HealthSystems Lab: A Unique Environment for Learning

“Dr. Brennan’s lab is as unique as the individuals who compose it,” says Dan Kenron, BSIE, an industrial engineer with an interest in cost/benefit analysis and the environment. “We are a diverse group of nurses and engineers with interests ranging from conveying information about well-water quality to how decision-making models can be made accessible to managers.”

Brennan’s research team and lab, housed at the UW-Madison Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, is a coalition of nurses, engineers, and a pragmatic urban and regional planner. Drawing upon diverse perspectives, skills, and knowledge, the group focuses on improving health care and its system of delivery.

Jenna Marquard, MS, a graduate student in industrial and systems engineering and team member, explains the team dynamic: “I like thinking about how our work fits into other disciplines and what we can learn from the work others are doing. Our very diverse team aims to understand and bridge the complex health care system with the lay person through the framework of informatics.”

Nursing’s representation in the lab is a collage of health specialty areas. Dolores (Lori) Severtson, PhD, RN, who holds master’s degrees in nursing and land resources, focuses on designing the content and information structure to support informed decision making among people who test their private-well water for arsenic. Yichuan Grace Hsieh, MS, RN, who has worked in both acute care and long-term facilities, is researching an information technology tool that delivers individualized information to pregnant women with genetic health concerns. Jane Thielman, MS, RN, is a family nurse practitioner who is working on developing software that will help the nurses better analyze family health history based on diversity and fluidity in family structure as well as family strengths and health risk factors.

Gail Casper, PhD, RN, and Susan Kossman, PhD, RN, are researching how electronic health-information management tools aid in caring for patients with complex illnesses, whether at home or in hospitals. Casper is examining how information technology will change nursing interventions in the context of home care and self-monitoring offered to patients with heart failure. Kossman is studying the use of an Internet-based tool to increase self-management and improve continuity across care settings for patients recovering from total joint replacement.

The engineering half of the HealthSystems Lab focuses largely on the interplay between humans and technology, or human factors. Kenron is looking at process improvements and waste reduction in hospital settings—issues that surround environmental sustainability. David Haight, MS, is researching the conceptual framework needed within electronic systems to ensure privacy and security compliance of health and medical records—across autonomous institutions. Marquard’s research looks at how engineers can construct their technical models, which introduce complex concepts, to be more understandable for the decision makers who see health informatics as the future of health care delivery. Teresa Zayas-Cabán, MS, targets the development of human factors methods to improve the design of home health information management tools. Rupa Valdez, BSIE, is researching disaster management, examining how people manage their personal health information—using findings from Brennan’s earlier research—to identify what actions can be taken to preserve that information in times of crisis.

With a master’s degree in urban and regional planning and community development, David Grindrod, MS, is well versed in library systems and information management and is working on a prototype for a digital health information library. Grindrod explains the group’s pragmatic approach: “We must constantly look beyond theory and ask the question, ‘What do real people actually do with the information tool or decision at hand?’”

As demonstrated by its team members, the lab’s unique make-up drives its success. The group’s interdisciplinary composition under the leadership of a renowned nurse researcher-engineer benefits all.

Marquard states, “Professor Brennan’s ability to challenge her students while wholeheartedly supporting them, creates a unique environment for learning. Likewise, members of the lab want the best out of each other and challenge each other’s thinking by listening, understanding, and asking difficult questions.”

“Working in Professor Brennan’s lab,” Severtson adds, “has given me an insider’s view of how a researcher effectively leads an ambitious program of interdisciplinary research across two departments. Brennan empowers each of us to contribute our particular strengths toward a common vision.”