COVID19: Outbreaks and the Media

PI: Kristina Krohn - Assistant Professor

Overview: This 4-week elective will introduce students to outbreak tracking in the media, and social media responses during disasters. Students will learn the history of previous outbreaks and how they compare to the current COVID19 pandemic. Students will learn how to evaluate medical media/information in regards to COVID19, including being introduced to the Situation Reports by the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Minnesota Department of Health. Students will also learn how to share vetted, reliable, and situationally relevant information from trusted governmental and non-governmental sources about COVID19 with the lay public through social media in a mentored setting. Students will learn about physician professionalism and how to communicate with a lay audience as a physician during crises. This course will be completely online, with class group conversations and individual work. The course director is Dr. Krohn.

Budget: 10000 - 90% to Kristina Krohn salary support and fringe support. At this point in time, Dr. Krohn has devoted over 80 hours to curriculum development, plus 40 hours running the course and office hours for SP3, and 40 hours running the course and office hours for SP4. This course will also be offered at least in S2, with another approximately 40 hours of time commitment, totaling approximately 1 calendar month. Dr. Krohn’s base salary is greater than the NIH cap. Therefore, using the NIH cap we request $8,980 to support salary and fringe for approximately 0.41 calendar months of support for the curriculum development of this project. 10% to Beth Scudder salary support and fringe support. Beth Scudder is the instructional designer and academic technician who created the Canvas course and materials to make this course possible. She devoted many hours to the project totalling greater than 80 hours, or 0.25 calendar months. We are requesting $1,020 in salary and fringe support for Ms. Scudder’s time, equaling approximately 0.14 calendar months on this project.

This project is supported by the UMN COVID-19 Medical Education Innovation Grants, which support full-time faculty (educators, investigators or clinical) or P&A educators at the University of Minnesota Medical School to develop education (basic science or clinical) and simulation projects related to COVID-19, more general pandemic-related knowledge and skills, or professional development activities that would be possible during this time of shelter at home.