amychau16
commented
3 years ago Hey Jennifer!
I do agree that completing this challenge was really eye-opening especially with issues surrounding price hikes - it was definitely something I wasn't aware of.
I think the wording of the questions/introduction could be revised, especially in Challenge 1. "We invite you to share what you've been hearing about in the news. If you have heard anything about medicines in the news, this challenge is for you!". For people who haven't had much interaction with the news, this may create disengagement with the challenge, and as Challenge 1 is most likely the first one people attempt, making a good first impression is important. By saying 'If you have heard about this, then share it with us', it places an expectation upon the respondent to have prior knowledge or have read medicine-related news articles.
I think the above point you have raised is really important. Although I did not raise this in my journal (which I should have), I did experience this in challenge 1. I found that I lacked interactions with the news regarding medicines, so instead of relying on my own knowledge, I searched up news articles related to the medicine instead. I am sure that this will be a common experience with future participants, so its a good idea to consider that making an assumption that a participant has knowledge on news related to medicines would make the challenge confusing and potentially off-putting.
Challenge 2: Price Hike$
For this challenge, I researched the drug albendazole by inputting 'albendazole price hike' into Google Search. Immediately, I found a number of articles that seemed reliable as a .org site. I used one article in particular as a starting point for some background research into the drug, which I found to be quite interesting. Before this challenge, I was unaware that price hikes of medicines were an issue and affected so many people. I began to wonder why there is such a disparity between prices in different countries, where the price of albendazole is $291 in the US and $0.04 for the exact same drug in Tanzania. Knowing this, I feel strongly against the actions of the pharmaceutical companies and I think it is wrong for them to exploit people in need for profit.
While reading the article, I noticed there were multiple prices listed for different countries and years, making it difficult to determine the price to include in the survey. To address this, I then did another search through Advanced Google Search, filtering the results to obtain articles within the last year, hoping to find more recently updated pricing. I selected some journal articles which contained more accurate and reliable statistics which I used to answer the challenge questions. In regards to the challenge layout, I found the questions to be somewhat restrictive with the implication that there is only one answer. For example, "What was the price of [drug] before the hike?...When was the price hiked?". I am unsure whether it was due to lack of specificity, a psychological effect from the size of the box, or merely overthinking, but I felt conflicted with what to write as there were many external factors that could also be considered. For instance, there are multiple times the price was hiked. Do I include the first one only or every instance?
In terms of the overall layout, I found the introduction very helpful in providing some background information into what E$$ENTIAL MEDICINE$ is about. I think the guide on how to conduct research would be particularly useful for people who are new to the field of scientific research. For me, I found the set-up of Challenge 2 much more engaging than Challenge 1, which offered less direction and left me a little confused on how to proceed. I think the wording of the questions/introduction could be revised, especially in Challenge 1. "We invite you to share what you've been hearing about in the news. If you have heard anything about medicines in the news, this challenge is for you!". For people who haven't had much interaction with the news, this may create disengagement with the challenge, and as Challenge 1 is most likely the first one people attempt, making a good first impression is important. By saying 'If you have heard about this, then share it with us', it places an expectation upon the respondent to have prior knowledge or have read medicine-related news articles. My first thought when I read this was 'But I don't read medicine-related news. This doesn't relate to me. Can I still do this challenge?'. This uncertainty could be eliminated by perhaps rephrasing the challenge, asking participants to find news articles relating to medicine or public health topics rather than sharing previous knowledge.