Ann L. Fruhling, PhD

Research Projects

2017 - 2022 -- Co-PI: "Region 7 UTC/MATC", U.S. Department of Transportation. This is a recently awarded project. Our focus will be on using technology and the internet of things to help first responders when hazardous chemical spils occur in transport. We aim to develop a situational awareness system and a network of emergency management support.

2016 - 2021 -- Co-PI: Great Plains Institutional Development Award - Clinical and Translational Research, IDeA CTR, National Institutes of Health. I work closely with Dr. James McClay, MD, Emergency Medicine, Dr. Ashok Mudgapalli, PhD, and Dr. Chittibabu Guda, Public Health.

2016 - 2017 -- Co-PI: "Citizen Science as a Tool for Temporal Water Quality Assessment at the Major Watershed Scale", National Science Foundation EAGER project, with Dr. Alan Kolok, PhD and Dr. Shannon Bartelt-Hunt, PhD, UNL. In this project, we created a mobile application for data entry by citizen scientists and a website for tracking and analysis.

2011 - 2017 -- Principle Investigator: "Juvenile Case Management System" and "Juvenile Diversion Case Management System", Nebraska Crime Commission. CPHI assisted the University of Nebraska Juvenile Justice Institute and the Nebraska Crime Commission to provide information technology services to track the effectiveness and activities of 46 counties that manage juvenile diversion programs. This project is referred to as the Juvenile Diversion Case Management System. Other R&D projects consist of e-mentoring for juveniles who are institutionalized, using IT to assist the juvenile re-entry program, and Access to Recovery for adults. All of these projects involve a critical human computer interaction research component. The JDCMS project expanded 3 years ago to provide data management support for all programs for youth that are at risk.

2014 - 2019 -- Co-PI: "Optimizing the Electronic Health Record for Cardiac Care", National Institutes of Health R01 grant with PI Dr. John Windle, MD, Cardiologist, UNMC. The R01 grant includes collaborating with scientists at Duke University Medical Center, Swedish Medical Center, Christiana Care, Parkview Health, and the VA.

2002 - Present -- Principle Investigator: "STATPack" - Emergency Response System for Public Health", CDC, NPHL, KDEHL, OSDPHL, HRSA. Partnership with Nebraska Public Health Laboratories, Oklahoma State Public Health Laboratories, and Kansas State Public Health Laboratories. Since 2002, my team and I continue our long-running research project supporting a Public Health Emergency Response Information System (STATPack) for three State Department of Public Health Laboratories. This project focuses on researching, evaluating, and implementing technical solutions for a public health emergency response information system that is affordable, robust, secure, and usable. We have overcome the barriers to entry in supporting rural healthcare. Today, 40+ STATPacks connect rural and metropolitan hospitals' laboratories to three public health laboratories. Not only do these systems communicate within their own state networks, they share important public health information across state lines. This research project has made a direct positive impact on the quality of life for rural citizens in delivering timely microbiology consultations. I work closely with Nebraska Public Health Scientists Dr. Steven Hinrichs, MD and Dr. Pete Iwen, PhD.

2013 -- Co-PI: "Assessing USSTRATCOM Critical Research Needs", USSTRATCOM.

2012 -- Principle Investigator: "Heartland 2050, Metropolitan Area Planning Agency - Decision Support GIS and GUI Usability Study", U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In this project, we built a GIS prototype for MAPA.

2005 - 2009 -- Co-PI: Research Scholar, Northrup Grumman, USSTRATCOM. Command and Control Strategic Executive Systems (C2SES) project, DOD. Dr. Qiuming Zhu, PhD, UNO Computer Science also worked on a related project for this award.