Current methods for collecting and disseminating patient information are largely ineffective at improving health. Dr. Shaw identifies and optimizes novel, useful methods of collecting, visualizing, and disseminating healthcare data to (1) better inform our understanding of human disease and (2) improve patient and clinical decision-making.
Dr. Shaw is a pioneer in mobile health—the collection and dissemination of information using mobile and wireless devices. These technologies afford researchers, clinicians, and patients a rich stream of real-time information about individuals’ biophysical and behavioral health in everyday environments.
Dr. Shaw works with faculty at Duke’s Schools of Engineering and Medicine to integrate mobile technologies into first-generation care delivery systems. Dr. Shaw was one of the first scientists to demonstrate and publish that patients could feasibly utilize multiple mobile technologies to manage their health. Additionally, he conducted foundational clinical trials to explore how patients and clinicians use mobile health for self-management and care delivery.
Dr. Shaw was the founder and now Director of the new Duke Health Innovation Lab, a multidisciplinary partnership. He was appointed Faculty Lead of Mobile Technology in Precision Medicine and the Nursing School’s representative to Duke’s Entrepreneurship Initiative. By fostering collaborations across scientific, clinical and technical disciplines, Dr. Shaw actively demonstrates how nursing science can shape the future of health care and improve health outcomes.
PhD | Duke University |
MS Nursing Informatics | New York University |
BSN | University of Miami |
Healthcare as we know it is delivered in episodic phases. A patient comes to the clinic, clinicians collect their biophysical and behavioral health data, compare it to the patient’s history, and analyze that data to make informed diagnoses and care recommendations. This structure relies on single data points that are collected in a specific setting that a patient spends very little time in overall. To have a true picture of a patient’s health, the clinician would have access to the biological, behavioral, environmental, social networking, and contextual data of the patient in their everyday lives – every day, every hour, and everywhere. Moreover, this data would be available in “real-time”.
With the proliferation of mobile devices, notably smartphones and other wearable sensors, the potential to collect this real-time digital health data is now possible. Geographic location is rarely a barrier, and with the near universal access to smartphones we are able to transcend the traditional socioeconomic barriers previously faced. This has the potential to yield new insights into disease processes and enhance our understanding of the longitudinal effects of care delivery, medications, and health behaviors.
My work explores how data science and care teams will make it possible to use these data to improve health outcomes and care delivery. I discover how to integrate data from these new technologies into electronic health records and leverage predictive analytics to forecast patient needs.
2015 BAYADA Award for Technological Innovation in Health Professional Education and Practice, Drexel University College of Nursing and Health Professions
2013 Distinguished Dissertation Award, Duke University School of Nursing
2010 ThinkSwiss Travel Grant, Swiss Confederation – Institute of Nursing Science, University of Basel
2010 Top Student Research Poster: “Online Social Networking and Diabetes”, Southern Nursing Research Society Annual Research Conference
2008 Distinguished Master's student, New York University College of Nursing
2008 Information Technology Fellowship in Healthcare, Duke Health Technology Solutions & Duke University School of Nursing
2004 Inducted, Sigma Theta Tau International
2003 Academic Excellence Award, University of Miami – Jackson Memorial Hospital
2003 Mary Gaynell Forbes Nursing Scholarship, University of Miami
2015 -- Vaughn, J., Shaw, R. J., Molloy, M. A. A telehealth case study: the use of telepresence robot for delivering integrated clinical care Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association. November, 2015, Epub ahead of print;
2015 -- Pubmed # 26176640 Shaw, R. J., Zullig, L. L., Crowley, M. J., Grambow, S. C., Lindquist, J. H., Shah, B. R., Peterson, E., Bosworth, H. B. Willingness of Patients to Use Computers for Health Communication and Monitoring Following Myocardial Infarction. Comput Inform Nurs. September, 2015; 33(9); 384-9
2015 -- Shaw, R. J., Horvath, M. M., Leonard, D., Ferranti, J;. M., Johnson, C. M. Developing a user-friendly interface for a self-service healthcare research portal: cost-effective usability testing Health Systems. July, 2015; 4(2); 151-158
2015 -- Pubmed # 25613298 Shaw, R. J., Bonnet, J. P., Modarai, F., George, A., Shahsahebi, M. Mobile health technology for personalized primary care medicine. Am J Med. June, 2015; 128(6); 555-7
2015 -- Pubmed # 25737633 Zullig, L. L., Shaw, R. J., Shah, B. R., Peterson, E. D., Lindquist, J. H., Crowley, M. J., Grambow, S. C., Bosworth, H. B. Patient-provider communication, self-reported medication adherence, and race in a postmyocardial infarction population. Patient Prefer Adherence. February, 2015; 9 311-8 PMCID: PMC4344178
2015 -- Pubmed # 25361685 Crowley, M. J., Zullig, L. L., Shah, B. R., Shaw, R. J., Lindquist, J. H., Peterson, E. D., Bosworth, H. B. Medication non-adherence after myocardial infarction: an exploration of modifying factors. J Gen Intern Med. January, 2015; 30(1); 83-90
2015 -- Zullig, L. L., Shaw, R. J., Bosworth, H. B. Applying technology to medication management and adherence In Behavioral Health Care and Technology: Using Science-Based Innovations to Transform Practice, edited by Marsch, L. A. and Lord, S. E. and Dallery, J. 2015; pp. 81-94. New York: Oxford University Press.
