People

Wanda Pratt is a Professor in the Information School with an adjunct appointment in Biomedical & Health Informatics in the Medical School at the University of Washington. She received her Ph.D. in Medical Informatics from Stanford University, and her M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Texas. Her research focuses on understanding patients needs and designing new technologies to address those needs. She has worked with people coping with a variety of chronic diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, asthma, and heart disease. Dr. Pratt has received best paper awards from the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA), the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, and the Journal of the American Society of Information Science & Technology (JASIS&T). Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Library of Medicine, the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality, the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, Intel, and Microsoft. Dr. Pratt is a fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics.

Dr. Vizer is an NLM Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Biomedical and Health Informatics at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Her educational background is in computer science, human-computer interaction, and information systems. Her primary research interest is to explore, design, develop, and evaluate technology that allows people to proactively, continuously, and passively monitor their health. This includes consumer-facing technology in clinical, home, or mobile settings. Her thesis research investigated the use of keystroke and linguistic features of text to support the early detection of cognitive decline or cognitive stress. The proposed approach allows people to monitor their cognitive health and make informed decisions about care. Her secondary focus is a general interest in the use of technology by healthcare consumers. She is currently working on the REMIND project to explore the needs and preferences of patients for reminders in the management of chronic illness. When not transforming how people engage with their health, Lisa loves spending time with her family, exploring the Pacific Northwest, and knitting.

Ahmad Aljadaan is a PhD Student in Biomedical and Health Informatics at the University of Washington. His background is in Information Systems and Human Computer Interaction. Prior to joining UW he was a Researcher at Stanford University working in multiple projects with NASA Aims. He completed his MS degree at the University of Michigan’s School of Information in 2008. Ahmad’s research interest lie between decision theory, technology, and design. He is interested in making patients informed and educated about their health with the use of technology and interactive interfaces. Besides his research, Ahmad likes scuba diving, soccer, baking and cooking.

Jordan Eschler is a PhD student at the University of Washington Information School. She is interested in the experience of young adult oncology patients in learning the language of their conditions, as well as patients’ communication with friends and family regarding care, expectations for treatment, and long-term health concerns. She is currently working on the REMIND study, conducting interviews to understand personal information management around chronic health conditions managed day to day in the home.

Rebecca Hazen is a PhD student in the Biomedical and Health Informatics program at the University of Washington. She is interested in developing tools for supporting patients in tracking and assessing neurological symptoms following Radiation Therapy treatment for malignant brain cancers. Rebecca is currently working to better understand the needs and values of these patients along with the challenges they face, including different levels of cognitive impairment, and how this will influence the design process. Prior to her studies at the University of Washington, Rebecca studied Biomedical Sciences and Medical Informatics at Rochester Institute of Technology, and worked in Radiology and Radiation Oncology at Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, PA.

Logan Kendall is a PhD student in UW¹s Biomedical and Health Informatics program. His work experience has ranged from consulting to health care policy and health administration. Logan has collaborated with a variety of Seattle groups such as the Seattle-King County Public Health Department on the use of text messaging services to reach underserved populations and Microsoft Research regarding home use of blood pressure devices. He is currently working with local Seattle hospitals to understand patient and caregiver information needs in an inpatient environment. In general, Logan spends a lot of time thinking about how to incorporate the patient experience into the design of tools to enhance care transitions, patient engagement, and promote healthy behavior in everyday living. Other than research, he spends as much time as possible outdoors exploring the Pacific Northwest and cooking late into the night to feed his physical activity addiction.

You can find more information about him at: http://logankendall.org

Amanda Lazar is pursing a PhD in Biomedical and Health Informatics. Her research interests are largely focused on using technology to improve opportunities for leisure and recreational activities for older adults, particularly those with dementia. She is also involved in projects examining the use of sensors and robotic pets for older adults. Her dissertation focuses on evaluating a multi-functional technology system designed to facilitate communication, activity engagement, and cognitive stimulation for people with dementia in a memory care unit.

You can read more about her research at: http://students.washington.edu/alaz

Leslie Liu is a PhD candidate in Biomedical and Health Informatics. Her research interests lie at the intersection of human-computer interaction and health informatics. She is interested in understanding the needs of various people involved in healthcare (patients and clinicians) and how to better design and support their needs through technology. Her dissertation project focuses on the design of communication technologies for children with a chronic illness. Before coming to the University of Washington, Leslie received her M.S. in Informatics at the University of California, Irvine.

For more information, please visit: http://www.lesliesliu.com

Ted McCarthy is a second-year PhD student in the Biomedical and Health Informatics program. His primary interests lie at the intersection of technology, data, and health in low-resource settings, including especially the sub-fields of mobile health and ICTD. He completed a MS at the University of Michigan’s School of Information in 2012, and before that spent a few years teaching in various capacities (EFL, STEM tutoring, preschool, skiing…). When not doing anything related to research/health/tech/data, he’s an avid runner, skier, camper, hiker, traveler, and (hopeful) writer.

Katie O’Leary is a PhD student at the University of Washington Information School. She is interested in the perspectives, concerns, goals, and motivations of people seeking support for mental wellness. A major focus of her research is developing a design method that can facilitate understanding what makes technologies personally significant. In addition to working with Dr. Pratt’s iMed group, Katie works with Jacob Wobbrock as part of his Mobile Accessible Design Lab.

Albert Park is a PhD student in Biomedical and Health Informatics. His research interests lies in studying social behaviors and phenomena from large data by means of natural language processing (NLP), qualitative analysis, machine learning, and statistics. His experience includes processing online community text using NLP to learn users’ health interest topics and measuring topical similarity in an online community to understand communication dynamics between users. He spends his leisure time watching basketball and boxing or working out.

More information is on his website: http://students.washington.edu/alpark7

Dr. Ari Pollack is a pediatric nephrologist completing his clinical training at Seattle Children’s Hospital as well as his Masters of Science in Information Management from the University of Washington’s Information School. His research interests focus on improving the delivery of clinical information to both patients and healthcare professionals to improve clinical outcomes through information visualization. His prior work experience includes time at Seattle Children’s Hospital working on its electronic health record and developing novel interfaces to improve clinician workflows as well as general pediatrician. In 2014, Dr. Pollack was part of the first group of clinicians to become board certified in Clinical Informatics. In addition he teaches a course on electronic health records for the University of Washington’s Clinical Informatics and Patient Centered Technology master’s program. He obtained his BS and MA in Biology from University of California, Los Angeles and his MD degree from Tulane University.

Patrick Sanger is pursing a concurrent MD and PhD in Biomedical and Health Informatics. His research interest is in development and evaluation of patient-centered tools to improve care coordination at significant transitions of care (e.g. discharge). He is also interested in tools for quality improvement and patient safety, especially related to Healthcare-Associated Infections.

Eun Kyoung Choe received her PhD from the Information School at University of Washington, where she worked on human-computer interaction, health informatics, and design. Her research focused on designing, developing, and evaluating health-monitoring technologies to promote healthy sleep behaviors and physical activities. During her graduate studies, she worked at Microsoft Research, Intel Labs, Google, and Motorola. She received her MS degree in Information Management and Systems from University of California, Berkeley and her BS degree in Industrial Design from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).

See more at: http://students.washington.edu/eunky