RESEARCH

Robert J. Lucero’s long-term goal is to improve the quality of health care and outcomes through research that incorporates a multidisciplinary approach, including health services, health informatics, and population health research perspectives.

Dr. Lucero’s research is on the cutting edge of participatory design approaches that require consumer engagement. His Consumer-centered Participatory Design approach not only focuses on consumer’s technology needs but also takes into account core public health functions and outcomes such as informing, educating, and empowering individuals about health issues; mobilizing community partnerships; linking people to health services; and conducting health-related research to develop insights and innovative solutions. This approach has tremendous potential for overcoming social and cultural barriers that can impede the adoption of health information technology. The Consumer-centered Participatory Design approach has wide-scale applicability for real world health-related challenges, which has been endorsed through peer-reviewed publications and NIH/NINR funding, and has been applied in different populations and clinical domains, including community-based falls prevention among older adults, family caregivers of people living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, family caregivers of children living with obesity and asthma, and African-American women living with HIV.

In addition to his community-based research, Dr. Lucero has been advancing a data science research program to enhance the safety of hospitalized older adults by reducing iatrogenic conditions through an effective learning health system. Launched in 2015 with partners from UFHealth Shands Hospital, this research aims to leverage the unique electronic data and health care resources at UF including structured and text data. Primarily, this research will contribute to the development of additional research-data infrastructure, in the form of text-mining methods and resources, to optimize studies in critical aging topics. Additionally, this scientific inquiry will continue to expand an existing interdisciplinary academic-clinical research team focused on priority aging research questions.

TEACHING

Dr. Lucero’s teaching interests include health policy and administration, health informatics, health promotion, and theory.

SERVICE

Dr. Lucero is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and the New York Academy of Medicine. He is currently a Standing Member of the AHRQ Health Information Technology Study Section and Editor of Nursing Economic$ Information Technology for Health Promotion & Care Delivery column. Dr. Lucero is a member of the American Nurses Association, Sigma Theta Tau International, AcademyHealth, AMIA, and the National Association of Hispanic Nurses. In 2018, Dr. Lucero was selected as the recipient of the UF Health Sciences Center Superior Accomplishment Award in Community Service for his significant and meaningful community-based research and mentorship of pre- and postdoctoral trainees.