Fostering interdisciplinary collaboration: A longitudinal social network analysis of the NIH mHealth Training Institutes
Abstract Background/Objective: Growing recognition that collaboration among scientists from diverse disciplines fosters the emergence of solutions to complex scientific problems has spurred initiatives to train researchers to collaborate in interdisciplinary teams. Evaluations of collaboration pat...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press
2021-01-01
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| Series: | Journal of Clinical and Translational Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2059866121008591/type/journal_article |
| _version_ | 1811156597995470848 |
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| author | Eric Ho Minjeong Jeon Minho Lee Jinwen Luo Angela F Pfammatter Vivek Shetty Bonnie Spring |
| author_facet | Eric Ho Minjeong Jeon Minho Lee Jinwen Luo Angela F Pfammatter Vivek Shetty Bonnie Spring |
| author_sort | Eric Ho |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
Abstract
Background/Objective:
Growing recognition that collaboration among scientists from diverse disciplines fosters the emergence of solutions to complex scientific problems has spurred initiatives to train researchers to collaborate in interdisciplinary teams. Evaluations of collaboration patterns in these initiatives have tended to be cross-sectional, rather than clarifying temporal changes in collaborative dynamics. Mobile health (mHealth), the science of using mobile, wireless devices to improve health outcomes, is a field whose advancement needs interdisciplinary collaboration. The NIH-supported annual mHealth Training Institute (mHTI) was developed to meet that need and provides a unique testbed.
Methods:
In this study, we applied a longitudinal social network analysis technique to evaluate how well the program fostered communication among the disciplinarily diverse scholars participating in the 2017−2019 mHTIs. By applying separable temporal exponential random graph models, we investigated the formation and persistence of project-based and fun conversations during the mHTIs.
Results:
We found that conversations between scholars of different disciplines were just as likely as conversations within disciplines to form or persist in the 2018 and 2019 mHTI, suggesting that the mHTI achieved its goal of fostering interdisciplinary conversations and could be a model for other team science initiatives; this finding is also true for scholars from different career stages. The presence of team and gender homophily effects in certain years suggested that scholars tended to communicate within the same team or gender.
Conclusion:
Our results demonstrate the usefulness of longitudinal network models in evaluating team science initiatives while clarifying the processes driving interdisciplinary communications during the mHTIs.
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| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T04:54:01Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-aac396a2866e4086a7bee66c0ee8bdd7 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2059-8661 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T04:54:01Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Clinical and Translational Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-aac396a2866e4086a7bee66c0ee8bdd72023-03-09T12:31:03ZengCambridge University PressJournal of Clinical and Translational Science2059-86612021-01-01510.1017/cts.2021.859Fostering interdisciplinary collaboration: A longitudinal social network analysis of the NIH mHealth Training InstitutesEric Ho0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9936-276XMinjeong Jeon1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5880-4146Minho Lee2https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9083-1067Jinwen Luo3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8511-7165Angela F Pfammatter4https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0081-4090Vivek Shetty5https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3167-3318Bonnie Spring6https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0692-9868Department of Education, UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USADepartment of Education, UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USADepartment of Education, UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USADepartment of Education, UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USADepartment of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, USADivision of Diagnostic and Surgical Sciences, School of Dentistry, UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USADepartment of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, USA Abstract Background/Objective: Growing recognition that collaboration among scientists from diverse disciplines fosters the emergence of solutions to complex scientific problems has spurred initiatives to train researchers to collaborate in interdisciplinary teams. Evaluations of collaboration patterns in these initiatives have tended to be cross-sectional, rather than clarifying temporal changes in collaborative dynamics. Mobile health (mHealth), the science of using mobile, wireless devices to improve health outcomes, is a field whose advancement needs interdisciplinary collaboration. The NIH-supported annual mHealth Training Institute (mHTI) was developed to meet that need and provides a unique testbed. Methods: In this study, we applied a longitudinal social network analysis technique to evaluate how well the program fostered communication among the disciplinarily diverse scholars participating in the 2017−2019 mHTIs. By applying separable temporal exponential random graph models, we investigated the formation and persistence of project-based and fun conversations during the mHTIs. Results: We found that conversations between scholars of different disciplines were just as likely as conversations within disciplines to form or persist in the 2018 and 2019 mHTI, suggesting that the mHTI achieved its goal of fostering interdisciplinary conversations and could be a model for other team science initiatives; this finding is also true for scholars from different career stages. The presence of team and gender homophily effects in certain years suggested that scholars tended to communicate within the same team or gender. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate the usefulness of longitudinal network models in evaluating team science initiatives while clarifying the processes driving interdisciplinary communications during the mHTIs. https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2059866121008591/type/journal_articleTeam sciencemHTIprogram evaluationlongitudinal network analysiscommunicationsteam homophilygender homophily |
| spellingShingle | Eric Ho Minjeong Jeon Minho Lee Jinwen Luo Angela F Pfammatter Vivek Shetty Bonnie Spring Fostering interdisciplinary collaboration: A longitudinal social network analysis of the NIH mHealth Training Institutes Journal of Clinical and Translational Science Team science mHTI program evaluation longitudinal network analysis communications team homophily gender homophily |
| title | Fostering interdisciplinary collaboration: A longitudinal social network analysis of the NIH mHealth Training Institutes |
| title_full | Fostering interdisciplinary collaboration: A longitudinal social network analysis of the NIH mHealth Training Institutes |
| title_fullStr | Fostering interdisciplinary collaboration: A longitudinal social network analysis of the NIH mHealth Training Institutes |
| title_full_unstemmed | Fostering interdisciplinary collaboration: A longitudinal social network analysis of the NIH mHealth Training Institutes |
| title_short | Fostering interdisciplinary collaboration: A longitudinal social network analysis of the NIH mHealth Training Institutes |
| title_sort | fostering interdisciplinary collaboration a longitudinal social network analysis of the nih mhealth training institutes |
| topic | Team science mHTI program evaluation longitudinal network analysis communications team homophily gender homophily |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2059866121008591/type/journal_article |
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