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Technology and Public Health
Rapid Diagnostics, Public Notification, Technology Security
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Ann Fruhling, Ph.D.
Instructor
University of Nebraska at Omaha
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Areas of Expertise
E-health usability and trust, cybersecurity, electronic commerce, IT strategy, database design and humancomputer
interaction.
Perspectives
Fruhling's professional experience has provided her with the background to assess issues relating to
cyberterrorism and information technologies:
- Believes that rural communities don't have quick, efficient access to health alerts and communications, compared to urban communities.
- Says that building web sites that are trustworthy and useful to people is an efficient way to communicate health information to rural communities in case of a bioterrorism attack.
- Thinks that obstacles that rural communications face that need to be addressed are Internet access and bandwidth.
- Shows how institutions with different expertise can have synergy in improving and building methods of delivering accurate and timely information, especially critical health information to rural areas including rural labs, health clinics and other health agencies.
- Believes that financial and limited human resource constraints of rural hospitals can hurt their ability to make decisions on complex situations where they might need to draw upon specialists and experts.
- Works on research to improve these resources to handle information about bioterrorist threats (anthrax, etc.).
Academic Credentials
Dr. Fruhling, who received a Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska Lincoln, earned a B.S.B.A. from Colorado State
University and an M.B.A. from the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO). Dr. Fruhling is a faculty member
in the Computer Science Department in the College of Information Science and Technology at the University
of Nebraska at Omaha. She teaches classes in database systems design and management, Java
programming, e-commerce and modern software design. In addition, she is the principal investigator of a
Nebraska Research Initiative project awarded to UNO with joint collaboration of University of Nebraska
Medical Center faculty for academic years 2002 and 2003, IT Sustaining Rural Health Delivery Systems. Her
research includes usability studies in e-health specifically focusing on the needs of rural residents in the state
of Nebraska, information technology and e-commerce strategic planning, e-commerce trust issues, database
design and management and designing usable and effective web interfaces for consumers. Dr. Fruhling is
nearing the completion of her dissertation research, An Empirical Study of Human-Computer Interaction
Usability Factors Affecting Perceptions of Trust of E-Health Consumers.
Professional Credentials
Dr. Fruhling has been a full-time faculty member at UNO for five years and was selected by Chancellor Belck
to participate in UNO’s 2001 Women’s Leadership Institute. Previously, she was the director of the Computer
Information Management and Telecommunications Systems Management programs at the College of Saint
Mary (CSM) for six years. During her tenure at CSM she received the Inspiring Excellence Award in 1997 and
was the project coordinator of the submission of a Title III grant for $1.5 million that was awarded to CSM in
1998. Prior to her academic career, Dr. Fruhling was an IT professional at Texas Instruments, Mutual of
Omaha, Commercial Federal and AT&T.
Photo
High-resolution .jpg file: ann_fruhling.jpg
To arrange an interview with Dr. Fruhling, contact Mike Reilley at Bailey Lauerman
at (402) 479-0212 or mreilley@baileylauerman.com.
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