Angela Jukkala, PhD, RN, CNL, CNE, associate professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Nursing has received a 2014 Charles Barkley Health Disparities Investigator Award the 9th Annual UAB Health Disparities Investigator Awards for her presentation, “Measuring Patient Activation During Pregnancy.”
Jukkala’s research focuses on women’s health outcomes, including perinatal outcomes. In 2013, Jukkala and Joseph R Biggio, MD, professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Medicine received a grant from the March of Dimes to develop a smartphone application, Perinatal Education, Activation and Communication Enhancement (PEACE-P). The app is designed to disseminate perinatal guidelines for obstetric providers to support evidence-based practice at the point of care.
In 2014, Jukkala and Biggio received a second grant from the March of Dimes to create a partner smartphone application for the maternal user. This application will provide perinatal education for expectant women on topics such as what to expect during prenatal care visits, normal body changes during pregnancy, common pregnancy concerns, diet, and exercise. This project was a collaborative effort among Jukkala, Biggio, and Allison Todd, RN, MSN, along with faculty and students from the UAB Department of Computer and Information Sciences to improve perinatal outcomes in Alabama.
Future funding will be sought to expand both the PEACE-P and the PEACE-M to contain modules specific to enhancing patient/provider communication and patient activation.
The Annual UAB Health Disparities Investigator Awards ceremony is designed to keep scientists at UAB and other institutions across the Southeast at the forefront of health disparities research.