2014 -- Samples. C., Zhao, N., Shaw, R. J. Nursing and mHealth International Journal of Nursing Sciences. December, 2014; 1(4); 330-333
2014 -- Shaw, R. J. Wearable health monitors not quite there yet. The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC). November 27, 2014;
2014 -- Shaw, R. J. Technological gadgets cannot change human behavior. Times Union (Albany, NY). November 25, 2014;
2014 -- Pubmed # 24451083 Vorderstrasse, A., Shaw, R. J., Blascovich, J., Johnson, C. M. A theoretical framework for a virtual diabetes self-management community intervention. West J Nurs Res. October, 2014; 36(9); 1222-37 PMCID: PMC4296559
2014 -- Zhao, N., Wu, B., Samples, C., Shaw, R.J. Mobile technology for healthcare in rural China. International Journal of Nursing Sciences. September, 2014; 1(3); 323-324
2014 -- Pubmed # 25023250 Shaw, R. J., McDuffie, J. R., Hendrix, C. C., Edie, A., Lindsey-Davis, L., Nagi, A., Kosinski, A. S., Williams Jr, J. W. Effects of nurse-managed protocols in the outpatient management of adults with chronic conditions: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Ann Intern Med. July 15, 2014; 161(2); 113-21
2014 -- Pubmed # 24853065 Shaw, R. J., Steinberg, D. M., Zullig, L. L., Bosworth, H. B., Johnson, C. M., Davis, L. L. mHealth interventions for weight loss: a guide for achieving treatment fidelity. J Am Med Inform Assoc. May, 2014; 2014 1-5
2014 -- Pubmed # 24647384 Zullig, L. L., Sanders, L. L., Shaw, R. J., McCant, F., Danus, S., Bosworth, H. B. A randomised controlled trial of providing personalised cardiovascular risk information to modify health behaviour. J Telemed Telecare. April, 2014; 20(3); 147-52
2013 -- Pubmed # 24050486 Shaw, R. J., Bosworth, H. B., Silva, S. S., Lipkus, I. M., Davis, L. L., Sha, R. S., Johnson, C. M. Mobile health messages help sustain recent weight loss. Am J Med. November, 2013; 126(11); 1002-9 PMCID: PMC3820279
2013 -- Pubmed # 24221839 Zullig, L. L., Shaw, R. J., Crowley, M. J., Lindquist, J., Grambow, S. C., Peterson, E., Shah, B. R., Bosworth, H. B. Association between perceived life chaos and medication adherence in a postmyocardial infarction population. Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes. November, 2013; 6(6); 619-25
2013 -- Pubmed # 25590119 Dedert, E., McDuffie, J. R., Swinkels, C., Shaw, R. J., Fulton, J., Allen, K. D., Datta, S., Williams, J. W. Jr. Computerized Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Adults with Depressive or Anxiety Disorders (VA-ESP Project #09-010; 2013) VA Evidence-based Synthesis Program Reports. October, 2013;
2013 -- Pubmed # 24010683 Shaw, R. J., Kaufman, M. A., Bosworth, H. B., Weiner, B. J., Zullig, L. L., Lee, S. D., Kravetz, J. D., Rakley, S. M., Roumie, C. L., Bowen, M. E., Del Monte, P. S., Oddone, E. Z., Jackson, G. L. Organizational factors associated with readiness to implement and translate a primary care based telemedicine behavioral program to improve blood pressure control: the HTN-IMPROVE study. Implement Sci. September, 2013; 8(1); 106
2013 -- Pubmed # 23625207 Zullig, L. L., Melnyk, S. D., Goldstein, K., Shaw, R. J., Bosworth, H. B. The role of home blood pressure telemonitoring in managing hypertensive populations. Curr Hypertens Rep. August, 2013; 15(4); 346-55 PMCID: PMC3743229
2013 -- Shaw, R. J., McDuffie, J., Hendrix, C. C., Nagi, A., Edie, A., Davis L. L., Williams, J. W. Jr. Effects of nurse-managed protocols in the outpatient management of adults with chronic conditions. VA-ESP Project #09-010. August, 2013;
2013 -- Pubmed # 23763030 Shaw, R. J., Brion, J. Leadership through the Special Olympics. Nurs Educ Perspect. Mar-Apr, 2013; 34(2); 134-5
2013 -- Shaw, R. J., Bosworth, H.B., Hess, J.C., Silva, S., Lipkus, I., Davis, L.L., Johnson, C.M. Development of a theoretically driven mHealth short message service (SMS) application for sustaining weight loss. JMIR mHealth and uhealth. 2013; 1(1); e5
2012 -- Pubmed # 23257055 Shaw, R., Bosworth, H. Short message service (SMS) text messaging as an intervention medium for weight loss: A literature review. Health Informatics J. December, 2012; 18(4); 235-50 PMCID: PMC3675895
2012 -- Pubmed # 23304313 Johnson, C. M., Shaw, R. J. A usability problem: conveying health risks to consumers on the internet. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. November, 2012; 2012(4); 427-35
