Julie Hammett, Ph.D. student in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Texas A&M University, has been selected to receive a 2016 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) Fellowship.
The NSF GRFP is a prestigious award providing recipients with three years of financial support. Of the 17,000 applicants in 2016, Hammett was one of 2,000 to receive an offer.
With rising patient demand, the supply of health care providers must be increased or providers must effectively serve more patients. Hammett’s research focuses on improving chronic illness care management with remote monitoring tools that support medical decisions and provide patient engaging interventions.
“The goal of this project is to develop a remote patient monitoring system that provides support using smart algorithms and facilitates timely communication and decision-making between the chronically ill patient and the primary care practitioner,” Hammett said.
The research also addresses the problem of participant engagement leading to high dropout rates, a fundamental barrier to the success of remote health systems.
“This technology must be interchangeable to suit the varied needs and characteristics of many patients,” Hammett said.
Hammett is studying under Dr. Mark Lawley’s supervision and will graduate in May 2019.