'Born in Michigan? You're in the biobank': engaging population biobank participants through Facebook advertisements

Economics of Biobanking: Business or Public Good? Literature Review, Structural and Thematic Analysis

This paper reviewed the relevant scientific literature on the business and economics of biobanking to explore key themes and paradigms. The structural properties of the literature were investigated, such as key authors, journals, studies, as well as co-citation and co-authorship networks; the study revealed that the research on business and economics is a niche area within the vast biobanking literature. The research is concentrated in a relatively small number of journals, institutions, and countries, which is rather surprising given the substantial public investment in and concerns about biobank sustainability. The structural analysis also suggested major themes in research on biobanking business and economics and noted shifts in focus on specific themes. The commercialisation of samples is more acknowledged than before but under the condition of equitable sharing of benefits across various stakeholders. Most biobanks are heavily subsidised by the public sector and are considered public goods rather than business enterprises. This is OK, but underutilisation of specimens and low rates of cost recovery suggest that the current mainstream operating model is hardly sustainable. With many biobanks maturing, long-term sustainability became a key topic of the discussion on biobanking trends.

Systematic Review on Information Technology Approaches to Evaluate the Impact of Public Health Campaigns: Real Cases and Possible Directions

Evaluating the success of a public health campaign is critical. It helps policy makers to improve prevention strategies and close existing gaps. For instance, Brazil's “Syphilis No!” campaign reached many people, but how do we analyze its real impact on population awareness? Are epidemiologic variables sufficient? This study examined literature on using of information technology approaches to analyze the impact of public health campaigns. We began the systematic review with 276 papers and narrowed it down to 17, which analyzed campaigns. In addition to epidemiological variables, other types of variables of interest included: level of (i) access to the campaign website, (ii) subject knowledge and awareness, based on questionnaires, (iii) target population's interest, measured from both online search engine and engagement with Social Network Service, and (iv) campaign exposure through advertising, using data from television commercials. Furthermore, we evaluated the impact by considering several dimensions such as: communication, epidemiology, and policy enforcement. Our findings provide researchers with an overview of various dimensions, and variables-of-interest, for measuring public campaign impact, and examples of how and which campaigns have used them.

The impact of interactive advertising on consumer engagement, recall, and understanding: A scoping systematic review for informing regulatory science

We conducted a scoping systematic review with respect to how consumer engagement with interactive advertising is evaluated and if interactive features influence consumer recall, awareness, or comprehension of product claims and risk disclosures for informing regulatory science. MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Business Source Corporate, and SCOPUS were searched for original research published from 1997 through February 2021. Two reviewers independently screened titles/abstracts and full-text articles for inclusion. Outcomes were abstracted into a structured abstraction form. We included 32 studies overall. The types of interactive ads evaluated included website banner and pop up ads, search engine ads, interactive TV ads, advergames, product websites, digital magazine ads, and ads on social network sites. Twenty-three studies reported objective measures of engagement using observational analyses or laboratory-based experiments. In nine studies evaluating the association between different interactivity features and outcomes, the evidence was mixed on whether more interactivity improves or worsens recall and comprehension. Studies vary with respect to populations, designs, ads evaluated, and outcomes assessed.

Dynamic transactional model: a framework for communicating public health messages via social media

AIMS

Social media, because of its broad coverage, is an attractive option for communicating public health messages. However, the lack of a theoretical framework, supporting the two-way communication of social media, is holding back its development and use. This study investigated the suitability of a dynamic transactional model (DTM) of communication for explaining the use of social media for communicating public health messages.

METHODS

The study was carried out on 'Don't know? Don't drink', a Facebook campaign against drinking alcohol during pregnancy that targeted women of childbearing age in New Zealand. The comments generated were analysed for two features of DTM, namely inter- and intra-transaction, by examining the plurality of topics and polarity of sentiments, using text-mining techniques.

RESULTS

The analysis of the textual data revealed nine independent topics, confirming the plurality of topics. The conversation contained both positive and negative terms, establishing the polarity of sentiment.

CONCLUSIONS

This study verified the two DTM features (inter- and intra-transaction) in the comments produced by the 'Don't know? Don't drink' campaign implemented on Facebook. DTM exhibited the potential to be a theoretical framework for recommending and evaluating social media sites like Facebook for communicating public health messages.

