Eastern Student Mame Fatou Diop of East Hartford Gives Oral Presentation at CREATE Conference

2016 May 5

More than 250 talented students at Eastern Connecticut State University presented research and creative work at the university's second annual CREATE conference this past April. CREATE stands for Celebrating Research Excellence and Artistic Talent at Eastern, and is the university's premier, academic year-end showcase. At the culminating event, students of all majors presented professional posters, live music, dance performances, artwork, photography, documentaries and panel discussions.

Mame Fatou Diop '16 of East Hartford, who majors in Health Sciences, gave an oral presentation at the event. Diop's oral presentation was titled "A Qualitative Study on Healthcare Consumers Concerns for Privacy and Security in the Adoption of Personal Health Records."

"A Personal Health Record (PHR) is a private, secure application through which an individual healthcare consumer can access, manage and share his or her health information," said Diop. "Unlike the Electronic Health Records (EHR) which are controlled by the healthcare provider, the PHR is controlled by the consumer. The adoption and use of PHRs by consumers is positively viewed by many practitioners, researchers and policy makers. Studies show PHR adoption has a positive effect on: patient engagement; ready access to patient information when needed by healthcare providers, the patient and his/her caregivers; the potential for a unified view of the patient's health information by all providers as well as research. The widespread adoption of PHRs is viewed in many countries as a significant potentiality in healthcare, with governments investing in efforts to promote their adoption. On the other hand, studies show consumers have privacy and security concerns regarding the unintended exposure of their personal information via the Internet and mobile devices when adopting PHRs. These concerns affect consumer willingness to adopt or use personal health records across demographic groups. The privacy of health information is a right, however, [1] the use of PHRs does not fall under HIPAA privacy legislation when not offered by covered-entities, and, [2] patients can consent to share this information with providers, marketers, researchers, family as well as the public. Little is understood about the contextualized nature of these concerns. One study showed these concerns vary by the type of information exchanged and the trust in the health provider with whom information is exchanged. However, on a platform where the consumer retains control over with whom information is shared, a more contextualized understanding of not only the sensitivity of different types of information, but how information sensitivity varies with different types of intended and unintended recipients is important. It would help inform and educate consumers about generalized concerns about information privacy as well as the specific concerns against their probabilities. It would also help inform the design of security features about these technologies. The purpose of this study is to develop an in-depth understanding of PHR users' and potential users' concerns for information privacy, exploring the variability in information sensitivity types in the context of potential intended and unintended information recipients. This study is qualitative. Data is collected through semi-structured interviews of healthcare consumers."

Remarking on the variety of presentations, Professor Dickson Cunningham, conference co-chair, said, "CREATE encapsulates the essence of the liberal arts in one afternoon. It is an intellectual smorgasbord."

Speaking to the value of CREATE, Eastern President Elsa Nunez said, "It takes a very strong and dedicated student to produce this quality of work, and it's important for other students to see this output." Praising the faculty, she added, "It takes a committed and skillful mentor to guide students to the work that is on display. Mentorship is such an integral part of undergraduate research."

During the one-day conference, the Student Center crawled with artistic and scholarly activity. Students in professional attire addressed their peers, faculty and family. In the cafe, ensembles performed; in the theatre, student-produced documentaries were shown; in the Betty R. Tipton Room, aisles of posters depicting scientific research were displayed; across the hall, a gallery-worth of paintings lined the walls; and on the ground floor, panel discussions and oral presentations about the humanities took place.