity at LHDs to enhance their use of these technologies in all disaster phases.

Methodology: Select LHDs exhibiting efforts to use mHealth or social media for public health purposes.

Phone-based interviews with staff at selected LHDs.

Completed Interviews: 65 interviews completed,

from 47 LHDs.

Interviewee Characteristics

Total Interviews: 65

States: 23

Health Departments: 47

Positions Interviewed

Findings & Examples from Local Health Departments

In-house Capacity

Ability of both staff and the LHD as a whole to effectively integrate social media and mHealth programs into their department’s overall communication and emergency preparedness strategy

Key Factors Suggestions & Requests

Staff Knowledge Training

Funding Information

Resources & IT support Industry Collaboration

Leadership Support & Policies

Implied or expressed support of leaders, in the LHD and at other government levels, to encourage the use of social media and mHealth, and the existence of specific rules or policies, formal or informal, regulating or encouraging the use of such technologies

Key Factors Suggestions & Requests Support for mHealth Share best practices

LHD policies to support use Build an evidence base

Local, state and federal policies to support use

Identify resources for policy development

State and federal encouragement

Case Study: Chicago Department of Public Health

“It is a priority across the city to become more technologically ‘with it,’ and to make government more

accessible and transparent.”

Case Study: Chicago Department of Public Health (2)

Chicago Health Atlas: visualizes aggregate health-related information so that people can see the prevalence of specific health conditions in their area

Flu Shots: helps Chicago residents locate and find public transportation to CDPH’s free flu shot clinic events

Foodborne Chicago: uses computers & code to search Twitter for tweets related to food poisoning in Chicago.

Reporting Food Poisoning: Open 311 System

Legal & Security Issues

Concerns around security of information and the application of legal guidance for mHealth and social media programs

Key Factors Suggestions & Requests Applicability of federal laws Federal guidance

Liability concerns Public/private support for managing liabilitiesSecurity impediments to

expansion

Audiences

Intended and targeted audiences at which LHDs aim to direct programs, including those in different geographic locations and those considered vulnerable or at-risk

Key Factors Suggestions & Requests Purpose-specific platforms Improved collaboration with CBOs

and other external organizations

Limited capacity for 2-way communication

Integrate mHealth and social media into communications plans

Specific needs of vulnerable populations

Ready San DiegoAlert San Diego100,000 residents opted-inReverse 911 calls

San Diego (SD) Emergency appStarted after 2011 blackoutAndroid and iPhone

~10,000 downloadsFeatures:

Disaster preparedness informationInteractive checklists to help create an emergency plan & build an emergency kitEmergency updates with interactive maps

Recommendations for Practitioners and Policymakers

Recommendations for Practitioners and Policymakers (2)

LHDs Policymakers

In-house capacity - Assess capacity and augment with external support- Expand communications plans

- Create information exchange database- Integrate local information sharing into national system

Leadership Support & Policies

Learn from other practitioners

Legal & Security Concerns

Identify resources for policy development

- Provide guidance on applicability of federal laws- Clarify regulation of new technologies

Audiences - Identify key audiences and how they communicate- Coordinate with CBOs- Support program and jurisdiction interoperability

Support resources to reach vulnerable and at-risk populations

For More Information

Sara Rubin, MA, MPH

srubin@naccho.org

Get the full report at: www.nacchopreparedness.org

www.upmchealthsecurity.org

Presentation adapted from Nidhi Bouri’s slides.