Priyadarshini Pennathur, PhD '10

Priyadarshini Pennathur (Priya) graduated from ISE in September 2010, after gaining a wealth of research experience. She then completed her post-doctoral training in patient safety at Johns Hopkins. During her post-doctoral training, she worked on problems in patient handoffs, discharge planning, and medical error.

Since June 2012, she is a faculty in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at University of Iowa. Dr. Pennathur received a "Pathway to Independence" K99/R00 award from the National Library of Medicine (NLM) in September 2012. Her research is in modeling the discharge processes in hospitals, with a view to understanding how health care providers and staff create and use information for patient discharge. Her findings will lead to new designs for health information systems technology used in hospitals.

She collaborates with the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, and the VA hospitals in Iowa. She is also associated with the National Center for Human Factors and Ergonomics. She is a member of the Aging Mind and Brain Initiative at University of Iowa, and will be researching cognitive processes in older adults. She is teaching human factors engineering for undergraduates in her first semester, and is thoroughly enjoying her classroom experiences.

Dr. Pennathur fondly remembers her UB days as she begins her academic career, and reflects on her inspiration, motivation and encouragement from all the faculty at ISE. Thank you Human Factors @UB! 

Contact Priya via email.