Nicole Werner, PhD

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FOCUS: Healthcare human factors, human-centered design, co-design

Trained in Human Factors and Applied Cognitive Psychology, Dr. Werner is an interdisciplinary boundary spanner, merging disciplines through a human-centered design approach to engage patients and care partners in co-designing, implementing, and evaluating interventions that transform the patient journey to improve outcomes.

With funding from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute, Health Resources and Services Administration, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (including multiple SBIR awards), her research has co-produced innovative but realistic health technology and care process interventions to improve the quality and safety of healthcare within and across healthcare settings and in the home, with a particular focus on care partners for people living with dementia and families caring for children with medical complexity. She has published peer-reviewed journal articles in top journals in her field including the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, Pediatrics, Journal of Medical Internet Research, the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, the Gerontologist, Applied Ergonomics and Ergonomics (both top 3 journals in the field of Human Factors) and BMJ Quality and Safety; and her work has been presented at over 130 national and international conferences.

She is the recent recipient of the Gerontological Society of America Baltes Award for outstanding early career contributions in behavioral and social gerontology and the American Psychological Association Division on Engineering Psychology Earl Alluisi Award for Early Career Achievement. Her publications have received the American Medical Informatics Association Consumer Health Paper of the Year award and the Applied Ergonomics Best Paper of the Year award. Among other appointments, she has served as President of the American Psychological Association Division on Engineering Psychology, and Chair of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Healthcare Technical Group. She has served as an ad hoc study section member on multiple NIH study sections and currently serves on the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Clinical Decision Support Innovation Collaborative (CDSiC) Trust and Patient-Centeredness Workgroup. Dr. Werner is also a committed mentor, having mentored over 50 undergraduate, masters, and doctoral students as well as postdoctoral fellows and early career faculty across multiple disciplines including engineering, medicine, surgery social sciences, informatics, occupational therapy, and nursing.