OPEN Achieves 10,000 Download Milestone for Educational Resources
On July 1st, 2024, OPEN officially reached the milestone of 10,000 downloads for our educational resources. OPEN’s materials cover a variety of topics from pain management techniques to naloxone facts to safe use supplies. OPEN has been tracking total downloads since 2020, and previously hit the 5,000 download milestone in January of 2023.
Emily McKanna, MPH, a Program Coordinator at OPEN, leads the tracking and organization of our educational resources and shared her excitement on hitting this milestone in only a year and a half. “It’s amazing, it is great to see that people and organizations are utilizing our work and finding our resources.” McKanna also runs our Educational Materials Co-Branding program, where organizations can partner with us and co-brand materials to hand out to their community members. Since we started co-branding with organizations in 2018, we have partnered with over 260 different organizations to share our educational resources. Our co-branding partners have access to three different languages to print: English, Spanish, Arabic.
Our most popular resources include Prescribing Recommendations (3,800), the Non-Medication Pain Management brochure (670), and the Managing Pain After Surgery brochure (590).
When creating new educational resources, OPEN reviews evidence and communicates with industry professionals to ensure that the most up to date information is shared. With over 8 years of experience, OPEN has been able to refresh our portfolio so that each resource, regardless of its original publishing date, has accurate and up-to-date information.
“Education is key in making positive changes, so if we can utilize our areas of expertise at OPEN and develop proper, evidence-based resources for everyone to use, it’s super impactful. We want organizations to feel confident, know that we hold our education to high standards and to feel comfortable using the resources. We want organizations to use our materials and not have to reinvent them,” said McKanna.
OPEN is committed to constantly creating new and improved resources to serve our community. Since January of 2024, we have created 7 new resources, including our Fentanyl Test Strips Pocket Guide and the Pediatric Surgical Pain Management Toolkit for Families. “Our responsibility as individuals working in this space is to not only create the best strategies to improve the care of our patients and the health of our communities, but also to ensure that these tools are easily accessible and reach those who need them most,” said Dr. Jennifer Waljee, co-director of OPEN.
OPEN attends community events and large national conferences in order to connect with communities and professionals in the field to determine what resources users want to see. McKanna stated our achievement of this milestone “Goes to show how important being involved within the community is. Being able to meet with different organizations at community events has played an important role in not only finding new partners, but getting a sense of what resources still need to be created and passed out in our communities.”
Is there a resource you feel is missing from your community? Email our support box with your suggestion! Is there a language you would like to see us offer for co-branding? Take our language survey to let us know what you’d like to see!
OPEN is excited to continue providing educational resources to all community members and organizations who may need them.