Gaya Gamhewage - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Gaya Gamhewage

Journal of Medical Internet Research, Mar 18, 2021

<sec> <title>UNSTRUCTURED</title> <p>As part of its transformation proces... more <sec> <title>UNSTRUCTURED</title> <p>As part of its transformation process to meet the health challenges of the 21st century by creating a motivated and fit-for-purpose global workforce, the World Health Organization (WHO) is developing the first-ever global Learning Strategy for health personnel around the world. Focus group discussions (FGDs) were organized as part of in-depth qualitative research on staff views, visions, and suggestions. Due to the pandemic, a flexible, multi-linguistic, participatory, iterative methodology for digitization of face-to-face FDGs to engage a globally dispersed workforce was implemented.</p> </sec>

IOS Press eBooks, Jan 14, 2022

In pursuit of equitable access to emergency-related knowledge, the World Health Organization (WHO... more In pursuit of equitable access to emergency-related knowledge, the World Health Organization (WHO) translates COVID-19 and other infectious disease courses into multiple languages on its open-access online learning platform OpenWHO.org. Languages spoken by vulnerable or underserved populations in low-and middle-income countries and in outbreak-prone and affected areas are prioritized. Accessing learning in preferred languages enhances uptake and comprehension. In this study, we assess and compare the initial enrollment levels and global reach of these multilingual courses. On average, OpenWHO's 38 COVID-19 courses have each been translated into 4.8 languages. The platform hosts courses in 55 different languages with 10.4 million words translated. The findings identify which available languages were most utilized for COVID-19 learning to inform course production and outreach strategies. Languages were used differently across geographic regions, calling for localized learning offerings. A streamlined multilingual publishing scheme, ensuring quick and effective delivery of diverse languages, is critical to achieving greater equity of access to knowledge.

Studies in health technology and informatics, Jun 26, 2020

This poster presents the COVID-19 online learning response by the World Health Organization's (WH... more This poster presents the COVID-19 online learning response by the World Health Organization's (WHO) OpenWHO learning platform for health emergencies. Platform use shifted during the pandemic from being the highest in the WHO African and Eastern Mediterranean regions to the American and European regions. The largest traffic channels were search engines, social media and WHO websites.

WHO's Transfer of Knowledge (TOK) Team under the Infectious Hazard Management Department of the W... more WHO's Transfer of Knowledge (TOK) Team under the Infectious Hazard Management Department of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme (WHE) aims to meet the evolving needs of frontline responders to the health emergencies of the 21st century. Epidemics increasingly occur in more complex, rapid and challenging contexts. Frontline workers and decision-makers need the latest science and knowledge to fight disease outbreaks and other health emergencies. This knowledge must be in usable formats and delivered via suitable channels, accessible even in remote areas. If possible, WHO health technical expertise materials in infectious disease outbreaks are also produced in local languages, given that knowledge acquisition in one's mother tongue is crucial to containing epidemics in vulnerable settings. The Transfer of Knowledge team of the WHE launched in June 2017 an online learning platform for disease outbreaks, epidemics, pandemics and health emergencies: OpenWHO.org. The aim of the platform is to ensure that frontline health responders have access to lifesaving knowledge anytime from anywhere during public health emergencies. The Transfer of Knowledge team together with infectious disease expert teams adapt and customize key technical information and package it into usable products easily accessible in the field. This knowledge transfer involves various product types and includes materials targeted for health-care and community workers on the front line of the outbreak response. Materials include epidemiological knowledge and health interventions on infectious diseases like Ebola virus disease (Ebola), yellow fever, plague and cholera. These materials are also produced in the local languages most commonly used by local responders in the outbreak areas. Most recently, a number of materials were targeted, adjusted and translated for the 2018 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Key materials on Ebola, the production process and initial user analytics are presented in this article.