2012 -- Pubmed # 22107599 Shaw, R., Bosworth, H. B. Baseline medication adherence and blood pressure in a 24-month longitudinal hypertension study. J Clin Nurs. May, 2012; 21(9-10); 1401-6 PMCID: PMC3291791
2011 -- Pubmed # 21697705 Shaw, R. J., Ferranti, J. Patient-provider internet portals--patient outcomes and use. Comput Inform Nurs. December, 2011; 29(12); 714-8; quiz 719-20
2011 -- Pubmed # 22066032 Shaw, R. J., Johnson, C. M. Health Information Seeking and Social Media Use on the Internet among People with Diabetes. Online J Public Health Inform. November, 2011; 3(1); 3561 PMCID: PMC3208902
2011 -- Johnson, C. M., Corazzini, K. N., Shaw, R. Assessing the feasibility of using virtual environments in distance education. Knowledge Management & E-Learning: An International Journal. March, 2011; 3(1); 5-16
2010 -- Pubmed # 21346998 Johnson, C. M., Nahm, M., Shaw, R. J., Dunham, A., Newby, K., Dolor, R., Smerek, M., Del Fiol, G., Zhang, J. Can prospective usability evaluation predict data errors? AMIA Annu Symp Proc. November, 2010; 2010 346-50 PMCID: PMC3041437
2010 -- Pubmed # 20879622 Phillips, B., Shaw, R. J., Sullivan, D. T., Johnson, C. Using virtual environments to enhance nursing distance education. Creat Nurs. August, 2010; 16(3); 132-5
2009 -- Johnson, C. M., Vorderstrasse, A., Shaw, R. Virtual environments in health care higher education. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research. August, 2009; 2(2); 2-9
2013 -- Dalek, B. The easiest way to stay slim Men's Health. November 24, 2013;
2009 -- Pubmed # 19592827 Sorensen, L., Shaw, R., Casey, E. Patient portals: survey of nursing informaticists. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2009; 146 160-5
A Novel IT Weight Loss Solution to Provide Variable-Ratio Rewards in Real-time
NIH National Heart Lung and Blood Institute
R34 PAR-10-005
08/2015-04/2018
Project Goal To determine the feasibility of using automated algorithms that analyze dietary self-monitoring and interim weight loss data to provide real-time reinforcement using variable-ratio financial incentives
Project CLOUD: A CataLyst to Use Data Analytics (CLoUD) for Innovating the DUSON Informatics Program
Duke University SON CONCEPT Office CATALYST Award
07/2014-06/2015
Role: PI
Project Goals: To complete professional development through SAS training in data analytics and visualization of the kind of qualitative data nurse scientists produce, and using this training (as well as Data Analytics Certification in Predictive Modeling) to support the re-design of N418: Database Systems in Healthcare, and to develop a new Data Analytics online course that will be offered by the Healthcare Informatics program. The new course will be grounded in experiential learning principles. The instructor will put out a call to faculty for problems that need to be solved using analytics. Each team of students, working for a faculty client, will produce a viable solution by the end of the course.
The Adaptive Leadership Framework in Mobile Health: A Pilot Study for Weight Loss
Duke University School of Nursing ADAPT Center Small Grant Program (funded by NINR/NIH)
1P30NR014139-01
10/2013-09/2014
Role: Principal Investigator
Project Goal: This study begins to address the need for patients and clinicians to make meaning and perform adaptive work and approaches from multiple weight loss data (e.g., weight, physical activity, and diet) and barriers to weight loss that are captured in real time through mobile devices.
The mHealth@Duke Consortium and Seminar Series (mHealth@Duke Colloquium Grant)
Duke University School of Nursing
09/2013-08/2014
Project Goal: To support the mHealth@Duke interdisciplinary consortium to accelerate research on the use of sensors and mobile technology to advance the delivery of health care through improved patient-provider communication and collaborative health care management. Through our consortium of faculty, students and yearly conference, we do this by: 1) providing a venue for education and leadership development in the mHealth space and 2) serve as an incubator for mHealth research by providing a forum for discussing and refining new ideas, identifying funding resources, and serving to build capacity for novel mHealth technologies.
