M-Health for Just-in-Time Occupational Safety Training

Details

• Personal Author:
  Bandera C
• Description:
  The objective of SBIR Phase I project 1R430HO10146-01 is to evaluate the technical feasibility of innovative cell phone multimedia broadcasts as a mechanism to disseminate timely occupational safety refresher training. This training is intended to promote construction site safety culture with brief videos (under one minute in duration) sent periodically to the cell phones of construction site workers. This project defines technical feasibility as access to construction workers, and reusability of existing occupational safety training material. The first criterion requires that this approach bridge the digital divide, i.e., video broadcasts can be received by all workers. The second improves cost-effectiveness. The innovation differs from online videos in four ways that can further improve construction site safety culture. First, the project pushes videos onto cell phones at any instant determined by the safety officer, similar to how a text message is pushed onto a cell phone. The pushed video is stored in the messaging inbox of the worker's cell phone, where it can be viewed, forwarded, and/or deletes. The worker need not know a URL, operate a web browser, or install an app. Second, the videos are compatible with all cell phones and carriers, not just smartphones. Over half the construction workers in New Jersey have cell phones that cannot access the web; even if they have access to the internet at home, web videos do not reach these workers in a timely manner. Third, pushed videos can be tailored to each recipient, whereas an online video is the same to everyone who views it. Fourth, the innovation solves interoperability obstacles between carriers that have impeded device-agnostic mobile video broadcasts. To determine technical feasibility, Cell Podium collaborated with the Hunter Roberts Construction Group, which strives to eliminate unsafe conditions at construction sites that precede incidents through a personalized approach that emphasizes concern for workers' health and welfare. A mobile multimedia campaign on thirteen topics was deployed at the Warren Street Village project in Newark, NJ, selected for its overlap with the project performance period, large size (three acres, $80M, 214,000 square feet of office, classroom, laboratory, dormitory, gymnasium, and retail space), and worker diversity. Twenty-seven construction workers participated in the campaign. Each participant was able to enroll, select broadcast times, and view each of 13 safety videos selected by Hunter Roberts (derived from a training DVD and transmitted bi-weekly), all using her/his cell phone without having to install any app or change any phone settings. Feedback from construction workers and from Hunter Roberts site management was positive, included suggestions for additional content, and there were no complaints of the campaign being intrusive or broadcasts not being received. The project successfully verified the technology's feasibility, and its adoption by construction workers and management. It also revealed that construction workers were comfortable with using their cell phones to contribute to the campaign and the site's safety culture; they were not just passive observers of the pushed videos, but instead added their constructive safety comments. Cell Podium and Hunter Roberts plan to exploit in Phase II this bi-directional flow of safety advice to further improve workplace conditions and collect real-time metrics of safety culture. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Communication Construction Industry Occupational Health Safety Staff Development
• Keywords:
  Cell Phones Communication Research Construction Industry Construction Workers Information Dissemination Mobile Equipment Safety Culture Safety Education Training Research Video
• Series:
  Grant Final Reports
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Final Grant Report
• Place as Subject:
  New Jersey ; OSHA Region 2
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OEP - Office of Extramural Programs
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-26
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20052495
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2018-101543
• Citation:
  Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, R43-OH-010146, 2015 Jul; :1-26
• Contact Point Address:
  Cesar Bandera, Ph.D., Cell Podium LLC, 211 Warren Street, Suite 207, Newark, NJ 07103
• Email:
  cesar.bandera@cellpodium.com
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2015
• NORA Priority Area:
  Construction
• Performing Organization:
  Cell Podium, Newark, NJ
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20110901
• Source Full Name:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• End Date:
  20120831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:b4d6f892c9b5b289c24b8b5253a152257059092381874208440f31cdfc39e0ccdadee236ccdef67031972fd5f1a6c6dc13960516eb863c3fe46abdc899978d33
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/218707/cdc_218707_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.42 MB ]