Dansky Receives Award from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Press Release - September 12, 2003
(University Park, Pa.) - Dr. Kathryn H. Dansky, associate professor of health policy and administration at Penn State, has received a 30-month, $475,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to study the effects of telehomecare on elderly persons with heart failure. Dansky's study, "Empowering Elders through Technology," is being funded through RWJF's new Health e-Technologies Program which seeks to realize the full potential of the use of interactive technologies to improve health behavior and disease management.
Telehomecare is a technology that enables individuals to communicate electronically with their healthcare providers directly from the individuals' homes. As a result, people have the ability to function at a higher level and avoid undesirable hospitalizations by making changes in their everyday behaviors.
"Empowering Elder's through Technology" will explore the relationship between telehomecare and a patient's acquisition of knowledge, and will show whether changes in knowledge levels lead to behavioral changes and improved health outcomes. The study also will examine the attitudes of physicians regarding the use of telehomecare in the treatment of their elderly patients.
The study will build on telehomecare initiatives that already have been undertaken jointly by Penn State and the Pennsylvania Homecare Association. Results will be shared with leaders and policymakers who are responsible for integrating health e-technologies in chronic disease protocols, funding healthcare programs and creating policies that support the use of information technology by all Americans.
The 30-month grant was effective September 1 and runs until February 28, 2006. Co-investigators for the study include Drs. Daniel Lorence and Karl McCleary, both assistant professors of health policy and administration at Penn State, and Dr. Kathryn Bowles, associate professor of nursing at the University of Pennsylvania.
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Editors: Dr. Dansky can be reached at (814) 863-2902 or kxd9@psu.edu. For additional information, please contact Bill Hessert, director of college relations for the Penn State College of Health and Human Development, at (814) 863-4325 or swh4@psu.edu.