Ann L. Fruhling, PhD

Dr. Ann L. Fruhling is the Charles W. and Margre H. Durham Distinguished Professor in the College of Information Science and Technology at the University of Nebraska Omaha. She is co-Director of the Nebraska Center for Biomedical Informatics Research and Innovation. She serves as a Co-Director, Biomedical Informatics and Cyberinfrastructure KCA for the Great Plains IDeA-CTR. She has over 100 publications and has led numerous research initiatives totaling over $8.83M. Her research focuses evaluating and improving human-computer interaction efficiency, effectiveness, and usability in the healthcare and public health domains.

Currently, she is the Principle Investigator for a six-year Department of Transportation grant. This project is developing an application to minimize the health impact to first responders in the case of a HAZMAT transportation incident using internet of things (IoT) technologies including biosensors. She was co-PI on a NU Collaborative Initiative focusing on “Enhancing Senior Living, Quality of Life and Independence through Utilizing Assistive and Interactive Technology” collaborating with faculty from Gerontology and UNMC. She serves as a Research Pillar for the UNO Big IDEA: Transforming Wellness and Aging through Business, Informatics and Gerontology and as co-Director for the

Dr. Fruhling teaches Biomedical Informatics, IT Innovation, and Management Information Systems courses. She has received the UNO Alumni Outstanding Teaching and the UNO Graduate Mentor awards. Dr. Fruhling is a member of the Association for Information Systems and serves on the Executive Board for the AIS IT in Healthcare Special Interest Group. Dr. Fruhling was a research scholar for Northrop Grumman on the C2SES project located at USSTRATCOM for several years and a Core Competency Research Coordinator for the National Strategic Research Institute. She serves as an Associate Director for the Mid-America Transportation Center.

Other research expertise includes: best practices in agile system development, implementation and management strategies, conducting e-health user interface usability studies, and consulting on system design strategies for medical emergency response systems. Her publications have appeared in Journal of Management Information Systems, Communications of the Association for Information Systems, the Journal of Computer Information Systems, the International Journal of Electronic Health Care, the International Journal of Cooperative Information Systems, the Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, and the Journal of Information Technology Theory and Application.

In addition, Dr. Fruhling is the Director of the Consortium for Public Health Informatics (CPHI). For 15 years, Dr. Fruhling was the Principal Investigator for a Distributed Video Diagnostics and Consultation System for Public Health Laboratories called STATPack™. STATPack™ is used in cases of emergencies and biosecurity-related threats. STATPack™ emergency response systems was implemented in 65 public health, water, food, and veterinary laboratories across Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma. Dr. Fruhling's research in emergency responses systems has been funded by the NIH, CDC, APHL, NHHS, NASA, and a Nebraska Research Initiative. STATPack was licensed to the Nebraska Public Health Laboratory.

Dr. Fruhling holds a Ph.D. in MIS from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, a MBA from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and a B.S. in MIS from Colorado State University.