Ample evidence demonstrates that toxicants and other environmental exposures lead to both acute and chronic healthconditions. This proposal is a direct outgrowth of our experience with a community heavily exposed to chemicaltoxicants. We have demonstrated significant adverse health outcomes associated with this exposure. However, manycommunity members report a lack of knowledge and skills among their healthcare providers to address their exposure-related health risks. These reports are consistent with documentation that healthcare providers (HCPs) rarely addressenvironmental concerns with patients and report a lack of knowledge and ability regarding these patient concerns. Theseknowledge and practice gaps are not surprising since few nursing or medical schools include environmental healthtraining in their curricula. As such, there is a critical need to expand healthcare provider training in environmental health.To address this critical need, we will develop an innovative continuing medical education (CME) series. The innovation istwo-fold. First, we will partner with impacted community members to develop patient-centered and community-centeredmaterial, focusing on lived experiences of community members and their healthcare providers. Second, we will utilizeinteractive and engaging tools to facilitate learning and integration into practice. The series will be titled "Understandingand mitigating the impact of environmental chemicals on the health of your patients." We will design CME learningexperiences that are both evidence-based and informed by years of online teaching experience. To ensure the relevance ofthe content to patients and HCPs, members of communities affected by endocrine-disrupting chemicals and HCPs in thesecommunities will be involved throughout the entire cycle of course design, development, piloting, and evaluation.Additionally, their voices and stories will be featured in images, audio, and video assets in the course. This Phase OneSBIR grant will develop and design the first module of the CME series titled "How Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals fromthe Environment act as Uncontrolled Medicine in Your Patients." We will also develop pocket guides, job aids, andinfographics that can be easily downloaded to assist in translating learning to clinical practice. Pilot testing for usabilityand scalability will also be completed. This project will generate an engaging, easily-accessible, informative course tointroduce HCPs to important environmental health concepts related to endocrine-disrupting chemicals, which will provideHCPs with the ability to address patients' health concerns. If successful, this project will improve health outcomes andsave lives by giving healthcare providers the knowledge and tools to protect their patients from preventable impacts ofenvironmental exposures to endocrine-disrupting chemicals.
Public Health Relevance Statement: This project will address a significant gap in environmental health literacy among frontline healthcare providers. It grew
out of the needs of an exposed community engaged in a partnership with Emory environmental health scientists. The
scientists have partnered with Full Tilt Ahead, a small business specializing in innovative instructional methods. If
successful, this project will improve health outcomes by giving healthcare providers the knowledge and tools needed to
protect their patients from preventable impacts of environmental exposures.
Project Terms: <21+ years old>
