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PhD, MPH, FAMIA
Associate Professor and Beerstecher-Blackwell Distinguished Term Scholar, School of Nursing
Associate Director, Carolina Health Informatics Program (CHIP)
Director, Carolina Applied Informatics Research (CAIR) Lab
Research Fellow, Sheps Center for Health Services Research
UNC-Chapel Hill
Cancer Prevention and Control

Area of Interest

Our group seeks to improve healthcare delivery and patient access and safety through novel design, implementation, and evaluation of health information technology. Our group is made of members who have a passion for improving technological aspects in the medical field.  These interests cover a broad range of topics in health informatics but are concentrated into three areas:

  • Electronic Health Record Usability with the aim on improving EHRs from a practical perspective
  • Telemedicine with the aim of using technology to give more patients access to better health care
  • Teleconsent with the aim of recruiting patients to clinical trials in a way that is more convenient for the patients

We are known to use novel methodological approaches to evaluate health IT technologies. We have transformed evaluation methods of health information systems using our eye-tracking methods. To the extent that we developed eye-tracking algorithms to precisely measure providers’ fatigue levels related from the use of technologies as well as assess the impact of information overload on providers’ decision-making.

We developed the first-of-its-kind digital health vulnerability index score that enables the classification of U.S. neighborhoods regarding readiness and access of digital health tools. Our geospatial methods enabled the ability of telemedicine tools to bridge health inequities by looking at social, access, and digital factors.

Awards and Honors

  • Leadership Fundamentals Program, Center for Faculty Excellence, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2021-2022
  • Third Place, Best Paper Award Competition, Knowledge and Data Mining Working Group, AMIA, Washington, DC, 2019
  • Nominated for Best Student Paper Award, 17th World Congress of Medical and Health Informatics, Lyon, France, 2019
  • Fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association (FAMIA), Atlanta, GA, 2019
  • Six Sigma & LEAN Certification, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2017
  • Junior Faculty Development Award, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2016
  • Best of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) 2012, The Paths Toward Informatics Careers in the Post-HITECH Era, 2012
  • Informatics Institute (MUII) Research Fellowship, Recognized for ICU Clinical Communication Research, 2011
  • Curator’s Grant-In-Aid (GIA) Scholarship, Recognized for  Continued Success in Educational Endeavors, 2010
  • Graduate Assistantship, University of Missouri, 2008-2010
  • Teaching Assistantship, University of Missouri, Recognized for Outstanding Teaching Evaluations, 2006-2008
  • General Honors Certificate, University of Missouri, Recognized for Completing Honors Courses with Excellent GPA, 2005
  • Computer Science Dean’s List, University of Missouri, 2004-2005
  • National Dean’s List, Recognized for Exceptional Grade Point Average (GPA), 2004-2005
  • National Scholars Honor Society, 2004
  • National Society of Collegiate Scholars, Recognized for Outstanding Academic Achievement, 2004
  • Kappa Mu Epsilon, Recognized for Academic Distinction, 2003

Find publications on PubMed

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  • Phone Number

    (919) 843-5413 (Office Phone)

  • Address

    Carrington Hall - Office 439

    UNC-Chapel Hill School of Nursing

    CB #7460

    Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7460