VIDEO: MEET YOUR PROFESSORS — DR. MING-YUAN CHIH SPECIALIZES IN MOBILE HEALTH, LISTENING TO PATIENTS

DR. MING-YUAN CHIH

Ming-Yuan Chih, PhD, MHA, joined the faculty in Human Health Sciences in 2014 after receiving his doctoral degree in Industrial Engineering with a focus in Health Systems Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has studied how information and communication technology may help patients and their family caregivers.

He is interested in developing and implementing interventions that enable patients and their families to play a central role in the management and improvement of the patient’s health.

“We try to provide patient support … for mobile devices like smartphones and wearables,” he said. “My current projects focus on cancer patients, and … collaborating with our colleagues in communication disorders, with patients needing voice and speech rehab.”

Chih says it is important to listen to the patient’s needs.

“Our approach is we work with them to find out their needs,” he said. “Because they know their own disease very well — probably much better than me.”

Together, they will develop new tests and technology.

And in the College of Health Sciences, the environment is such that it enables professors and students to collaborate, he said.

“In these programs, the students, they know each other — and they say they really like the community. The culture is: They work really hard, they study hard — and of course, they also have fun. They come here, they grow here, and there are great successes happening.”

“(For students, they need) to find out what they really like to do — I think the program really helps to achieve that.”

___________

Every week, we'll introduce you to another of your amazing CHS professors while we also explore their research. The College of Health Sciences is The Gateway to the Health Professions.

#TheCHSWay