Members

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Laurie Hoffman-Goetz

Full Professor in the School of Public Health and Health Systems and affiliated scientist with the Centre for Behavioural Research and Program Evaluation (CBRPE; http://www.cbrpe.uwaterloo.ca/) of the National Cancer Institute of Canada, received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan (1979) and a M.P.H. from the George Washington University School of Public Health (1997). From 1995-1997, she was a Cancer Prevention Fellow at the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute (U.S.A.) focusing on dissemination of cancer information for underserved populations.

At the University of Waterloo, she teaches health and risk communication in public health and conducts research on the impact of health literacy and numeracy on understanding cancer risk information, identification of best practices for dissemination of accurate cancer information to diverse populations, media framing of health risks, and consumer health informatics. She also conducts basic research in exercise, immunology and cancer prevention.

Jose F. Arocha

Associate Professor in the School of Public Health and Health Systems and affiliated scientist with the Centre for Behavioural Research and Program Evaluation (CBRPE; http://www.cbrpe.uwaterloo.ca/) of the National Cancer Institute of Canada, received his Ph.D. from McGill University in 1991. After completing his post-graduate education, he worked as a Research Associate at McGill's Centre for Medical Education, where he focused on the study of expertise in medicine and health.

In 2001, he joined the University of Waterloo, where he teaches health informatics and conducts research on cognitive models of health and disease, comprehension of health information, health knowledge representation, and the use of clinical practice guidelines by health care practitioners. His research activities cover diverse areas of medical and health cognition, human-computer interaction, and process-trace methods of cognitive analysis.

Daniela Friedman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Promotion Education and Behavior at the University of South Carolina. Dr. Friedman completed her PhD in Health Studies and Gerontology at the University of Waterloo. Her research focus is on health literacy and media communication of health information to older adults and diverse populations.

Lorie Donelle is a PhD student in the Health Studies and Gerontology program at the University of Waterloo. Her research interests in health informatics, particularly consumer informatics, and health communication are framed within a health promotion model. A particular research interest is consumer use of the Internet for self care.

Maria Thomson is a PhD candidate in Health Studies and Gerontology at the University of Waterloo. Her research interests in health communication and consumer informatics focus on health information sharing through the internet. Specifically, Maria is interested in issues concerning online information quality and the health consumer's navigation, use and comprehension of such information in diverse populations.

Rachelle Ta-Min completed her MSc in Health Studies and Gerontology. Her interests include aging and memory, and the comprehension of health information. Her master's research focused on how older adults cognitively represent cancer information found online.