InteliSpark client, ArchieMD, is awarded a Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop an educational environmental health literacy toolkit in the form of a smartphone app for secondary and post-secondary students.
Every adult should have the skills and confidence to use data to make decisions or solve problems in the real world. But that is not always the case, particularly when it comes to making decisions about maintaining or improving health. Low levels of numerical and analytical skills and science literacy in individuals may prevent them from understanding environmental data and quantitative risk information. This may lead to exposure to unfavorable environmental conditions that contribute to poorer health outcomes and decreased quality of life.
ArchieMD, a company that provides visually-based health science education, is addressing this issue by developing a multimedia toolkit to teach environmental health literacy topics related to superfund sites. Superfund sites are polluted areas in the United States where hazardous waste was dumped or improperly managed such as manufacturing facilities, processing plants, landfills and mining sites. ArchieMD believes that building literacy around environmental health risks will enable individuals and communities to make informed decisions to maintain or improve quality of life.
In phase I of this federally-funded project, researchers will develop an interactive multimedia smart phone app as an education tool. The aim is to instill foundational environmental health content knowledge in secondary and post-secondary students as well as help them acquire written, numerical and analytical skills. Students will select a polluted site in their vicinity and will learn how to assess and then manage the health risks associated with the environmental exposures of that site. Researchers expect that increased awareness will lead to changes in behavior, ultimately improving quality of life.