Monifa Vaughn-Cooke joins medical school as associate professor in Department of Health Systems and Implementation Science

As a society, we have come to rely heavily on technology to solve our challenges. However, the way one interacts with technology is not the same across all individuals.

“Patients have different needs and capabilities. We need to consider the heterogeneity of our users when we design technology. That’s where human-centered design can play a major role. This is particularly important for health care technology” said Monifa Vaughn-Cooke, a new faculty member in health systems and implementation science at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine.

Vaughn-Cooke brings expertise in the growing field of human-centered design to the school’s restructured Department of Health Systems and Implementation Science.

Vaughn-Cooke’s interdisciplinary research brings together psychology, systems engineering, and risk assessment to identify high-risk health care user needs and develop products or systems to meet those needs. For example, medical devices are designed to improve efficiency, but they can also be overwhelming to certain patients.

“I work with vulnerable populations who have chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. Digital health technologies such as home blood pressure monitors and glucose meters are designed for homogenous populations of users, so they are not capturing the variabilities in the populations I work with,” she said. “Conditions such as arthritis, cataracts, or glaucoma can limit these patients’ input into the system, which in turn might influence how the system communicates back to the user and their doctor.”

Vaughn-Cooke’s research has been primarily applied to safety-critical technology applications in health care, such as patient self-management devices and hospital monitoring systems. Other recent applications include nuclear power plant and unmanned aerial system control rooms.

Part of the medical school’s rationale for restructuring its former Department of Interprofessionalism to health systems and implementation science was to add an emphasis on research that is focused on redesigning health care delivery and improving health. The department’s two-part mission is to educate medical students about the system aspects of health care delivery and to conduct transdisciplinary research that focuses on the needs, behaviors, and experiences of health care users to create effective solutions for their unique challenges.

“Faculty like Dr. Vaughn-Cooke are essential to building the department’s research portfolio. Our goal is to build on the excellent foundation of the medical school in research and interprofessionalism, and create a department where translational research on health care delivery thrive,” said Sarah Parker, associate professor and chair of the department.

Vaughn-Cooke utilizes her Ph.D. in industrial engineering to conduct research such as modeling various factors including  behavior, cognition, and physical aspects that might influence the successful interaction with a health care device or system.She then uses that information to predict what types of outcomes might occur and tries to mitigate them. In addition to benefitting patients, her work is also more likely to help providers treat their patients with accurate user data.

The health systems and implementation science department has long included faculty from Carilion Clinic and the community to help provide educational experiences for the students. Along with Vaughn-Cooke, additional newly hired faculty are building the department’s research portfolio and contributing to the teaching mission

“I am delighted to welcome Dr. Vaughn-Cooke to Virginia Tech” Parker said. “Her work builds on Virginia Tech’s reputation for human-centered approaches through applications within health care.”