Team Biographies
A PHR System for At-Risk Sedentary Adults
--Biographies accurate as of 2008
Barbara L. Massoudi, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Senior Research Health Scientist
RTI International
Team role: Principal Investigator
Dr. Massoudi leads the Institute’s health informatics program. Dr. Massoudi is Adjunct Assistant Professor of Informatics at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University and Chair of the Public Health Informatics Working Group of the American Medical Informatics Association.
She is currently the principal investigator for a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant to develop a personal health record application aimed at increasing physical activity among sedentary adults using a user-centered design approach.
Dr. Massoudi leads the Technical Assistance Task of the Technical Assistance for Health IT and Health Information Exchange in Medicaid and SCHIP project for AHRQ. She also led the Assessment of Variation and Solutions and Impact Assessment reports of the Health Information Security and Privacy Collaborative for AHRQ. She has more than 20 years of experience in public health and informatics and has specialized skills in epidemiology and environmental and occupational health.
Dr. Massoudi holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health as well as a Doctorate of Philosophy. She also has a graduate certificate in public health informatics from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University and is an alumnus of the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service, where she served with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Beth B. Wright (aka Carolyn E. Barlow), M.S.
Director, Knowledge Management
The Cooper Institute
Team Role: Project management
Since 2005, Beth has served as the Director of Knowledge Management at The Cooper Institute. She has an M.S. is Wellness and Fitness from Middle Tennessee State University and has written a number of publications on physical fitness, mortality and obesity.
Murrey G. Olmsted, Ph.D.
Senior Research Methodologist / Health Psychologist
Social & Statistical Sciences Division, RTI international
Team Role: Co-investigator, associate project director and lead for user-centered design
Dr. Olmsted served as a co-investigator and the associate project director for Project ActivHealth. He led the user-centered design work on the project include the development of data collection protocols, conducting focus groups to identify the needs of consumers and healthcare providers, performing user testing of prototype PHR tools to determine functionality. He also actively worked with team members at The Cooper Institute to develop content for the project’s PHR application and adapt tools to meet the needs of prospective consumer and healthcare provider users of Project ActivHealth. Dr. Olmsted also assisted with the development of the project and common-component system architecture, identification of appropriate monitoring tools, and coordination with the other grantee teams to help collectively advance the work to develop broadly applicable PHR tools.
Ruth Ann Carpenter, M.S., R.D., L.D.
As of August 2008: Lead Integrator, Health Integration, LLC
Previously, and as part of the PHD effort: Director, Dissemination, The Cooper Institute
Team Role: Subcontract project director and lead content developer
Ruth Ann used her prior experience with the development of several Cooper Institute evidence-based health behavior intervention programs to design the content flow and create educational messaging specific to the ActivHealth project. This included repurposing existing content and writing de novo targeted messaging as needed. A Registered Dietitian with additional training and experience in exercise science and health promotion program design and implementation, Ruth Ann has worked for nearly 25 years on worksite wellness, public health, and health communications projects. Ruth Ann also helped design and moderated focus groups in the early stages of the Project Health Design effort.
Yuying Zhang
Lead Programmer/Analyst
MS Computer Science, North Carolina State University
MS Statistics, Ohio State University
Team Role: Technical Expert
Ms. Zhang was involved in all phases of design of a pilot system to help sedentary adults to become more active. Researched the latest cutting edge technologies in fitness and personnel healthcare industries; adopted multiple mobile devices in ActivHealth pilot system that monitor physical activities and automatically produce online reports and progress. She also developed an on-line system to help people evaluate their current physical status, setting goals and providing them with personalized plans as well as education materials and community support. As part of the project we integrated the pilot system with PHR common component platform for user authorization, access control and observation implantation. The entire system is developed on open source platform and integrates with the common component server for future collaboration with other grantees.
Murrey G. Olmsted, Ph.D.
Senior Research Methodologist / Health Psychologist
Social & Statistical Sciences Division, RTI international
Team Role: Co-investigator, associate project director and lead for user-centered design
Dr. Olmsted served as a co-investigator and the associate project director for Project ActivHealth. He led the user-centered design work on the project include the development of data collection protocols, conducting focus groups to identify the needs of consumers and healthcare providers, performing user testing of prototype PHR tools to determine functionality. He also actively worked with team members at The Cooper Institute to develop content for the project’s PHR application and adapt tools to meet the needs of prospective consumer and healthcare provider users of Project ActivHealth. Dr. Olmsted also assisted with the development of the project and common-component system architecture, identification of appropriate monitoring tools, and coordination with the other grantee teams to help collectively advance the work to develop broadly applicable PHR tools.
Ruth Ann Carpenter, M.S., R.D., L.D.
As of August 2008: Lead Integrator, Health Integration, LLC
Previously, and as part of the PHD effort: Director, Dissemination, The Cooper Institute
Team Role: Subcontract project director and lead content developer
Ruth Ann used her prior experience with the development of several Cooper Institute evidence-based health behavior intervention programs to design the content flow and create educational messaging specific to the ActivHealth project. This included repurposing existing content and writing de novo targeted messaging as needed. A Registered Dietitian with additional training and experience in exercise science and health promotion program design and implementation, Ruth Ann has worked for nearly 25 years on worksite wellness, public health, and health communications projects. Ruth Ann also helped design and moderated focus groups in the early stages of the Project Health Design effort.
Yuying Zhang
Lead Programmer/Analyst
MS Computer Science, North Carolina State University
MS Statistics, Ohio State University
Team Role: Technical Expert
Ms. Zhang was involved in all phases of design of a pilot system to help sedentary adults to become more active. Researched the latest cutting edge technologies in fitness and personnel healthcare industries; adopted multiple mobile devices in ActivHealth pilot system that monitor physical activities and automatically produce online reports and progress. She also developed an on-line system to help people evaluate their current physical status, setting goals and providing them with personalized plans as well as education materials and community support. As part of the project we integrated the pilot system with PHR common component platform for user authorization, access control and observation implantation. The entire system is developed on open source platform and integrates with the common component server for future collaboration with other grantees.
Project HealthDesign is a national program of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Pioneer Portfolio