"The Elaine Marieb Center for Nursing and Engineering Innovation has already built a strong infrastructure to support bidirectional nurse-engineer collaboration, product prototyping, and strong clinical-engineering partnerships, and is the perfect environment for me to contribute. Thirty years of researching complex, fragmented, and poorly designed and integrated work systems has prepared me to work closely with nurses to transform supporting technologies for nurses in hospitals and other care settings. I am deeply grateful for this opportunity."
Emily S. Patterson, PhD
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Emily Patterson is joining us as the inaugural Marieb Endowed Professor of Nursing and Engineering Innovation. This is a joint professor appointment between the Elaine Marieb College of Nursing and Riccio College of Engineering in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. Dr. Patterson will support interdisciplinary innovation at the Elaine Marieb Center for Nursing and Engineering Innovation. Dr. Patterson, an industrial and systems engineer specializing in human factors brings nearly thirty years of sustained, close collaboration with nurses, establishing her as a leading international expert in human factors engineering, informatics, and patient safety.
A prolific researcher with over 250 publications cited more than 10,000 times, Dr. Patterson has secured more than $28 million in research funding, including nearly $8 million as lead investigator. Her approach is a model for translating research findings into clinically meaningful improvements across a wide range of technologies, from electronic health records to medical devices. Her team's redesign of hospital telemetry alarm systems resulted in 15%–59% faster nurse response to code blue alarms across three hospitals and a 20–38% reduction in overall alarm burden. This work informed recommendations from the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation and the international medical device safety standard for alarm sounds (IEC 60601-1-8).
Dr. Patterson's research has shaped national and international standards. Her work on shift-change handovers influenced The Joint Commission's Patient Safety Goal 2E, and her bar code medication administration research earned a design award from the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, influenced FDA requirements for individually bar-coded medications, and shaped national implementation best practices. She co-authored the national standard for summative usability testing of electronic health records (NISTIR 7804), now required for hospitals to meet Safety-Enhanced Design requirements for Medicare funding.
A dedicated educator and mentor, Dr. Patterson led the development of the Usability and User Experience in Health Care certificate programs at Ohio State University and received a Mentor of the Year Award from HFE Women in 2022. Her mentees are now leaders in engineering, nursing, and medicine across academia, industry, and government.
"The Elaine Marieb Center for Nursing and Engineering Innovation has already built a strong infrastructure to support bidirectional nurse-engineer collaboration, product prototyping, and strong clinical-engineering partnerships, and is the perfect environment for me to contribute. Thirty years of researching complex, fragmented, and poorly designed and integrated work systems has prepared me to work closely with nurses to transform supporting technologies for nurses in hospitals and other care settings. I am deeply grateful for this opportunity," said Dr. Patterson. The Center’s co-directors, Karen Giuliano and Frank Sup, expressed enthusiasm about Dr. Patterson joining UMass Amherst and strengthening the Center’s work across nursing and engineering. “Emily’s work demonstrates how powerful collaboration between nurses and engineers can be in improving patient care,” said Giuliano. “We are excited about the perspective and experience she brings to UMass Amherst and the Marieb Center as we continue building stronger connections across the colleges,” added Sup.
Dean Allison Vorderstrasse of the Elaine Marieb College of Nursing and Dean Sanjay Raman of the Riccio College of Engineering shared, “We are so excited to welcome Dr. Patterson into the Marieb and Riccio Colleges and Marieb Center for Nursing and Engineering Innovation. Her incredible and impactful research and educational leadership are a perfect fit for the role of the Marieb Endowed Professorship and honoring Elaine Marieb’s legacy.”