Interests:

Personal health informatics, human-computer interaction, design of information technology, patient-provider communication, support for vulnerable populations, and patient empowerment.

Background:

Developed medical expert systems for NASA, led a team of people representing common sense knowledge for the Cyc Project Education – PhD in Medical Informatics from Stanford University, and MS in Computer Science from the University of Texas.

Research:

Wanda Pratt’s research is motivated by the problems patients face in finding, using, and managing information.  Her research includes studying patient’s work to understand their problems, developing new types of technology to address those problems, and evaluating the technology with patients.  She is also interested in using technology to improve patient-physician communication and collaboration.

Currently accepting new PhD students.  Not accepting MS students at this time.

Representative publications:

1. Shefali Haldar*, Sonali R. Mishra*, Maher Khelifi*, Ari H Pollack, Wanda Pratt. Beyond the Patient Portal: Supporting Needs of Hospitalized Patients. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’19). Glasgow, Scotland. May 2019.
2. Mishra, S.R.; Haldar, S.; Khelifi, M.; Pollack, A.H.; Pratt, W. Must We Bust the Trust? Understanding How the Clinician-Patient Relationship Influences Patient Engagement in Safety. Proceedings of the AMIA Annual Symposium 2018. San Francisco, CA.
3. Pollack, A.H.; Backonja, U., Miller, A.D; Mishra, S.R.; Kendall, L.; Pratt, W. Closing the Gap: Supporting Patients’ Transition to Self-Management after Hospitalization. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’16). p 5324-5336. San Jose, CA. PMCID: PMC4973626
4. Jordan Eschler, Arpita Bhattacharya, and Wanda Pratt. Designing a Reclamation of Body and Health: Cancer Survivor Tattoos as Coping Ritual. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’18) Best Paper Honorable Mention
5. Shefali Haldar, Filipkowski, A.; Sonali R. Mishra, Cory S. Brown, Rashmi G. Elera, Ari H. Pollack, Wanda Pratt. (2016) “Scared to go to the Hospital”: Inpatient Experiences with Undesirable Events. Proceedings of the 2016 AMIA Annual Symposium, Chicago, IL. Nov 2016. 2016:609-617. PMCID: PMC5333238
6. Hartzler, A. ; Patel, R. ; Czerwinski, M.; Chandrasekaran, N.; Pratt, W.; Roseway, A.; Back, A. (2014) Real-time feedback on nonverbal clinical communication: Theoretical framework and clinician acceptance of ambient visual design. Methods of Information in Medicine. 53(4). DOI: 10.3414/ME13-02-0033.
7. Shefali Haldar, Sonali R. Mishra, Maher Khelifi, Ari H. Pollack, Wanda Pratt. (2017) Opportunities and Design Considerations for Peer Support in a Hospital Setting. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’17). 2017:867-879. PMCID: PMC5644353
8. Kathleen O’Leary, Stephen Schueller, Jacob O. Wobbrock, and Wanda Pratt. “Suddenly, we got to become therapists for each other”: Designing Peer Support Chats for Mental Health. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’18) Best Paper Honorable Mention
9. Liu, L. , Huh, J. , Neogi, T. , Quinn, K., Pratt, W. (2013) Health Vlogger-Viewer Interaction in Chronic Illness Management. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’13), PMCID: PMC3949683. Best Paper Honorable Mention
10. Kathleen O’Leary, Lisa Vizer, Jordan Eschler, James Ralston, Wanda Pratt. (2015) Understanding patients’ health and technology attitudes for tailoring self-management interventions. Proceedings of 2015 AMIA Annual Symposium, San Francisco, CA. Homer Warner Distinguished Paper Award