Background: At the onset of the coronavirus outbreak, the World Health Organization's (WHO) Healt... more Background: At the onset of the coronavirus outbreak, the World Health Organization's (WHO) Health Emergencies Learning and Capacity Development Unit, together with the WHO's health technical lead on coronaviruses, developed a massive open online course within 3 weeks as part of the global response to the emergency. The introductory coronavirus disease (COVID-19) course was launched on January 26, 2020, on the health emergencies learning platform OpenWHO.org. Objective: The aim of this paper is to investigate the geographic reach of different language courses accessed by a worldwide audience seeking information on COVID-19. Users' professional identities and backgrounds were explored to inform course owners on the use case. The course was developed and delivered via the open-access learning platform OpenWHO.org. The self-paced resources are available in a total of 13 languages and were produced between January 26 and March 25, 2020. Methods: Data were collected from the online courses' statistical data and metrics reporting system on the OpenWHO platform. User patterns and locations were analyzed based on Google Analytics and the platform's own statistics capabilities, and data sets were overlaid. This analysis was conducted based on user location, with the data disaggregated according to the six WHO regions, the top 10 countries, and the proportion of use for each language version. Data included affiliation, gender, age, and other parameters for 32.43% (52,214/161,007) of the users who indicated their background. Results: As of March 25, 2020, the introductory COVID-19 course totaled 232,890 enrollments across all languages. The Spanish language course was comprised of more than half (n=118,754, 50.99%) of all course enrollments, and the English language course was comprised of 38.21% (n=88,988) of enrollments. The WHO's Region of the Americas accounted for most of the course enrollments, with more than 72.47% (138,503/191,130) enrollment across all languages. Other regions were more evenly distributed with less than 10% enrollment for each. A total of 32.43% (52,214/161,007) of users specified a professional affiliation by choosing from the 12 most common backgrounds in the OpenWHO user profiles. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, users were spread over the 11 distinct affiliations, with a small fraction of users identifying themselves as "Other." With the COVID-19 introductory course, the largest number of users selected "Other" (16,527/52,214, 31.65%), suggesting a large number of users who were not health professionals or academics. The top 10 countries with the most users across all languages were Argentina,

The COVID-19 pandemic generated an unprecedented global demand for learning about the disease and... more The COVID-19 pandemic generated an unprecedented global demand for learning about the disease and how to manage it. This paper draws on the World Health Organization (WHO)'s experience of COVID-19 knowledge-transfer to a worldwide audience of millions of learners registered on OpenWHO, WHO's massive open online course platform. It aims to illustrate the technological solutions that WHO, in collaboration with the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI), OpenWHO's platform provider, employed in response to the unique challenges this surge in demand for learning engendered. Data on OpenWHO use, including geographic patterns and certificate attainment, were extracted from OpenWHO's internal and external reporting systems. Descriptive analysis was employed to identify trends and compare OpenWHO use with COVID-19 caseload in each WHO region. Data on the OpenWHO system load were obtained from the OpenWHO load balancer (HAProxy). The OpenWHO team responded to the need for trustworthy, evidence-based knowledge on COVID-19 via three main avenues: increased scale, targeting the needs of affected and underserved communities, and prioritising multilingualism. Each approach brought novel problems, which WHO and HPI leveraged their collaboration to meet by employing technology. This included increasing server bandwidth, expanding support teams, adding new language capabilities, and deploying functions to streamline workflows and boost learner experience. In doing so, the ability to effectively and efficiently harness technology became a critical step towards empowering learning's life-saving potential during the COVID-19 pandemic.

IOS Press eBooks, May 27, 2021

Reproduction of knowledge, especially tacit knowledge can be expensive during a pandemic. One of ... more Reproduction of knowledge, especially tacit knowledge can be expensive during a pandemic. One of the most common causes is the reduced information accessibility during the translation process. Having the ability to assess the linguistic complexity of any given contents could potentially improve knowledge reproduction. Authors conduct two cross-linguistic studies on the World Health Organization (WHO)'s emergency learning platform to assess the linguistic complexity of two online courses in 10 languages. Morpho-syntactically annotated treebanks, unannotated materials from Wikipedia and language-specific corpora are set as control groups. Preliminary findings reveal a clear reduced complexity of learning contents in the most candidate languages while retaining the maximum amount of information. Creating a baseline study on low-resourced languages on the learning genre could be potentially useful for measuring impact of normative products at country and local level.

PubMed, Jun 16, 2020

Competency-based learning involves identifying the knowledge, skills and attributes required for ... more Competency-based learning involves identifying the knowledge, skills and attributes required for carrying out workplace roles. In 2018, the World Health Organization's (WHO) Health Emergencies Programme (WHE) introduced a competency framework with competency-based assessment (CBA) methodology. The CBA focuses on behavioural indicators that participants demonstrate and training faculty observe during training events. This article introduces the CBA of WHE. It is essential to use the framework to design learning programmes and provide the basis to appraise and manage WHE personnel and team performance.

