UW News

April 25, 2002

Technology and therapy: May 3 afternoon program will focus on using new technology for self-management of chronic disease

A half-day program on using new technology for patient-centered care and self-management of chronic disease is set for 1 to 4 p.m., Friday, May 3, in room T-625 of the Health Sciences Center. The featured speaker is Dr. Kate Lorig of Stanford University’s Patient Education Research Center, a well-known advocate and developer of programs to help people self-manage chronic illness.


The program is sponsored by several UW units and others, and is free. Participants do not need to register and may attend for only part of the afternoon.



From 1 to 2 p.m., four UW faculty members will give brief presentations on projects that use current technology, often Web-based, to deliver health information or interact with patients. The presenters are:







  • Dr. Donna Berry, associate professor of biobehavioral nursing and health systems, on “Quality of Life Assessment for Patients with Cancer”




  • Dr. Harold Goldberg, associate professor of medicine, on “Living with Diabetes”




  • Dr. Rick Matsen, professor and chair of orthopaedics and sports medicine, on “Arthritis Source”




  • Dr. Wanda Pratt, assistant professor in the Information School and Division of Biomedical and Health Informatics, on “Empowering Patients Through Medical Information Technology”




From 2 to 3 p.m., Lorig and her colleague Diana Laurent will speak on “Chronic Disease: Self Management Interventions from Community to the Web.” They will discuss building and evaluating progams for self-management of chronic diseases, and efforts to move this model from one that is based in communities with small groups of participants to one that is Web-based and interactive.



Lorig is an associate professor of medicine at Stanford, as well as director of the Stanford Patient Education Research Center. She earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing at Boston University and a doctor of public health degree in health education at the Unviersity of California, Berkeley. She began working at Stanford in 1979 while still a graduate student, and developed a self-help course for arthritis. This program has been offered throughout the world and has been a model for many other self-management programs for people with chronic diseases. Lorig has written several books and articles on her work and travels widely to speak on these programs.



Laurent is a community health educator who joined the Stanford Patient Education Research Center in 1986.



After the Lorig and Laurent presentation, a panel including them and the UW presenters will be moderated by Dr. Peter Tarczy-Hornoch, head of the Division of Biomedical and Health Informatics in the Department of Medical Education.



A reception will follow the panel.



The afternoon program, called “Information Needs Therapy and Technology: Implications for Patient Self-Care,” is sponsored by several UW units—the de Tornyay Center for Healthy Aging, the Information School, the Division of Biomedical and Health Informatics, the Center for Health Sciences Interprofessional Education and Research and the Program for Educational Transformation Through Technology—and the John A. Hartford Foundation.



The program is funded by a University Initiatives Fund Award encouraging and supporting interdisciplinary collaborative and transformative educational programs that strengthen the greater University of Washington community. See the Web site at http://www.washington.edu/uif/



For more information on the May 3 program, see the Web site at http://depts.washington.edu/pettt/events/may3.html or contact Scott Macklin, PETTT director, at smacklin@u.washington.edu