Dr. Koszalinski testing app. Photo courtesy of UTK Nursing

COVID-19 is dramatically altering today’s healthcare environment. With many hospitals at risk of being overburdened and outpatient facilities encouraging social distancing measures, healthcare providers face an unprecedented crisis: How can they continue to serve their patient populations effectively without putting themselves or their patients at risk?

Two new healthcare apps created by University of Tennessee, Knoxville, researchers may help answer this question. Neither app was developed with a pandemic in mind, but both inventors believe their technology can support individuals indirectly or directly affected by the pandemic.

The first half of April brings; five Goldwater Scholars to UT, ranking number one in the nation; eight UT students receive NSF Graduate Research Fellowships; a distinguished professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology receives more than $1.1 million in grants from the Army Research Office; two research projects selected to receive Engaged Scholarship Incentive Grants for fiscal year 2021; Tickle College of Engineering announces their 2020 Faculty and Staff Awards winners; and an interdisciplinary team from UT and the Firefighters Burn Center developed an app to meet recovery needs of burn center patients.

Treating patients with COVID-19 is severely taxing the US health-care system and already there are few hospital beds available to patients.

A mobile app developed by an interdisciplinary team of faculty members at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and the medical director of the Firefighters Burn Center in Memphis, Tennessee, will be used to meet recovery needs of newly discharged patients from the burn center and burn patients being treated as outpatients.

By using this mobile app, patients can receive the recovery guidance they require without the need of in-person consultation at overburdened medical facilities.

The first half of March brings; an Assistant Vice Chancellor recognized as and SEC Trailblazer; the Dean of the UT College of Nursing elected to serve on the board of directors of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing; two students from the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies (ELPS) received highly competitive fellowships.

Could patients experience less pain and possibly have better recovery outcomes if their fears or emotional issues were addressed before surgery?

Three researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, recently developed a predictive model to examine that question.

Rebecca Koszalinski, assistant professor in the College of Nursing; Anahita Khojandi, assistant professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering in the Tickle College of Engineering; and Bruce Ramshaw, a physician and adjunct professor in the Haslam College of Business, examined data collected from 102 patients who underwent ventral hernia repair surgery.