EXpanding Technology-Enabled, Nurse-Delivered Chronic Disease Care (EXTEND): Protocol and Baseline Data for a Randomized Trial.

Dr. Qing Yang is Associate Professor and Biostatistician at Duke School of Nursing. She received her PhD in Biostatistics from University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Yang’s statistical expertise is longitudinal data analysis and time-to-event data analysis. As a biostatistician, she has extensive experience collaborating with researchers in different therapeutic areas, including diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease and mental health. Her current research interests are advanced latent variable models that are widely used in symptom cluster research and intensive longitudinal data analysis that arise from mobile health research.

As a nurse scientist and health services researcher, with a joint appointment between the Duke University School of Nursing (DUSON) and the Durham Veterans Affairs Health Care System (VHA), I have acquired expertise in the areas of diabetes distress, qualitative research methods, and virtual care (e.g., telehealth, digital health) as a method of care delivery. My research focuses on the current and potential ability of virtual care interventions to reduce distress, improve self-management, increase access to evidence-based care delivery, and improve patient and population health outcomes. My collaborative and interdisciplinary research focuses on how patient-, provider-, and system-level factors influence virtual care use and outcomes. As evidence of its growing significance and impact at DUSON and the VHA, my work has been well funded, published in high-impact journals, presented at select conferences, and used to guide health system decision-making. I am a sought-after teacher and mentor because I connect my research interests to teaching students and mentees rigorous and systematic research approaches. I am frequently asked by local and national colleagues to provide guidance on distress, qualitative research methods, and virtual care approaches used in grants, projects, and manuscripts.  

My research contributions have focused on alleviating psychosocial distress, developing and implementing multi-level virtual care interventions, and enhancing qualitative methods. As a staff nurse, I witnessed the psychosocial distress of patients who experience challenges in obtaining care which led to my interest in diabetes distress. I aspire and work to improve health outcomes for individuals with chronic illness by developing equitable and sustainable multi-level virtual care interventions and assessing their implementation and adaptation. Virtual care describes any remote interaction between a patient and/or members of their care team. To achieve these goals, I use qualitative methods and implementation science approaches to enhance alignment between patient, modality, disease state, and social and environmental context; my collective assessments address for whom and what purposes, in what situations and contexts, when in a disease course or clinical activity, and in what specific ways such interventions are effective. My focus on the uptake and adoption of virtual care to address psychosocial distress considers interactions with patients, between patients and clinicians, and within health care systems and the larger population.

Dr. Bosworth is a health services researcher and Deputy Director of the Center of Innovation to Accelerate Discovery and Practice Transformation (ADAPT)  at the Durham VA Medical Center. He is also Vice Chair of Education and Professor of Population Health Sciences. He is also a Professor of Medicine, Psychiatry, and Nursing at Duke University Medical Center and Adjunct Professor in Health Policy and Administration at the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research interests comprise three overarching areas of research: 1) clinical research that provides knowledge for improving patients’ treatment adherence and self-management in chronic care; 2) translation research to improve access to quality of care; and 3) eliminate health care disparities. 

Dr. Bosworth is the recipient of an American Heart Association established investigator award, the 2013 VA Undersecretary Award for Outstanding Achievement in Health Services Research (The annual award is the highest honor for VA health services researchers), and a VA Senior Career Scientist Award. In terms of self-management, Dr. Bosworth has expertise developing interventions to improve health behaviors related to hypertension, coronary artery disease, and depression, and has been developing and implementing tailored patient interventions to reduce the burden of other chronic diseases. These trials focus on motivating individuals to initiate health behaviors and sustaining them long term and use members of the healthcare team, particularly pharmacists and nurses. He has been the Principal Investigator of over 30 trials resulting in over 400 peer reviewed publications and four books. This work has been or is being implemented in multiple arenas including Medicaid of North Carolina, private payers, The United Kingdom National Health System Direct, Kaiser Health care system, and the Veterans Affairs.

Areas of Expertise: Health Behavior, Health Services Research, Implementation Science, Health Measurement, and Health Policy

Areas of Expertise: Health Economics, Health Policy, and Health Services Research

Dr. Kaufman is a health services researcher focused on improving the value of care for older adults. Her research is driven by a passion for whole-person models of care that integrate traditional clinical services with behavioral health, socioeconomic and social supports to address older adults’ diverse needs and reflect their preferences for care. Her research evaluates patient outcomes, resource use, and cost-effectiveness of value-based payment models and novel care strategies that impact seriously ill adults and their care partners. 

Dr. Kaufman received her Master of Science in Public Health and PhD in Health Policy and Management from the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Prior to joining the Department of Population Health Sciences, she completed a pre-doctoral fellowship at the Duke Clinical Research Institute and post-doctoral fellowship at the Margolis Center for Health Policy. 

Diabetes, Hypertension, Health Services Research

I lead teams shaping the future of healthcare through digital transformation. Using a digital equity lens, we discover how to translate emerging technologies into novel patient care models. My work has attracted funding from institutions like the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF), among others.

In addition to research, I teach classes in health informatics and research methods, and mentor students and trainees to become the next generation of health scientists and clinicians.