HSR&D Center for Health Information and Communication (CHIC)
Alissa L. Russ-Jara, PhD
Affiliate Investigator, VA HSR&D Center for Health Information and Communication
Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice, Purdue University
Research Scientist, Indiana University Center for Health Services and Outcomes Research
Research Scientist, Center for Health Services Research, Regenstrief Institute, Inc.
Alissa L. Russ-Jara, PhD, is a Research Scientist with the VA Health Services Research and Development (HSR&D) Center for Health Information and Communication in Indianapolis, IN. In addition to her VA position, she holds appointments with Regenstrief Institute and the Purdue University College of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacy Practice. Her interests include human factors engineering, informatics, usability, and patient safety, with a particular emphasis on medication safety. Since 2007, Dr. Russ has been conducting research on the design medication alerts, including drug-allergy, drug-drug interaction, and drug-disease alerts that are intended to aid prescriber decision-making. Through her research, she developed an alert design that significantly improved prescribing efficiency and reduced prescribing errors (Russ et al JAMIA 2014). In 2013, she applied for and received a five-year VA HSR&D Career Development Award entitled, “Improving Medication Safety through Human Factors and Informatics Research.” As part of this award, Dr. Russ is conducting research to uncover the cognitive strategies that prescribers use to make decisions when they encounter medication-related problems. Over the long-term, her career goal is to improve medication safety for Veterans.
