The FSU College of Nursing is implementing a new Institute on Digital Health and Innovation.
Two new faculty members have been hired from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and will be the drivers of this new project and its implementation. Lisa Hightow-Weidman and Kathryn Muessig will take on the roles of founding director and founding associate director, respectively, of this institute.
The Institute on Digital Health and Innovation will be a resource for nursing students and postdoctoral fellows to gain more experience with digital technology and research. It also will strengthen relationships that the FSU nursing program had already built with institutions such as Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare, Mayo Clinic, HCA Florida and others throughout North Florida.
“What the institute can offer, hopefully, is to create an ecosystem to facilitate the advancement of rigorous, translational research focused on solving real-world needs of patients and that ultimately benefit health care systems and communities,” said Dr. Hightow-Weidman.
Prior to joining the FSU College of Nursing, Dr. Hightow-Weidman worked as a professor of medicine and health behavior at UNC Chapel Hill. She is known as a digital health expert with technologies used in the care of HIV young adults and adolescents, social media and health. She has also worked head-on with treatments and care of HIV-positive adolescents and adults as well as those within high-risk populations. Muessig has also focused her work on HIV and STI patient care within areas such as the USA, China and South Africa while also incorporating a focus on digital health technologies.
Muessig and Hightow-Weidman hope to encourage team collaboration and growth through projects and opportunities the institute will have to offer while also broadening the scope of knowledge that students have on disease treatment, prevention, and more. This institute will provide a way to encourage outside-of-the-classroom development of concepts taught by giving students more direct hands-on exposure in an easily accessible manner.
“While I’m not a nursing student, I am in the IMS program within FSU’s College of Medicine and after learning about the new Institute on Digital Health and Innovation as an extension of the nursing program I was extremely intrigued. I really feel that this will be a great opportunity for nursing students to get involved with more research and opportunities to build connections through this program,” said Madelyn Espinal, FSU IMS student.
Through their work, Muessig and Hightow-Weidman have earned the support of the National Institute of Health (NIH) as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the form of funding for their project implementations and research initiatives. Both have expressed their desire to expand upon this with the new Institute on Digital Health and Innovation.
According to a press release, “Together, they have garnered over $100 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). They aim to quickly build on that, including for the Institute on Digital Health and Innovation.”
“The use of digital health will be a bridge between our in-class lectures and hands-on skill labs. It will provide a more realistic simulation and better prepare us to enter the field of nursing. I am very excited to experience what the new institute and nursing faculty members have to offer and teach me and my fellow classmates,” said Kylie Lawrence, a third-year nursing student at FSU.
For more information about the new institute, its purpose and its implementation, visit news.fsu.edu.