Utilizing Facebook and Automated Telephone Calls to Increase Adoption of a Local Smoke Alarm Installation Program

CONTEXT

Innovative strategies are needed to improve the prevalence of working smoke alarms in homes. To our knowledge, this is the first study to report on the effectiveness of Facebook advertising and automated telephone calls as population-level strategies to encourage an injury prevention behavior.

OBJECTIVE

We examine the effectiveness of Facebook advertising and automated telephone calls as strategies to enroll individuals in Baltimore City's Fire Department's free smoke alarm installation program.

PARTICIPANTS

We directed our advertising efforts toward Facebook users eligible for the Baltimore City Fire Department's free smoke alarm installation program and all homes with a residential phone line included in Baltimore City's automated call system.

DESIGN

The Facebook campaign targeted Baltimore City residents 18 years of age and older. In total, an estimated 300 000 Facebook users met the eligibility criteria. Facebook advertisements were delivered to users' desktop and mobile device newsfeeds. A prerecorded message was sent to all residential landlines listed in the city's automated call system.

RESULTS

By the end of the campaign, the 3 advertisements generated 456 666 impressions reaching 130 264 Facebook users. Of the users reached, 4367 individuals (1.3%) clicked the advertisement. The automated call system included approximately 90 000 residential phone numbers. Participants attributed 25 smoke alarm installation requests to Facebook and 458 to the automated call.

CONCLUSION

Facebook advertisements are a novel approach to promoting smoke alarms and appear to be effective in exposing individuals to injury prevention messages. However, converting Facebook message recipients to users of a smoke alarm installation program occurred infrequently in this study. Residents who participated in the smoke alarm installation program were more likely to cite the automated call as the impetus for their participation. Additional research is needed to understand the circumstances and strategies to effectively use the social networking site as a tool to convert passive users into active participants.

The Use of Social Networking Sites (SNSs) in Health Communication Campaigns: Review and Recommendations

The past decade has witnessed a rapid increase in the use of Social Networking Sites (SNSs) in health communication campaigns seeking to achieve an ambitious range of health-related impacts. This article provides a review of 40 studies and research protocols, with a focus on two key factors that differentiate SNSs from more traditional health communication approaches of the past. The first is the potential dualism between message sender and receiver, in which receivers become receiver-sources who forward and amplify the content and reach of health messages. The second is the potential dualism between message and message impact, in which the act of forwarding and modifying messages by receiver-sources itself becomes a measure of message impact. Each of these dualisms has implications for the design and evaluation of contemporary health communication campaigns. The review concludes with a series of observations and recommendations for future health communication research.

Targeting Future Customers: An Introductory Biobanking Course for Undergraduate Students of Life Sciences

INTRODUCTION

Biobanking is a relatively new concept in the Arab region. Targeting different stakeholders to introduce the concept of biobanking and develop an acceptance of it among them is important for the growth of biobanking in the region. Undergraduate students of life sciences represent an important segment of stakeholders, since they constitute potential future biobank customers. Limited funding, lack of awareness of the existence of the term "biobanking" itself among these students, and questions regarding best marketing strategies presented challenges to planning for the most effective message delivery to this target group.

METHODS

A specific course was designed for undergraduate students of life sciences, which was conducted at the Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Egypt. The course was conducted twice in 2016 and included lectures covering biobanking, quality, ethics, information technology, and translational research. Facebook and word-of-mouth were used for marketing and advertising.

RESULTS

A total number of 125 participants attended both courses cumulatively. Facebook appeared to have been an effective marketing outlet, especially when paid advertisements were used. Evaluation of knowledge, measured using a pretest and posttest, demonstrated some improvement in knowledge of participants. Evaluation forms filled after the course showed positive attitude toward content and message delivery by a majority of participants. Facebook was also used as an evaluation method through analysis of engagement with posts created after course completion.

CONCLUSIONS

Biobanking education can be carried out effectively with limited resources. Understanding the needs of the target group and using appropriate methods of communication are essential prerequisites to a well-tailored curriculum and effective message delivery. Using Facebook appears to be an effective and affordable method of communication and advertising. Targeting undergraduate students of life sciences interested in research is a good investment and can be very effective in increasing awareness about biobanking inside the research community.