OpenWHO.org is the World Health Organization's first open online platform, introducing massive on... more OpenWHO.org is the World Health Organization's first open online platform, introducing massive online learning into health emergency response. Since its launch in June 2017, the platform has surpassed 100 000 course enrolments, bringing know-how and science to frontline health workers. While most existing research on this topic focuses on traditional and commercial MOOC courses, few findings investigate the operational model of non-profit platforms. In order to understand the pattern of distribution that facilitates improved platform reach, the authors of this paper conducted a traffic analysis based on a selection of OpenWHO's published courses, investigating similar traffic patterns among some of the site's most recent courses, a selection of courses published in both English and French, and some courses with homogenous themes. Preliminary findings show that: 1) A combined usage of search engines and social media distribution channels appears to attract more users 2) Courses with the most enrolments generate user traffic from a wide range of channels 3) A significant number of enrolments come from visitors using mobile devices 4) Users of French courses are rarely reached through social media, but rather through a combination of search engines and the US National Library of Medicine. Further research could be conducted by integrating user professional background and age factors.

Journal of communication in healthcare, Jul 3, 2015

Abstract Communication interventions during public health emergencies (e.g. infectious disease ou... more Abstract Communication interventions during public health emergencies (e.g. infectious disease outbreaks) are increasingly acknowledged as a determinant of success in preparedness, response and recovery. Challenges related to the current outbreak of Ebola virus in West Africa once again reveal the need to strengthen our understanding of the central importance and complexity of risk communication and social mobilisation strategies. There is little hard evidence, however, on the impact of various communication interventions upon the dynamics of public health emergencies to guide our capacity development. This article proposes a new evaluative framework which builds on an understanding of risk communication as an interactive, holistic, continuous and engaging activity that focuses on dialogue, intelligence gathering, building relationships over time with a knowledge base informed by new and accessible communication technologies (e.g. social media and networks) and supportive environments. Our hypothesis is that impact is measureable through the evaluation of identifiable performance parameters related to the dynamics of an outbreak. Our assumption is that risk communication interventions that lead to earlier detection, faster response, smoother coordination and a smarter legacy (ability to use processes and outcomes to improve current and future performance) lead to lower morbidity and mortality (reduced AUCepidemic curve). This new evaluation framework for risk communication measures the relation between a baseline dynamic of epidemic and communication activities and the changed dynamic resulting from risk communication activities (e.g. earlier detection, faster response, smoother coordination and smarter legacy). We believe that a better understanding of how the two dynamics relate can lead to a better management of future public health emergencies.

Health Communication, Aug 21, 2017

This mixed-method evidence synthesis drew on Cochrane methods and principles to systematically re... more This mixed-method evidence synthesis drew on Cochrane methods and principles to systematically review literature published between 2003 and 2016 on the best social media practices to promote health protection and dispel misinformation during disasters. Seventy-nine studies employing quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods on risk communication during disasters in all UNlanguages were reviewed, finding that agencies need to contextualize the use of social media for particular populations and crises. Social media are tools that still have not become routine practices in many governmental agencies regarding public health in the countries studied. Social media, especially Twitter and Facebook (and equivalents in countries such as China), need to be incorporated into daily operations of governmental agencies and implementing partners to build familiarity with them before health-related crises happen. This was especially observed in U.S. agencies, local government, and first responders but also for city governments and school administrations in Europe. For those that do use social media during health-related risk communication, studies find that public relations officers, governmental agencies and the general public have used social media successfully to spread truthful information and to verify information to dispel rumors during disasters. Few studies focused on the recovery and preparation phases and on countries in the Southern hemisphere, except for Australia. Health-related disaster communication and social media 2 The vast majority of studies did not analyze the demographics of social media users beyond their geographic location, their status of being inside/outside the disaster zone; and their frequency and content of posting. Socioeconomic demographics were not collected and/or analyzed to drill deeper into the implications of using social media to reach vulnerable populations. Who exactly is reached via social media campaigns and who needs to be reached with other means has remained an understudied area.

