BITE: Planning Project Management & Evaluation Website

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this Phase I application is to test the feasibility of building the Balancing intake and Expenditure (BITE) website to support the planning, project management and program evaluation needs of state and local public health professionals who are working to promote personal energy balance in physical activity and nutrition (PAN) programs. Improved project management should lead to improved health outcomes. The specific aims of this project are: 1, Convene and manage an expert advisory panel of local, state and national experts that will guide project development, including website design, content and evaluation; 2. Determine the program planning, management, evaluation and content information needs of local and state public health professionals who are working to control the obesity epidemic in the United States; and 3. Develop theoretically sound specifications and a navigational schematic of a website that will satisfy program planning, management, and evaluation needs for state and local public health practitioners. This proposed project will be built on the experiences of Dr. Walter Young, media developers at Klein Buendel, Inc. (a small media and research firm specializing in the development of programs to educate communities and health professionals about important health issues), and consultants who helped develop a technical assistance website for Colorado state and local tobacco control program staff and coalition members (the Tobacco Control Partners [TCP] website, R01 grant from the National Cancer Institute). Using the PRECEDE/ PROCEED community health promotion planning model as a theoretical guide and Essential Public Health Services as a quality assurance benchmark, we will explore development of new features (e.g., online collaborative planning) that can be added to those already incorporated in the TCP website to create the next generation of technical assistance websites. An Expert Advisory Panel, and online needs assessment of 4000+ state and local public health practitioners and 3 focus groups of eight persons each will inform researchers about the online managerial support, technical information and website design specifications. The eventual goal of this SBIR project (Phase I & II) is to produce and evaluate the effectiveness of a website that can support project managerial actions to prevent and control obesity. It is our contention that online collaborative program planning and project management support will improve the effectiveness of obesity prevention public health efforts in the United States. More specifically, it will help promote effective planning, implementation and evaluation of program, policy and media activities by engaging virtual teams of public health practitioners in collaborative, integrative, and evaluative actions that will encourage healthy eating, and increased physical activity in the population. While its content will specifically address physical activity and nutrition, the BITE website will be designed so it can be readily scaled up to incorporate other public health topics where collaborative program planning, management and evaluation will be beneficial.