Engaging a state: Facebook comments on a large population biobank

Scholarship on newborn screening, dried bloodspot retention, and large population biobanking call consistently for improved public engagement. Communication with participants likely occurs only in the context of collection, consent, or notification, if at all. We ran an 11-week advertising campaign to inform Michigan Facebook users unlikely to know that their or their children's dried bloodspots (DBSs) were stored in a state biobank. We investigated the pattern and content of comments posted during the campaign, focusing on users' questions, attitudes and concerns, and the role the moderator played in addressing them. We used Facebook data to quantitatively assess engagement and employed conventional content analysis to investigate themes, attitudes, and social dynamics among user and moderator comments. Five ad sets elicited comments during campaign weeks 4-8, reaching ∼800,000 Facebook users ($6000). Gravitating around broad, underlying ethical, legal, and social issues, 180 posts from 129 unique users related to newborn screening or biobanking. Thirty six conveyed negative attitudes and 33 conveyed positive attitudes; 53 posed questions. The most prevalent themes identified were consent, privacy, bloodspot use, identifiability, inclusion criteria, research benefits, (mis)trust, genetics, DBS destruction, awareness, and the role of government. The moderator's 81 posts were responsive-answering questions, correcting or clarifying information, or providing information about opting out. Facebook ad campaigns can improve engagement by pushing out relevant content and creating dynamic, responsive, visible forums for discussion. Reduced control over messaging may be worth the trade-off for creating accessible, transparent, people-centered engagement on public health issues that are sensitive and complex.

Facebook Advertising Across an Engagement Spectrum: A Case Example for Public Health Communication

Background

The interpersonal, dialogic features of social networking sites have untapped potential for public health communication. We ran a Facebook advertising campaign to raise statewide awareness of Michigan’s newborn screening and biobanking programs.

Objective

We ran a Facebook advertising campaign to stimulate public engagement on the complex and sensitive issue of Michigan’s newborn screening and biobank programs.

Methods

We ran an 11-week, US $15,000 Facebook advertising campaign engaging Michigan Facebook users aged 18-64 years about the state’s newborn screening and population biobank programs, and we used a novel “engagement spectrum” framework to contextualize and evaluate engagement outcomes ranging from observation to multi-way conversation.

Results

The campaign reached 1.88 million Facebook users, yielding a range of engagement outcomes across ad sets that varied by objective, content, budget, duration, and bid type. Ad sets yielded 9009 page likes (US $4125), 15,958 website clicks (US $5578), and 12,909 complete video views to 100% (US $3750). “Boosted posts” yielded 528 comments and 35,966 page post engagements (US $1500). Overall, the campaign led to 452 shares and 642 comments, including 176 discussing newborn screening and biobanking.

Conclusions

Facebook advertising campaigns can efficiently reach large populations and achieve a range of engagement outcomes by diversifying ad types, bid types, and content. This campaign provided a population-based approach to communication that also increased transparency on a sensitive and complex topic by creating a forum for multi-way interaction.

Testing an online, dynamic consent portal for large population biobank research

BACKGROUND

Michigan's BioTrust for Health, a public health research biobank comprised of residual dried bloodspot (DBS) cards from newborn screening contains over 4 million samples collected without written consent. Participant-centric initiatives are IT tools that hold great promise to address the consent challenges in biobank research.

METHODS

Working with Private Access Inc., a pioneer in patient-centric web solutions, we created and pilot tested a dynamic informed consent simulation, paired with an educational website, focusing on consent for research utilizing DBSs in Michigan's BioTrust for Health.

RESULTS

Out of 187 pilot testers recruited in 2 groups, 137 completed the consent simulation and exit survey. Over 50% indicated their willingness to set up an account if the simulation went live and to recommend it to others. Participants raised concerns about the process of identity verification and appeared to have little experience with sharing health information online.

CONCLUSIONS

Applying online, dynamic approaches to address the consent challenges raised by biobanks with legacy sample collections should be explored, given the positive reaction to our pilot test and the strong preference for active consent. Balancing security and privacy with accessibility and ease of use will continue to be a challenge.

