Across the disciplines—and in cooperation with our interdisciplinary institutes and research support offices—Penn State’s graduate students are preparing to be leaders in their fields. We sat down recently with industrial engineering candidate Monifa Vaughn-Cooke who described her research focus on human factors in healthcare.
Vaughn-Cooke’s interest in issues of human performance and error in the healthcare systems led her to create and test a new model, The Social Personal Organizational Technological (SPOT) Patient Compliance Model.
“Patient non-compliance with treatment goals and medical guidance poses significant health risks for the patient and a financial burden on the health care system,” she explains. Through the use of patient questionnaires and predictive computer analysis, Vaughn-Cooke hopes the SPOT Model can help healthcare providers improve their patient’s self-management, reduce chronic and acute conditions, and decrease health care costs.
Vaughn-Cooke is the current President of Penn State’s award-winning Chapter of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. She graduates in August of 2011.
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