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Klein Buendel Opens a Second Location

Klein Buendel Opens a Second Location

Klein Buendel is pleased to announce the opening of its first satellite location in New Mexico. The new Albuquerque office will house Klein Buendel Senior Scientist Dr. Gill Woodall and a small staff, to conduct multiple health communication and behavior research projects with people in New Mexico and Texas.

The Vacteens project aims to raise the public health profile of human papillomavirus (HPV), increase the need for responsible health services, and examine the cost-effectiveness of risk-based screening to pave the way for the development of new strategies for the prevention of HPV-induced cancers. The objectives of the project are to develop and evaluate a mobile web app to encourage HPV vaccination in New Mexico, an ethnically-diverse state. Current ongoing randomized controlled efficacy trials with parents and their adolescent children in New Mexico clinics provide data to determine the impact of these mobile web apps on informed decision making and uptake for the HPV vaccine. This research was funded by a grant from the National Cancer Institute (CA210125; Dr. W. Gill Woodall, Principal Investigator). Collaborators include Dr. Alberta Kong, Dr. Lance Chilton, and Dr. Tamar Ginossar from the University of New Mexico; Dr. Greg Zimet from Indiana University; and Dr. David Buller from Klein Buendel.

B-SMART is a project aimed at reducing intoxicated driving by people with court-ordered ignition interlock devices (IIDs) through improved communication and support from family members. Using smartphone web app technology, B-SMART teaches coping skills, communication skills, and strategies to help deter Driving While Impaired (DWI). Unique to this intervention are the involvement of family members in supporting the DWI offender to not drink and drive, English and Spanish language options, and the use of smartphone technology to make that support immediate, accessible, and diffusible. The research is funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (AA022850; Dr. W. Gill Woodall, Principal Investigator) through the Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR). Collaborators include Dr. Barbara McCrady and Dr. Vern Westerberg from the University of New Mexico; Dr. Gary Cutter from Pythagorus, Inc. in Alabama; and Julia Berteletti from Klein Buendel.

WayToServe Espanol: A Culturally-Appropriate Online Responsible Beverage Service Training for Spanish-Speaking Servers is a redesign of WayToServe®, an evidence-based training to promote responsible alcohol beverage service (RBS). WayToServe Espanol was created after discovering current RBS training had not been tailored to address Spanish-speaking populations that represent disproportionately high rates of alcohol-related injury and death in the United States. This project promotes a culturally and linguistically adapted RBS training for Spanish-speaking servers, and changes to organizational and community norms because preventing alcohol-related injury and death is a national priority. This research is funded by the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities at the National Institutes of Health (MD010405; Dr. Gill Woodall, Principal Investigator) through the SBIR. Collaborators include Dr. Victoria Sanchez from the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center; and Dr. Areli Chacon Silva and Dr. Frank Perez from the University of Texas at El Paso.

B-SMART Study Launches at KB

B-SMART Study Launches at KB

Klein Buendel (KB) Senior Scientist, Dr. Gill Woodall, is the Principal Investigator leading a new research project aimed at reducing intoxicated driving by people with court-ordered ignition interlock devices (IIDs) through improved communication and support from family members.

Driving while intoxicated (DWI) remains a substantial and preventable source of morbidity and mortality in the U.S. The IID, which requires a driver to blow into a breathalyzer unit installed in an automobile to establish sobriety, reduces drunk driving while installed. However, research has shown that once IIDs are removed from DWI offenders’ cars, DWI recidivism levels return to those comparable to offenders who did not have an IID installed.

This new project will fully develop and evaluate B-SMART — smartphone technology to teach coping skills, communication skills, and strategies to help deter DWI. Unique to this intervention are the involvement of family members in supporting the DWI offender to not drink and drive, English and Spanish language options, and the use of smartphone technology to make that support immediate, accessible, and diffusible. The core content of the intervention is based on empirically-validated couples therapy curriculum developed by Dr. Barbara McCrady from the University of New Mexico. It will be adapted for concerned DWI offender family members and delivered through a convenient smartphone web app platform. Programming and usability testing will be done by KB designers and developers.

Results of a Phase I feasibility study of an initial module of B-SMART presented at the Research Society on Alcoholism by Dr. Woodall in 2016, showed very positive reactions by users. Thirty-two concerned family members of DWI offenders browsed the communication skills module of B-SMART and then rated the module on the System Usability Scale (SUS – Bangor, et al., 2011). Results indicated an average SUS rating of 44.2 (sd=4.78, scale range: 10-50), with 87% of participants rating the B-SMART module 40 or above. These results indicate that users found the prototype B-SMART module easy to use, informative, and very positive.

For the new Phase II evaluation, a randomized efficacy trial will be conducted with DWI offenders and their concerned family members recruited through the New Mexico court system. The research is funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (R44AA022850) through the Small Business Innovation Research Program. Dr. Woodall’s scientific collaborators include Ms. Julia Berteletti from KB, Dr. Barbara McCrady and Dr. Vern Westerberg from the University of New Mexico, and Dr. Gary Cutter from Pythagorus, Inc. in Alabama.