NEWS

The National Science Foundation has awarded UCI Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing assistant professor Amir M. Rahmani, PhD, a planning grant to establish a model of digital community-centered care (D-CCC).

When it comes to developing organized and affordable technology that increases their reach into communities, healthcare systems in the U.S. have a challenge.

Currently, community-centered care models rely on caregivers to provide crucial services to the elderly, disabled and other vulnerable populations. Registered nurses supervise the caregivers.

Because of this structure, the system is unable to scale up in a cost-effective way.

A D-CCC model will transform the current system into one that is efficient, automated and scalable.

Through this model, community healthcare workers will be able to serve a greater population, especially vulnerable ones.

Activities the grant will fund include:

• Research the current community need
• Establish a community advisory board
• Conduct focus groups to identify areas of concern and barriers
• Conduct feasibility and need assessments and hold visioning workshops

Rahmani’s co-investigators are School of Nursing Founding Dean Adey N. Nyamathi PhD, ANP, FAAN, and Computer Science Professor Nikil Dutt.