Teach Recovery

Partner(s): Dr. Alice Medalia Columbia Psychiatry Leiber Recovery Clinic Released: TBA In development.

Teach Recovery is a collaboration between Dr. Alice Medalia of the Columbia Psychiatry Leiber Recovery Clinic and CCNMTL. Teach Recovery is a series of self paced courses aimed at teaching health professionals about cognitive dysfunction in people with psychiatric disorders, and how and why to address the cognitive defects. The courses include video lectures, self-testing questions with immediate feedback, and interactive activities.

Teach Recovery is supported by a generous gift from Frank and Patricia Zarb.

E-WORTH

Partner(s): Louisa Gilbert, Nabila El-Bassel Social Intervention Group (SIG), School of Social Work Released: TBA In development.

E-WORTH (Empowering African-American Women on the Road To Health) is a combination self-paced and group-based HIV prevention intervention for African American women on probation. The goal of the intervention is to build positive peer norms and social support for HIV risk reduction. E-WORTH is a collaboration between the Social Intervention Group (SIG) and CCNMTL. It builds on CCNMTL and SIG's previous intervention projects to provide a suite of self-paced computer-supported activities for participants, and to include a narrative and cast of video characters who help lead participants through the intervention exercises.

E-WORTH is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and is part of a 4-year study to test the efficacy of computer-supported versus traditional paper-based intervention models.

Meaningful Consent

Partner(s): Jennifer Levine College of Physicians and Surgeons Released: TBA In development.

Meaningful Consent is a self-paced educational module designed to help families of children with cancer understand the real risks and benefits of whole genome sequencing for their children in order to create an ethical informed consent process. The module will cover the basics of the reasons researchers do whole genome sequencing (WGS) for patients with cancer, and the secondary risks/benefits of WGS for the child and that child's family.

The module will take approximately 20 minutes to complete and will include a video of a fictional family deciding whether to have WGS done for their child as well as an interactive risk/benefit decision balancing tool. The module will be done by parent(s) in a clinic waiting room setting and will precede a conversation with a clinician about testing. Families will have the choice to do the module in English or Spanish.

WINGS

Partner(s): Louisa Gilbert Social Intervention Group, School of Social Work Access: Private Released: March 2012 VIEW PROJECT

Women Initiating New Goals for Safety (WINGS) is a self-paced assessment and intervention that seeks to improve safety and encourage healthy relationships among women on probation in community court settings. WINGS is a collaboration between the Social Intervention Group (SIG) at the Columbia School of Social Work and CCNMTL. 

Participants in WINGS are asked to answer a series of questions on a laptop computer about their relationships. The questions encourage the participant to think critically about whether she is safe in her relationship and, if not, be motivated to change. WINGS provides a linear path for a participant to follow through a combination of interactive activities and educational materials, and includes audio and video components that help guide each participant. Take home materials, such as a safety plan and social support strategies, help provide women with tools to prevent intimate partner violence.

WINGS builds on CCNMTL and SIG's previous intervention projects, in particular using elements developed for Multimedia WORTH.

WINGS is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and is part of a 2-year study to test the efficacy of a self-paced computer model in comparison to a traditional case-worker interview.

MySmileBuddy

Partner(s): Dr. Burton Edelstein College of Dental Medicine Released: April 2011 Archived, no longer available.

MySmileBuddy is a mobile application to guide health workers assessing a child's risk for early childhood caries (ECC or severe tooth decay) and counseling that child's family on preventative lifestyle changes. CCNMTL is partnering with Dr. Burton Edelstein of the College of Dental Medicine to propose an improved risk assessment for ECC, and to develop and test the MySmileBuddy tool. Dr. Edelstein will conduct a pilot of MySmileBuddy funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH) with at-risk families in Morningside Heights.

Health workers and families using MySmileBuddy will supplement their face-to-face interaction with the use of MySmileBuddy's mobile application on a tablet computer that calculates risk for ECC and assists health workers in providing educational and motivational activities about oral health. The mobile application features assessment questions, interactive day/diet planner, videos and animation, as well as researcher tools including an online equation weighting tool for developing appropriate risk scores and an administrative area for viewing family data.

MySmileBuddy represents a novel approach to improving dental health through emphasizing prevention rather than repair, exploring ways to move dental education and care into a community health worker context, and helping dentists learn to deliver counseling messages about behavior change.

