Jenna L. Marquard

Current Research
I model healthcare providers’ (e.g., physicians’ and nurses’) and patients’ cognitive and behavioral interactions with health information technology (IT) as they make decisions about preventing diseases, diagnosing health conditions, managing chronic diseases, and treating acute illnesses. We often use eye-trackers, observations, and interviews to understand where individuals are looking, and what they are doing and thinking as they perform these tasks. These cognitive and behavioral models can objectively guide health IT design and training. My research sits uniquely at the intersection of health informatics, engineering psychology or human factors, and industrial engineering.
I have developed active collaborations with physicians and nurses at five different Massachusetts institutions, and work with other engineers and computer scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Our projects vary, but examples of our collaborative work include assessments of: 1) Physicians’ interactions with electronic health records (EHRs) during outpatient office visits, 2) Physicians’ use of information in electronic progress notes, 3) Physicians’, nurses’, nursing students’, and technicians’ use of EHRs and barcode technology to verify patients’ identities, 4) Patients’ interactions with devices and websites that send data (e.g., blood pressure readings) to nurses and physicians, and 5) Patients’ choices to electronically share their health information.

Learn more at people.umass.edu/marquard/index.html

Academic Background

• BS University of Iowa, 2003;
• MS University of Wisconsin - Madison, 2004
• PhD University of Wisconsin - Madison, 2007