The Mobile Health (mHealth) Platform: Development and Feasibility Evaluation
Duke Center for Personalized and Precision Medicine
08/2013-07/2014
Project Goal: To begin development of a single unified platform that will collect and deliver multiple domains of real time health and contextual data from various wireless and mobile devices that will allow for intra-individual tailoring and personalization of health interventions.
Health Services Research & Development Post-doctoral Training
Veterans Affairs Office of Academic Affiliations, Health Services Research & Development
TPP-21-021
08/2012-07/2013
Role: Nursing Post-doctoral Research Fellow
A Three-Month RCT to Sustain Weight-Loss among Obese Persons through Tailored SMS
National Institutes of Health
1F31-NR012599
12/2010-08/2012
Role: Principal investigator and trainee
Project goal: To explore the effects of theoretically targeted mobile phone messages on sustaining weight loss
Development and feasibility testing of a targeted weight-loss sustaining text message intervention
NIH CTSA/Duke Translational Medical Institute pre-doctoral scholarship
CTSA TL1 RR024126-05
07/2010-09/2010
Role: Principal Investigator, doctoral trainee
Project goal: To develop a weight loss sustaining text message intervention and test the feasibility and acceptability among people with obesity.
Information and behaviors people with diabetes seek and partake in online
NIH CTSA/Duke Translational Medical Institute pre-doctoral scholarship
CTSA TL1 RR024126-05
07/2009-09/2009
Role: Principal Investigator, Trainee
Project goal: To determine the health information seeking and social media use on the Internet among people with diabetes
From Episodic to Real-Time Care in Diabetes Self-Management
NIH National Institute of Nursing Research
1R15NR015890-01
06/2016-05/2019
Type 2 diabetes is a serious problem in the U.S. and self-management is critical to control the disease. This study will use mobile health technologies to identify strategies that help patients and health professionals use patient-generated data to help patients better self-manage and overcome challenges with diabetes. The results will serve as a cornerstone for creating tools to help patients better self-manage disease through the use of mobile health technologies and real-time patient-provider collaboration.
Visualizing Real Time Data from Mobile Health Technologies
Information Initiative at Duke (iiD) and the Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) at Duke University
Summer 2017 Data+
05/2017-08/2017
Using data from the NIH 1R15NR015890-01 study, a Data+ team of Duke data scientists and students will work with our research team to develop data visualizations and algorithms to make use of self-generated diabetes data from multiple mobile technologies. The Data+ team will learn how to present longitudinal, time series data back to patients and clinicians and will develop algorithms that will allow us to send predictive alerts to patients to facilitate intervention in near real-time. Students will work with an interdisciplinary team including faculty, clinicians and staff that specialize in nursing, medicine, public health, nutrition, biostatistics, and health information technology.
Aggregating and Visualizing Environmental Biological Physiological and Outcome Data in Acute Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury
Duke Center for Applied Genomics & Precision Medicine
CAGPM Innovation Award
10/2016-09/2017
Role: PIs: Shaw and Reuter-Rice
This study is builds upon a developed prototype (Reuter-Rice, Shaw, et al. 2016 disclosure) to recognize individual responses to acute traumatic brain injury and short-term outcomes. This study will validate the collection of environmental sensor data in acute head-injured children and aggregate that data with biologic (omic and specific biomarkers), physiologic, and outcome data.
To develop a mobile application using iPhone’s Researchkit and examine uptake by the general population for people to evaluate their walking endurance and self-reported health status
Duke Clinical Research Institute
06/2015-06/2017
Role: Co-PI
Medication Adherence Alliance
PhRMA Foundation
07/2015-06/2017
Role: Co-I
Duke University and the Medication Adherence Alliance aim to positively influence public health by improving the research evidence base for medication adherence improvement. The Alliance will engage academic researchers and stakeholders in the healthcare field to enhance the real world implementation and evaluation of adherence strategies and ensure robust dissemination of research findings.
The Sixth Vital Sign ResearchKit App
Duke University School of Nursing CNR Small Grant Program
03/2016-02/2017
(1) To examine uptake by the general population and targeted subgroups of adults to participate in the 6th Vital Sign iPhone-based study (consent, walk test, self-reported health)/ (2) To measure the 2MWT in an unlimited adult population (spanning the nation, lifespan, continuum of health). (3) To establish mobile-phone based norms for the 2MWT. (4) To increase awareness of the importance of mobility on health, survival and quality of life (indirectly measured)
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Summer 2011 | Vol. 7 No. 2
Pushing the Boundaries