Faculty Directory Listing

Constance M Johnson, PhD, MS, RN, FAAN

Associate Professor Emerita in the School of Nursing

  • Brief Bio

    Constance Johnson is an Associate Professor and a health informatician with interdisciplinary training in nursing and health informatics at the Duke University School of Nursing. She has a secondary appointment in the Department of Community and Family Medicine in the Duke University School of Medicine. She earned her BSN from the University of Connecticut and her MS and PhD from the School of Biomedical Informatics at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. She has over 25 years of experience in research and informatics in the area of health promotion and disease prevention.

    Dr. Johnson’s current research interests in health informatics include human-computer interaction, and how the representation and visualization of information impacts health care decisions in the area of disease prevention and health promotion. As a Primary Investigator, she has received research funding from the National Cancer Institute, National Library of Medicine, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, AHRQ, and RENCI. She is also a Co-Investigator and Co-PI on various on various other grants in the area of Health Informatics. Dr. Johnson has numerous publications and has presented her work both nationally and internationally. Dr. Johnson mentors Master’s, DNP, and PhD students.

    Academic Program Affiliations

    PhD in Nursing Program
    Doctor of Nursing Practice Program
    Master of Science in Nursing Program

    Education

    PhDThe University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston
    MSThe University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston
    BSNUniversity of Connecticut

    Research Interests

    Dr. Johnson's research interests include human-computer interaction and how presentation of information impacts health-related decisions in the areas of cancer prevention and diabetes. For example, her R03 study (1 R03 CA132562-01), “Strategies to help inform colorectal cancer risk magnitudes” focused on developing an intervention that addressed different dimensions of risk and assessed how people’s reactions and understanding on various dimensions of risk were related to intentions to screen for colorectal cancer. Her R21 study (R21LM010727-01), “Second Life Impacts Diabetes Education & Self-Management (SLIDES)” assessed the feasibility and acceptability of using a virtual environment to provide self-management interventions to people with type 2 diabetes on the Internet. Her AHRQ grant, “EHR Information Design and Usability Toolkit” developed a model for a toolkit to assess how well the usability and information design of health IT systems supports primary care clinicians in delivering care. Dr. Johnson was also the Co-I on another AHRQ grant, “Development of a Model Electronic Health Record Format for Children” where her primary role was to conduct usability studies. She is also currently a Co-PI on a grant titled, “Visualization of Multidimensional Data Obtained from a Virtual Environment Intervention” awarded by RENCI@Duke Faculty Engagement Program in Applied Scientific and Information Visualization to work on models to visualize the multidimensional data collected during her R21 study. Her current R01 study (1R01-HL118189-01), “Diabetes Self–Management & Support LIVE (Learning in Virtual Environments)” is evaluating the efficacy of a technologically based bio–behavioral diabetes self–management training and support (DSMT/S) intervention in a virtual gaming environment.