ICUH 2007 Leveraging Technology to Deliver Culturally- Optimized Public Health Programs
2 The Need
DrTango - Business & Mission Business Mission Leverage technology to provide effective, lowcost and culturally-appropriate health solutions. Services & Programs Multilingual Websites/Applications Healthcare Translations & Cultural- Adaptation Hispanic-Optimized Health Programs Strategic Research Social Mission Help narrow the health disparities gap 3
4 Selected Clients
Building an Application that Could Achieve Multiple Objectives Hispanic Culture Diet & Fitness Diabetes Overweight & Obesity Depression Hypertension Heart Disease 5
MiDieta/MyDiet Internet-based diet, fitness and weight-management application for Hispanics that is: Personalized Culturally and linguistically appropriate, and Deliver the application through hospitals, managed care, employers 6
PanHispanicFoods Development Translated: USDA database into Spanish Merged in: Food Databases from Mexico, Central America, South America, Spain Added: Processed and commercial foods from Mexico Required: 6 dietitians for 1 year 7
Main Features of MiDieta Program Bilingual, content for Hispanics Personalized programs (offline & online): menu plans, fitness programs, shopping lists, tracking tools Bilingual nutritionists, fitness trainers & diabetes counselors User-generated content & social networking 8
Culturally & Linguistically Appropriate Evaluation 9
Bilingual personalized menu & fitness plan based on: Gender BMI Goals Condition Food preferences 10
Weekly Reminders & Education Bilingual Multicultural Interactive 750,000+ worldwide 3011 DrTango Solutions
MiDieta Awards Top 20 most innovative health promotion and disease prevention applications from around the Nation (HHS, Mar 2004) 2-year Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Grant on potential of ehealth for Hispanics (Oct 2004) 12
RWJF Health etechnologies Central Objective and Study Design Central Objective: Evaluate the ability of a culturally- and linguisticallyappropriate, interactive diet & fitness portal (MiDieta) to lead to weight-loss among U.S. Hispanics. Design: * Formative Research (9 m) * Randomized Trial (12 m) Subjects: Overweight online Hispanics enrolled in managed care plan Collaborating Institution: Phase I: BCBS-Florida 13
Who do you trust for Diet Information? Doctors Dietitians Books Internet Mother Magazines Friends Television Radio 0 20 40 60 80 100 Percent with "very high" trust 14
Main Findings From RWJF Research Study Online MiDieta Offline MiDieta Online Control Offline Control Culturally-Appropriate Diet, Fitness and Weight Management Programs is twice as effective as non-culturally appropriate High demand for Offline Version of MiDieta that worked just as well ANOVA: P=0.03 Subjects: N = 200 Florida Blue Cross Blue Shield Members followed for four months. 15
HOPE Project In 2006, the Florida legislature allocated $2.5 million in general revenue funds for a Hispanic Obesity Prevention Education (HOPE) program. The ultimate objectives of the project are to increase quality of life and reduce or eliminate chronic disease and disabilities linked to obesity among Hispanics. 16 DrTango won the competitive ITN to design, implement and manage the HOPE program
Integrated Solution for HOPE Youth Worksite Healthcare Commun -ity Funding (#1) (#2) (#3) (#4) (#5) MiDieta Platform Website for HOPE (#7) State Level Partnerships (#8) State-wide Awareness Campaign (#6) Numbers refer to specific tasks 17
Going to Scale www.hopeflorida.org State-wide Baseline 75K Evals Impact Evaluations 18
Paper / Web Integration - MiDieta 2 Distribute & Fill Form 1 Custom MiDieta online for Client 5 Print & Delivers Personalized Reports on Paper 4 Scan Form 3 19
Opportunities HOPE Program Analysis Aim: 100,000 surveys State-wide baseline of diet, fitness and health Expansion Other States & Cities (NM, TX, NY, CA) Internationally Children & Diabetics Partners and Collaborators Welcome! 20
Questions & Discussion Contact Info Dirk Schroeder, ScD, MPH: dschroeder@drtango.com Jessica Malmad, MPH: jmalmad@drtango.com 21