Training Grant Goals and Objectives
The overarching goal of this training program remains to provide rigorous research training and interdisciplinary culturalization to build nursing science aimed at promoting health, managing illness, reducing disability, and enhancing quality of life through the aid of technology and clinical data science. Great emphasis is placed on leveraging technology, clinical data analytics and design-justice to reduce health disparities and promote health equity for vulnerable populations due to social inequalities. Based on the growing need for nurse researchers to lead interdisciplinary teams and contribute their unique domain expertise to these rapidly growing fields, the specific aims are to provide trainees with:
- the theoretical and conceptual foundations to support the development of a program of research that examines ways that technological solutions can be used to address unmet clinical needs by enabling the prevention, detection, prediction, or management of health-related problems;
- the methodological skills to combine nursing domain knowledge and emerging clinical data science strategies to better understand complex health phenomena;
- the knowledge and skill to incorporate equity and justice in designing technology and clinical data science studies in order to mitigate social inequalities and health disparities, while promoting health equity across groups and vulnerable populations;
- skills to lead interdisciplinary teams to conduct research of impact that propels technology solutions and clinical data science along pathways of translation into practice or commercialization.
Training Faculty
- Murat Akcakaya
- Judith Callan
- Dan Ding
- Heidi Donovan (advisory committee)
- Harry Hochheiser
- Rebecca Hwa
- Christopher Imes
- Theresa Koleck
- HeeYoung Lee
- Young Ji Lee (Program Director)
- YuRu Lin
- Dianxu Ren
- Margaret Rosenzweig
- Paul Scott
- Susan Sereika
- Jamie Zelazny
Interdisciplinary training faculty are from the University of Pittsburgh Schools of Medicine, Health and Rehabilitation Science, Computing and Information and Engineering.
Program Advisors
- Suzanne Bakken
- Rory Cooper
- Paula Davis
- Mary Amanda Dew
- Debbie Gilotti
- Dawndra Jones
- Julius Kitutu
- Robert Lucero
- Ashli Molinero
- Doris Rubio
- Jing Wang
Training Program Includes:
- Mentoring from successful nursing and interdisciplinary researchers
- Opportunity for research experience/training in the development, use, and evaluation of technology applications with training faculty
- Completion of a rigorous academic curriculum tailored to the needs of each individual trainee
- Exposure to a broad range of professional development experiences through participation in departmental and university seminars and through the Clinical and Translational Science Institute
- Participation in a bi-monthly Technology seminar series
- Training in the responsible conduct of research and reproducibility
Individuals selected as fellows in this training program receive a monthly stipend, tuition assistance, benefit assistance, assistance for professional travel, and modest funds to support research related expenses.
Application
All applicants to this T32 pre-doctoral and postdoctoral training program are citizens or non-citizen nationals of the United States and must submit official transcripts from previous and/or current institutions and 3 reference letters.
Pre-doctoral Applicants
Applicants to the pre-doctoral program must meet the admission criteria for the University of Pittsburgh PhD Program (BSN to PhD Track or MSN to PhD Track) and have a bachelor’s or master’s degree in nursing and a professional nursing license. Pre-doctoral applicants must also submit a brief proposal indicating their research interests related to technology research within either chronic or critical illness.
Post-Doctoral Applicants
Postdoctoral applicants must submit a curriculum vitae and a one-page proposal outlining a training plan and research focus related to technology in the context of either chronic or critical illness.
We are now accepting applications for postdoctoral trainees for the 2026–2027 academic year.
Pre-Doctoral and Post-Doctoral candidates interested in this innovative program may contact:
Young Ji Lee, PhD, MSN, RN, FAAN (Director)
Phone: 412-624-7886
Email: leeyoung@pitt.edu