Technology: Research in Chronic and Critical Illness (T32 NR008857)

The overarching goal of this training program is to provide rigorous research training and interdisciplinary culturalization to build the nursing science aimed at promoting health, managing illness, reducing disability, and enhancing quality of life through the aid of technology and clinical data science. Learn more

Equity Design Thinking Educational Series

A new education series on Equity Design Thinking (EDT) was funded by NINR to supplement the work of this T32.  The goal of the series is to build knowledge, understanding and skills to ensure design justice such that health technologies are equitable, inclusive, and co-created by the communities of interest. The series is free, open to the public, entirely web-based and includes a series of modules covering a wide range of topics: from the history of social justice movements to the dimensions of inequality, equity and health disparity, to how technology can advance or undermine the health of a community, to different methods of promoting equity design thinking. Learners have access to the entire site and can pick and choose whichever modules they want to complete. A toolkit for educators and training grant directors is also provided and learners can print certificates upon completion.  

Find the Introduction to the EDT Series Introduction.

The full EDT series can be found at: PittEquityDesignThinking.org  

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:   

  1. 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,  
  2. the methodological skills to combine nursing domain knowledge and emerging clinical data science strategies to better understand complex health phenomena  
  3. 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 
  4. 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

  • Annette DeVito Dabbs,  (Program Director)
  • Salah Al-Zaiti (Co-Director)
  • Murat Akcakaya
  • Michael Becich
  • Lora E. Burke
  • Judith Callan
  • Denise Charron-Prochownik
  • Dan Ding
  • Heidi Donovan (and advisory committee)
  • Harry Hochheiser
  • Marilyn Hravnak (advisory committee)
  • Rebecca Hwa
  • Christopher Imes
  • Theresa Koleck
  • HeeYoung Lee
  • Young Ji Lee
  • YuRu Lin
  • Jennifer Lingler
  • Judith Tabolt Matthews (advisory committee)
  • Dianxu Ren
  • Margaret Rosenzweig
  • Elizabeth Schlenk, (and advisory committee)
  • 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

  1. Mentoring from successful nursing and interdisciplinary researchers
  2. Opportunity for research experience/training in the development, use, and evaluation of technology applications with training faculty
  3. Completion of a rigorous academic curriculum tailored to the needs of each individual trainee
  4. Exposure to a broad range of professional development experiences through participation in departmental and university seminars and through the Clinical and Translational Science Institute
  5. Participation in a bi-monthly Technology seminar series
  6. 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 GRE scores taken within the last 5 years and a brief proposal indicating their research interests related to technology research within either chronic or critical illness.

Post-Doctoral Applicants

Postdoctoral applicants must submit their curriculum vitae and a proposal for a training program and research related to technology research within either chronic or critical illness.
Pre-Doctoral and Post-Doctoral candidates interested in this innovative program may contact:

Annette DeVito Dabbs, PhD, RN, FAAN (Director)
Phone: 412-624-5314

Salah Al-Zaiti, PhD, RN, ANP-BC, FAHA (Co-Director) 
Phone: 412-624-4369