Health Communication, Mar 20, 2018

A rapid review of gray literature from 2015 to 2016 was conducted to identify the lessons learned... more A rapid review of gray literature from 2015 to 2016 was conducted to identify the lessons learned for emergency risk communication from recent outbreaks of Ebola, Zika, and yellow fever. Gray literature databases and key websites were searched and requests for documents were posted to expert networks. A total of 83 documents met inclusion criteria, 68 of which are cited in this report. This article focuses on the 3 questions, out of 12 posed by World Health Organization as part of a Guideline development process, dealing most directly with communicating risk during health emergencies: community engagement, trust building, and social media. Documents were evaluated for credibility using an Authority, Accuracy, Coverage, Objectivity, Date, Significance (AACODS) checklist? and if the document contained a study, a method-specific tool was applied. A rapid content analysis of included sources was undertaken with relevant text either extracted verbatim or summarized and mapped against the questions. A database subset was created for each question and citations were assigned to the subset(s) for which they contained relevant information. Multiple designations per document were common. Database subsets were used to synthesize the results into a coherent narrative. The gray literature strongly underlines the central importance of local communities. A one-size-fits-all approach does not work. For maximum effectiveness, local communities need to be involved with and own emergency risk communication processes, preferably well before an emergency occurs. Social media can open new avenues for communication, but is not a general panacea and should not be viewed as a replacement for traditional modes of communication. In general, the gray literature indicates movement toward greater recognition of emergency risk communication as a vitally important element of public health.

Journal of Health Communication, Jul 3, 2017

Although disaster preparedness training is regularly conducted for a range of health-related prof... more Although disaster preparedness training is regularly conducted for a range of health-related professions, little evidence-based guidance is available about how best to actually develop capacity in staff for conducting emergency risk communication. This article presents results of a systematic review undertaken to inform development of World Health Organization guidelines for risk communication during public health and humanitarian emergencies. A total of 6,720 articles were screened, with 24 articles identified for final analysis. The majority of research studies identified: were conducted in the United States, were either disaster general or focused on infectious disease outbreak, involved in-service training, and used uncontrolled quantitative or mixed method research designs. Synthesized findings suggest that risk communication training should include a focus on collaboration across agencies, training in working with media, and emphasis on designing messages for specific audience needs. However, certainty of findings was at best moderate due to lack of methodological rigor in most studies.

International Journal of Infectious Diseases, Aug 1, 2018

Journal of communication in healthcare, Jan 2, 2016

I am sitting in the car with a colleague returning to Lagos from Port Harcourt to conclude my sho... more I am sitting in the car with a colleague returning to Lagos from Port Harcourt to conclude my short but intense mission to support the federal and state governments for risk communications to contain the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak. My colleague, a Nigerian national and environmental health professional, tells me that the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa is a defining moment in which everyone, she says, will look back and realize ‘we changed our culture, and how we live and work’. We no longer shake hands or touch each other, we are leaving behind our traditional burial practices, she continues. Her views, albeit made during a light conversation between colleagues, are nevertheless profound. Just under their surface, we find virtually every aspect of risk communications – health threats, cultural practices, behavior change, perception, politics, security, travel, modern technology, and international concerns and support. Apart from reminding us of our complicated interdependent existence, my colleague’s views place risk communications at the heart of any emergency response. The current outbreak of EVD in West Africa – the worst the world has ever seen – has brought to the fore the complex, confusing, and critical challenges in communicating risk to the public, as well as with national and international stakeholders. It has highlighted how news and social media use increasingly influences people’s perceptions and behavior. It has underscored the obvious – that public health emergencies are of intense public and political concern. Nigeria has, with its more advanced health systems, and capacity for fast response, managed to get on top of the outbreak, so far. Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone still have a long way to go for an array of reasons. There are many country-specific conditions that make generalizations difficult and dangerous. But I believe that there are issues related to communicating risk that run across countries and cultures.

Journal of communication in healthcare, Dec 1, 2014

Bulletin of The World Health Organization, Jul 1, 2008

Journal of international crisis and risk communication research, Mar 1, 2019

The World Health Organization (WHO) commissioned systematic reviews to assist with the developmen... more The World Health Organization (WHO) commissioned systematic reviews to assist with the development of new emergency risk communication guidelines that will impact responses and distribution of resources at all levels. This mixed-method evidence synthesis, guided by Cochrane principles and methods, examined the extant research in countries throughout the world, published from 2003 to 2016, related to the best practices to engage communities in preparing for and responding to emergency events with public health implications. Although few studies directly examined which strategies or tactics effectively engage public participation, many studies reinforced the importance of community participation. The findings support the perspective that emergency events are communicatively understood by all publics and that they benefit from emergency risk communication before, during, and after such events, especially when grounded in local contexts. Although the importance of local context limits the generalizability of risk communication, it is important to continue studying strategies and tactics to cultivate participation among all stakeholders.