Local Health Equity Action Teams (LHEATS) as a Novel and Emerging Practice of the Communities Organizing to Promote Equity (COPE) Project in Kansas.

The Communities Organizing to Promote Equity (COPE) Project was implemented in 20 counties across Kansas to build capacity to address health equity by forming local health equity action teams (LHEATS), hiring and training community health workers, facilitating state-wide learning collaboratives, and tailoring communication strategies. We conducted interviews and focus groups with project stakeholders who identified pragmatic recommendations related to LHEAT formation and leadership, establishing trust, nurturing autonomy, and optimizing impact. Insights can improve future community-based health equity efforts.

Community Organizations, Local Health Equity Action Teams, and a Learning Collaborative to Address COVID-19 Disparities in Urban and Rural Communities.

Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics-Underserved Populations (RADx-UP) Kansas worked with 10 Kansas counties from November 2020 through June 2022 to form local health equity action teams (LHEATs), develop COVID-19 testing strategies, foster communication about COVID-19, and share best practices through a learning collaborative. Participating counties documented 693 distinct COVID-19 testing and 178 communication activities. Although the intervention was not associated with changes in the proportion of positive COVID-19 tests, LHEATs in the learning collaborative implemented new testing strategies and responded to emerging COVID-19 challenges.

Decídetexto: Mobile Cessation Support for Latino Adults Who Smoke: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Background: Latino adults experience multiple barriers to health care access and treatment that result in tobacco-related disparities. Mobile interventions have the potential to deliver smoking cessation treatment among Latino adults, who show the highest use rates of mobile technologies.

Research Question: Is Decídetexto, a culturally accommodated mobile health intervention, more effective for smoking cessation compared with standard care among Latinx adults who smoke?

Study Design And Methods: A two-arm parallel group randomized clinical trial was conducted in Kansas, New Jersey, and New York between October 2018 and September 2021.

Communities organizing to promote equity: engaging local communities in public health responses to health inequities exacerbated by COVID-19-protocol paper.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted rural and under-resourced urban communities in Kansas. The state's response to COVID-19 has relied on a highly decentralized and underfunded public health system, with 100 local health departments in the state, few of which had prior experience engaging local community coalitions in a coordinated response to a public health crisis.

Methods: To improve the capacity for local community-driven responses to COVID-19 and other public health needs, the University of Kansas Medical Center, in partnership with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, will launch Communities Organizing to Promote Equity (COPE) in 20 counties across Kansas.

Infection Is Not Associated With Plasma or Cryoprecipitate Transfusion Volumes in Trauma: A Retrospective Study Using the National Trauma Data Bank.

Packed red blood cell (PRBC) transfusion has been shown to increase nosocomial infection risk in the injured population; however, the post-traumatic infectious risk profiles of non-PRBC blood products are less clear. We hypothesized that plasma (fresh frozen plasma [FFP]), platelet (PLT), and cryoprecipitate administration would not be associated with increased rates of nosocomial infections. We performed a retrospective, matched, case-control study utilizing the American College of Surgeons National Trauma Data Bank data for 2019.