'Cool! and creepy': engaging with college student stakeholders in Michigan's biobank

Large population biobanks, important resources for genomic research, also present ethical challenges. The Michigan BioTrust for Health makes dried bloodspots (DBS) leftover from newborn screening, including ~4.5 million collected before 2010 without written consent, available for health research. Absent prospectively gathered consent and/or current engagement with 18- to 29-year olds, little is known about opinions and beliefs from this age group about use of the bloodspots for research. We engaged 2,101 students-BioTrust participants and their peers-at information booths at 20 college campuses across the state to educate youth about the BioTrust and gather information about consent preferences and about hopes and concerns about this public health program. We surveyed student stakeholder DBS research consent preferences and fielded a "postengagement" survey to gauge the attitudes of participants and to evaluate the campus engagement. The most prevalent themes in open-ended comments were support for biobank research and concern that Michiganders are not aware of their participation. While 78 % of students said they would, if asked, opt in to the BioTrust, half of these preferred to be contacted each time a researcher sought to use their DBS. Students reported great interest in the topic and strong likelihood to share what they had learned. BioTrust participants are interested in learning about their role in an initiative whose goals they widely support. Public engagement is particularly important to biobank participants who, absent traditional consent practices, are unaware of their participation. Health-fair style engagements were effective for targeting college-aged stakeholders, communicating complex messages, and likely increasing knowledge. Retrospective biobanks and biobanks that collect proxy consent need policies to respect those who would opt out and will need resources to educate participants and conduct community outreach that is a safeguard to public trust.

Community perspectives on public health biobanking: an analysis of community meetings on the Michigan BioTrust for Health

Biobanks raise challenges for developing ethically sound and practicable consent policies. Biobanks comprised of dried bloodspots (DBS) left over from newborn screening, maintained for long-term storage, and potential secondary research applications are no exception. Michigan has been a leader in transforming its DBS collection, marketing its biobank of de-identified samples for health research use. The Michigan BioTrust for Health includes approximately 4 million unconsented retrospective samples collected as early as 1984 and prospective samples added since the fall of 2010 with blanket parental consent. We engaged Michigan citizens to ascertain public attitudes, knowledge, and beliefs about the BioTrust and informed consent. A convenience sampling of 393 participants from communities around the state of Michigan (oversampling for minority populations) participated in meetings addressing newborn screening, the BioTrust and informed consent, yielding quantitative and qualitative survey and discussion data. Participants affirmed the principle of voluntary informed participation in research and advocated for greater public awareness of the existence of the BioTrust. Most expressed support for the use of DBS for research and a desire for greater involvement in granting permission for research use. Opinions varied as to which specific research uses were acceptable. Participants indicated a desire for greater engagement, public awareness, and more active decision making on the part of biobank participants and parents. Diversity of opinion over which research areas were deemed acceptable problematizes the blanket consent model that currently applies to the BioTrust's prospective DBS collection and that could become the new norm for research using de-identified data under proposed changes to the Common Rule.

Public preferences regarding informed consent models for participation in population-based genomic research

PURPOSE

Some large population biobanks that house biospecimens and health information for research seek broad consent from participants, whereas others reconsent for specific new studies. Understanding research participants' attitudes and preferences about broad and narrow consent may improve recruitment, retention, and public support.

METHODS

An online survey was conducted among a representative sample of 4,659 US adults to examine relationships between consent preferences and demographic factors, beliefs about privacy and the value of research, and the perceived trustworthiness of researchers.

RESULTS

Participants preferred broad consent (52%) over study-by-study consent models (48%). Higher preferences for study-by-study consent observed among black non-Hispanic respondents and respondents with lower income and education were explained by differences in the prevalence of one or more beliefs about the study. Respondents with fears about research and those who would feel respected if asked for permission for each research use preferred study-by-study consent. Preference for broad consent was related to the desire not to be bothered with multiple requests and the belief that the study could lead to improved treatments, cures, and lives saved.

CONCLUSION

These data suggest that support for broad consent is contingent on sufficient information about data use. Work with research participants and community leaders to understand, respond to, and influence opinions about a given, ongoing study may improve uptake of broad consent.