Rutgers College of Nursing faculty member is funded to develop an interactive compu...( TO THE POINT: Rutgers College of Nursi...),Health

NEWARK, N.J. The National Library of Medicine awarded a Rutgers College of Nursing faculty member, Rachel Jones, and her team a three-year $398,000 grant to develop an interactive computerized decision support system (DSS) that delivers relevant video vignettes in an effort to reduce HIV sexual risk behavior among women in urban communities.

Jones, assistant professor at the College of Nursing at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, will work with Nabil Adam, professor of computer and information systems at Rutgers Business School and founding director of Rutgers Center for Information Management, Integration and Connectivity (CIMIC), and Vijay Atluri, associate professor of computer information systems at CIMIC, on this project.

"The content for the DSS will be based on the state of the science and the wisdom shared by young women and men in focus groups held throughout Newark and Jersey City. CIMIC will program and develop the prototype," said Jones. "We will evaluate the computerized decision support system on hand-held, laptop, and desktop computers to determine which format is preferred by young urban women. Together we will develop an innovative approach to deliver culturally relevant HIV health promotion messages in a medium that has not previously been fully explored."

Participants will be using a computer where they can read each question on a computer screen, simultaneously hear the question via a headset, and then respond by pressing a keypad. Feedback that is tailored to the participant's pattern of risk behaviors will be immediately provided in culturally relevant video vignettes that deliver health promotion messages to promote safer sexual practices, according to Jones.

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Contact: Miguel Tersy
miguel@nightingale.rutgers.edu
973-353-5293
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
14-Feb-2005