Mobile Technologies for Community Health (MOTECH)

Partner(s): Dr. James Phillips Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health Released: January 2012 Archived, no longer available.

Mobile Technology for Community Health (MOTECH) was an initiative to test whether low-cost mobile phone technology could improve information-sharing among health care workers, and by doing so, improve maternal and infant health in rural communities in Ghana. Funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, MOTECH was a collaboration between the Grameen Foundation, Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, the Ghana Health Service, and CCNMTL.

The Grameen Foundation developed a suite of services delivered over basic mobile phones that provided health information to pregnant women and encouraged them to seek antenatal care from local facilities. After the birth, the system addresses common questions about newborn care. Simultaneously, the MOTECH system collected information about patients for health workers. This information was used to identify women and newborns in their area in need of healthcare services, and automated the patient-tracking process. CCNMTL created a proof-of-concept reporting system for MOTECH showing how the collected data about patients could be used in reports and visualizations to assist health managers and supervisors at Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) facilities.

Multimedia WORTH

Partner(s): Nabila El-Bassel Social Intervention Group, School of Social Work Access: Private Released: October 2009 VIEW PROJECT

WORTH is a computer-supported HIV prevention intervention for groups of drug-involved women who are on parole or in alternative to incarceration programs in New York. The goal of the intervention is to build positive peer norms and social support for HIV risk reduction. Multimedia WORTH is a collaboration between the Social Intervention Group (SIG) and CCNMTL. The multimedia intervention provides supplemental facilitator training, facilitator support resources, and participant activities. WORTH builds on CCNMTL and SIG's previous intervention projects to provide a combination of group activities and private activities for participants, and to include a narrative and cast of video characters who help lead participants through the intervention exercises.

Multimedia WORTH is funded by the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) and is part of a 5-year study to test the efficacy of multimedia versus traditional paper-based intervention models.

Masivukeni

Partner(s): Robert Remien HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies Access: Private Revised: December 2012 Released: March 2009 VIEW PROJECT

Masivukeni, which translates to 'Let's wake up!' in the Xhosa language, is a computer-supported curriculum designed to help patients in South Africa stay on their antiretroviral medication. Masivukeni provides lay counselors with an intervention roadmap and scripts that help them communicate to their patients the importance of adherence to treatment plans. In addition, the Masivukeni tool features interactive activities to help patients build their support network, develop problem-solving skills, visualize their pill regimen, and learn how HIV affects the body as viral resistance develops.

Masivukeni is a collaboration between Dr. Robert Remien, a research scientist at the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies; researchers at the University of Cape Town; and CCNMTL. It was developed with assistance from counselors, nurses, and volunteers at the Hout Bay clinic outside of Cape Town, South Africa. The project is supported by a five-year, $3 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and builds on a 2007 NIMH grant that facilitated developing and piloting Masivukeni. Masivukeni is now being tested in a randomized control trial at two clinics outside Cape Town, South Africa.

Multimedia Connect

Partner(s): Susan Witte School of Social Work Access: Private Released: June 2008 VIEW PROJECT

Multimedia Connect is a a computer-supported HIV prevention intervention for couples at risk for HIV developed by the School of Social Work's Social Intervention Group (SIG) and CCNMTL. The multimedia intervention provides supplemental facilitator training and support materials and participant activities. Together, SIG and CCNMTL have created a framework for delivering a proven intervention curriculum in a way that scaffolds the facilitator, while providing new options for national dissemination.

Multimedia Connect is funded by the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) and is part of a 5-year study testing ease of intervention adoption at community based organizations in New York State.

Related links:
Download the informational page (PDF)
Watch Multimedia Connect at NME 2008
Visit the Multimedia Connect prototype

Collateral Consequences Calculator

Partner(s): Conrad Johnson School of Law Access: Open to all Released: May 2010 VIEW PROJECT

Developed in partnership with Columbia Law School professor Conrad Johnson, the Collateral Consequences Calculator is a web-based "calculator" that allows legal practitioners to quickly and easily compare the collateral consequences of criminal charges associated with sections of the New York State Penal Law. The Collateral Consequences Calculator serves multiple communities: faculty can build case studies around it, lawyers can better counsel their clients, judges can assure appropriate sentencing, and public policy researchers can use it as a lens through which to examine the matrix of the New York State legal system. Judge Judith Kaye, former Chief Justice of New York State, has supported the development of this tool, which she sees as a valuable social justice initiative.

Related links:
Download the informational page (PDF)